Impact of Low-cost 3D Printer on the Additive Manufacturing Market

About this report

Are we seeing a shift in the additive manufacturing landscape? In comparison to previous years, 2024 saw a slight slow-down in the overall AM industry's growth at 9.1% year over year, the lowest growth rate since the COVID-19 pandemic. The negative effect was most strongly pronounced in the AM printer sales and servicing bracket, which fell by -1.5% in 2024. Revenue growth from material providers (20.1%), however, is still good, which indicates a continuing increase in adoption of AM by industry. So, what explains this industry change in growth rate? A possible rationale is that a decline in industrial AM system sales is where the bulk of this reduced growth has come from, but one needs to understand what may have caused this decline in industrial machine sales revenue.

Over the last few years, we have seen a growing number of sub-$10k (and often sub-$1k) filament-based material extrusion (MEX) and resin-based vat photopolymerization (VPP) systems with print quality and part strength that approach, and in some cases even surpass, parts produced by industrial systems.