The 3d printer market - Portugal

1.2 A recent and booming global market

The global *D printing market was valued at USD **.** billion in ****, with a compound annual growth rate (***) of **.* percent predicted from **** to ****. *D printers were supplied in *.* million units globally in ****, with shipments predicted to reach **.* million units by ****. The market is predicted to increase due to intensive research and development in three-dimensional printing, as well as rising demand for prototype applications from several industrial verticals, including healthcare, automotive, and aerospace and military.  

Global *D printing market size World, ****-*****, in billion USD dollars Source: ****

The global *D printing market is still in its infancy, but it is considered to have the potential to revolutionize global manufacturing and is likely to be particularly disruptive in certain industries such as healthcare and high-tech electronics. For example, it is estimated that there are approximately ** million *D printed hearing aids in circulation today. in ****, according to a study gathering **** answers from *D printer users all around the world, **% of respondents claimed to be using *D printing for end-use mechanical parts and **% for end-use consumer goods. [***]

Although many countries have started getting into the *D printer market, it is still dominated by three countries. Germany, with its heavy industry, represents a market of almost **** million ...

1.3 The Portugese market

The INE website, which categorizes official Portuguese data, gathers the whole Portugese printing market under one domain, Printing and services related to printing (***), which is then divided into different parts.  In ****, the whole market was worth *** million €.

  Répartition des marchés portugais de l'impression Portugal, ****, en pourcentage Source: ****

On Dinheiro Vivo, it is notable that companies specializing in *D printing are registered under the code C***** - Outra Impressão. There are no special codes dedicated to the *D printing sector. The market for *D printers was worth *** million $ USD in **** (***)  and that of other prints *** million, so the market for *D printers represented **.**% of Other Portuguese Prints in **** 

Répartition du marché portugais des Autres Impressions ****, Portugal, en pourcentage Source: ****

Even if this indicator is not perfectly representative of the Portuguese *D printer market, it gives an idea of the trends over the last few years. Thus we can plot the evolution of the Portugese "Other Impressions" in relationship with all Portugese impressions.

Chiffre d'affaire annuel des entreprises portugaises d'impression et recensées sous Autres Impressions Portugal, ****-****, en millions de € Source: ****

We can see that the companies licensed under Other Printing were slowly increasing their turnover until ...

1.4 COVID-19 crisis highlights the value of 3D printing

The COVID-** crisis, although it affected the printing industry in Portugal severely, demonstrated the industrial and medical benefits of *D printing. Indeed, swabs, protective masks, visors, elbow grips, breathing valves, as well as many other objects were *D printed during the health crisis.

"The additive manufacturing market has grown significantly, year over year, and has even been important in some companies and countries to help support the fight against covid-**, the ability to *D print components for fans, for example. This is a technology in which we have to be present, because we believe that it is a niche market, but one that represents the future," says Jorge Araújo. [***]

Thus, the Project *D Mask Portugal aimed to optimize the use of Portuguese *D printers to produce visors and thus combat Covid-**. Thanks to a good organization, the printers were transported to volunteers' houses to produce equipment non-stop. The protections manufactured were then distributed for free to some Portuguese hospitals. [***]

2.1 The 3D printer: a revolutionary tool in many industries

Global spending on *D printing has grown significantly, driven by the increasing integration of *D printers into various industrial processes. The *D printing market has several outlets: industry, high-tech, consumer goods, etc. As shown below, industry is the main market and accounts for nearly **% of the demand for *D printing. The various services represent **% of the demand, followed by consumer goods which represents **% of the demand.

The different industries of the *D printing market World, ****, by industry, in % source: Sculteo

*D printing technology, combined with the democratization of the IoT and the development of smart devices, are enabling cost reduction and value chain optimization. According to the report published by IDC, the combined developments of *D printing techniques will push nearly **% of manufacturing industries to almost fully automate their production lines to optimize yields. In addition, rapid advances in the medical and bioprinting sectors will be important drivers of market growth. Indeed, the same report states that **% of healthcare spending worldwide by **** will be on *D printing materials.

2.2 The 3D printer, an increasingly popular product.

According to a **** market report by market leader Sculpteo, the penetration rate of *D printers is constantly changing. In fact, as we can see from the graph below, this penetration rate has increased from *% in **** to nearly **% in ****. Beyond the growing popularity of *D printers, the continuous growth of the penetration rate can also be explained by the decreasing costs and increasing competitiveness of *D printers. 

Évolution du taux de pénétration des imprimantes *D Monde, ****-****, en % Source: ****

According to another report made by Sculpteo in ****, **% of *D printing users were willing to increase their investment in *D printing and **% were willing to more than double their investment. The purpose of *D printers varies for different users. The demand for *D printers does not come from the same factors for all users, according to their study gathering more than **** respondants from all over the world.

What is the purpose of your *D prints? World, ****, in percentage Source: ****

According to another **** Sculpteo report, purchasing a *D printer appears in the top five priorities for companies in **** behind the desire to accelerate product development, offer custom products, increase production flexibility and reduce capital expenditures. 

"Quel domaine relatif à l'impression *D ...

The 3D printer demand coming from Portuguese companies

Even though the demand for *D printers has been growing in recent years, it remains relatively low on the part of Portuguese companies. For example, in **** and ****, only *% of Portuguese companies had a *D printer in their office.  

Companies using devices or interconnected systems monitored/controlled by *D printing, as % of total companies with ** or more people employed  

While this number seems low, it increases proportionally with company size. As this graph shows, while only *.*% of companies with **-** employees own *D printers, this number increases with **.*% of companies with over *** employees owning one. 

Companies using devices or interconnected systems monitored/controlled by *D printing, in function of the number of employees, as % of companies Portugal, **** & ****, in %

This phenomenon is mainly due to the lack of financial means of small companies. According to the same **** survey conducted by Sculpteo on *,*** *D printing users, more than half of them answered that one of the barriers to expanding the use of *D printing in their company was for financial reasons.

  "What are the barriers to expanding the use of *D printing in your company?" World, ****, in %  The adoption rate of *D printers also depends strongly on the sector of the companies. For ...

2.4 Healthcare, a major growth driver for the 3D printing market

The medical sector is a real growth driver for *D printing. Indeed, the manufacture of implants and nanotechnology is particularly well suited to *D printing. The purpose of an implant is to replace an organ over a long period of time or to replace one or more of its functions. It is therefore, by definition, totally adapted to the patient and his anatomy. Customization is time-consuming and expensive when using traditional manufacturing methods. This is where additive manufacturing comes into its own and assists in the design of custom implants. 

The global healthcare *D printing market size was valued at $*** million in ****, and is expected to reach $**** million by ****, growing at a CAGR of **.*% between **** and ****. *D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, uses a layer-by-layer addition technique to produce customized physical medical equipment and products from a three-dimensional digital file. *D printing software is used to create a computer-aided design (***) package using a *D scanner, digital camera or *D modeling software. The *D model created using CAD can be modified and adjusted, allowing it to be verified, before the object is printed. In addition, it offers several advantages over traditional reconstructive surgeries by reducing the operative risks associated with complex ...

3.1 3D printing global market players

The *D printing market is in full swing. In fact, we can see that several types of players coexist in this market:

Large groups: Large, diversified, multi-activity groups such as General Electric, HP or Siemens. Pure players: *D printing specialists (***) such as *D Systems, Stratasys and Xerox. 

The cohabitation of these two types of players is particularly visible when looking at the patents filed. As we can see below, the market is still dominated by large players, with the critical mass to finance advanced R&D programs. 

Les brevets déposés dans le secteur de l'impression *D Monde, ****, en unité Source: ****

3.2 Global 3D printer production is concentrated in a few countries

The  Wohlers **** report states that there were a total of **,*** industrial installations of *D printers between ****-****. As we can see from the chart below, **.*% of this production was from the United States, compared to **.*% from China, *.*% from Japan *.*% and *.*% from Germany

Production mondiale d'imprimantes *D Monde, ****, en % Source: ****

3.3 An increase in the number of 3D printing companies in Portugal

While concentrated internationally, the *D printer market is deconcentrating at the Portuguese national level, with a slightly growing turnover for a number of companies that has been growing steadily since **** (***). Thus, while the sector of "Other printing" was composed of **** companies in ****, it consisted of **** in ****. 

Evolution du nombre d'entreprises portugaises enregistrées sous le domaine "Autres impressions" Portugal, ****-****, en nombre

Regarding the location of these companies, they are relatively concentrated in the Center-North of Portugal, with *** companies in the "Norte" region, *** in the "Centro" region and *** in the Lisbon metropolitan area, compared to only ** in "Alentejo" and ** in "Algarve". 

4.1 The three dominant technologies in the 3D printing market

*D printing is based on several underlying technologies. According to a **** market report by market leader Sculpteo, there are * main technologies used in the *D printing industry:

Fused deposition modeling (***): this is a type of additive manufacturing technology that enables the construction of three-dimensional objects, prototypes, and products through a computer-aided or computer-driven manufacturing process. It is used in *D printing or the design of solid models and prototypes in a layered or additive approach. Selective laser sintering (***): This is a selective laser sintering prototyping technique without the use of liquids that creates *D objects from powders sintered or fused by a high-power laser. Stereolithography (***).

Les technologies les plus utilisées dans le cadre de l'impression *D Monde, ****, en % Source: ****

4.2 Different 3D printer prices depending on the range and use

According to Internet price comparisons, the price of a *D printer depends on the range and its use (***). The accessibility of *D printers has been gradually democratized since **** in Portugal with prices that could reach *** *** € for an average of first prices at * *** €.  

There are now * main price ranges for *D printers in Portugal:

The first prices, between *** € and **** €, which correspond to *D printers of small volumes [***] Mid-range *D printers are the most common, with prices ranging from €*,*** to €*,*** [***] High-end *D printers offering larger volumes, a wider range of usable materials and superior print quality, which generally cost between €*,*** and €*,*** [***]

Many industrial *D printers are worth hundreds of thousands of euros. The price sometimes even reaches €***,***. 

As a result, and in view of this rise in the price of industrial *D printers, some leaders have started to set up rental offers.

4.3 The future of 3D printing

The future of *D printers is strongly linked with the trends in materials used. According to a study on *D printing by Forbes, there are * main types of materials used in *D printing: 

Plastic Metal Resin Stoneware Wax Ceramic

If the price can have an incidence the choice of materials, it is especially the functionality of the manufactured objects which will impact the chosen material.  "It all depends on the strength of the material in which the *D printing is finished. The systems are scalable, and in the context of architecture, there have already been tests of *D printed buildings. Now we need to continue to work to ensure that these parts have the capacity for durability and customization." stated Raúl Sanahuja, responsible for public relations and communications at Epson in Portugal and Spain. 

For example, plastic, which is not very durable and releases toxic chemicals, shows a decrease in use from **% to **% from **** to ****, in contrast to metal, which is stronger and more durable, shows an increase in use from **% to **% over the same period.

Evolution de l'utilisation du plastique et du métal comme matériaux d'impression *D World, ****-****, en % Source: ****

Because of its capacity to process ...

5.1 Indirect regulation supplemented by specific standardization

Due to the recent emergence of additive manufacturing technologies, there is a relative lack of national or international regulation. However, the multiplication of standards allows for a precise framework of *D printing processes. 

A regulation resulting from the use of chemical products

In a professional context, the site where a *D printer is installed becomes de facto a specific pollution area which leads to specific waste streams subject to the extended producer responsibility principle. The Portuguese Decree-Law No. ***-D/**** unifies the regime for the management of specific waste streams with specific waste being premises in which dangerous or annoying substances are emitted in the form of gases, vapors, solid or liquid aerosols other than those linked to the sole presence of humans, as well as premises that may contain sources of potentially pathogenic micro-organisms. The obligations arising from the definition of these premises depends according to the specifity of the *D printer and the materials used. 

The thermoplastic filaments used in *D printing are all polymers, i.e. molecules characterized by the sequence of one or more types of monomer units. This denomination implies the respect of the REACH regulation (***). 

International standards relating to additive manufacturing have emerged. These standards have ...

6.1 Segmentation of market players

• SLM Solutions
• Stratasys
• 3D Systems
• EOS
• XPIM - 3D Printing
• BEEVERYCREATIVE
• Sculpteo
• GE Vernova
• HP Hewlett Packard