Why 3D Printing Adoption Is Accelerating Globally

Prototyping (63%), proof of concept (27%) and production (26%) are the three most dominant uses of 3D Printing in Europe today.

These and other insights are from an extensive survey of 3D printing adoption published today by Sculpteo titled The State of 3D Printing (26 pp., opt-in)

Key take-aways of the study include the following:

• 44% reported they will increase their spending on additive manufacturing by 50% or more this year.

• Accelerating product development (32%), offering customized products and limited series (28%) and increasing production efficiency/buying a 3D Printer (13% each) are the top three priorities related to 3D printing in 2015. 

• Determining factors in the adoption of 3D printing globally that are most important center on machine consistency & capabilities and material & supply costs.

• When respondents were asked if there are any trends that they anticipate having a major impact on 3D printing, materials (21.5%), new markets (17.2%) and easy 3D modeling (17%) emerged as most significant.

• European 3D printing early adopters are more focused on attaining scale, while their Americas-based counterparts are focused on pragmatic factors of co-creation and buying a 3D printer.
• 26% of European respondents consider themselves advanced or professional at 3D printing techniques compared to 23% of Americas-based respondents.
• 3D printing power users have significant competitive advantages over their peers in accelerating product development and offering customized products and limited series today through 2020.
• 50% of 3D printing power users are relying on these technologies, systems and processes to support production today.

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