We decided to use Part 1 of the Formnext 2021 review exclusively for polymers, even though Formnext is usually dominated by metal AM companies. This fact shows that metal AM has suffered more than polymer AM in the years plagued by the pandemic in the past two years. The loss is even greater. The reason is obvious: until 2019, only one market segment is driving most metal AM investments: aviation. The huge blow to the air travel industry has significantly slowed these investments. For different reasons (for example, scalable metal adhesive spraying solutions are still difficult to find). In other words, metal additive manufacturing will continue to exist. Although traditional market leaders (EOS, 3D Systems, GE, and SLM Solutions) have limited influence on this version of Formnext, many young companies and startups are increasing investment Strengthen the scope of influence and contribute to the overall development of the metal additive manufacturing market.
Go to Metal Additive Manufacturing Market Research →
When HP demonstrated its metal adhesive jetting technology (on IMTS in 2018), the company set 2021 as the date for the full commercialization of the Metal Jet platform. Since then, 2021 has become the date for all market segment participants to determine their strategy and introduce the system. The pandemic has set this time back one year, and HP has now set 2022 as the target year for its release. Ramon Pastor, global head and general manager of HP (3D Metals), confirmed to 3dpbm that the complete commercial launch of Metal Jet is planned for the end of 2022, which is after next summer. "We now have 20 systems for customers to use, and we have accumulated a wealth of experience in the entire Metal Jet workflow-Pastor Mr. added-we will continue to support them while planning activities throughout the year to prepare for the release For high-value applications, we expect Metal Jet to be a greater disruptor than MultiJet Fusion. We are not only referring to high-cost components, but also components that can significantly benefit from cost-effectiveness through additive mass production."
As a result of this delay, when there are several competitors in the metal adhesive jetting market, Formnext has only one pure metal adhesive jetting company: ExOne, the past and current market leader, is now part of the Desktop Metal group of companies. Even ExOne, which started and integrated its metal additive manufacturing business before and during the exhibition (including Schunk and Pressburg Mint in Slovakia), also chose to highlight more integrated metal casting through its sand binder spraying business at the exhibition site Application. The magnesium parts produced by French company Ventana through additive casting are particularly impressive.
ExOne's new parent company and former competitor Desktop Metal did not participate directly in Formnext 2021, although the company did announce a major new acquisition of Meta Additive during the show. After demonstrating its new metal adhesive spraying technology through Formnext’s previous video, Ricoh also chose low-key products, bringing only a few aluminum parts to its booth, and may fully demonstrate its current new developments next year. system. GE chose a low-key presence, replacing the usual two-story booth with a smaller, pragmatic presence.
Therefore, the metal adhesive jet will be launched next year, most likely at IMTS, where it started (at least for HP). IMTS will also start the countdown to Formnext USA in 2025. Although there is no adhesive jetting system produced at the exhibition site except for ExOne, several start-up companies have made solid progress in similar and possibly more advanced adhesive metals/inkjet production technology. One of them is Xjet, which seems to be finally ready to commercially launch 316 steel parts production on its unique Metal Nanoparticle Jet (NPJ) system. Although the system has been in development for some time, XJet showed us some precise and complex high-definition parts at its booth. Another interesting company that develops combined metal technology for production is Tritone, which also comes from Israel, such as XJet. After launching the first system in 2019, the company has now launched a mid-range machine Tritone DIM, mainly for consumer goods and consumer electronics manufacturers, service bureaus, R&D and education departments.
In addition to these ambitious industrial systems, the most directly relevant insights appearing in Formnext is that the combination of metal material extrusion is a reliable, effective, practical and affordable process, and the manufacture of high-quality standard thermoplastic filament extrusion systems The supplier is now showing an optimized system and workflow for metal production with excellent results. The most interesting ones I saw on Formnext are Raise 3D and BCN 3D. Raise 3D launched the new Raise3D MetalFuse system, an end-to-end fully integrated internal ecosystem for metal 3D printing, while BCN 3D showcased the new Metal Pack for its Epsilon series of 3D printers. Xerion's sintering experts are another relevant participant in this field (but its technology has been on the market since 2019 and has not yet gained mass adoption or popularity).
All these machines use BASF Ultrafuse Metal Filaments from Forward AM (BASF 3D printing material brand). This plastic giant, as the first third-party supplier of binding metal wire materials, may become the biggest winner in the development of this new market. . Among the pioneers of combined metal extrusion technology, the emergence of new competitors may not be a major problem for Desktop Metal, because the company has always regarded its combined metal printing technology as a transition and complement to its desire to produce metal adhesive jets. On the other hand, Markforged may suffer losses because its metal AM business is expected to surpass its continuous fiber composites business, but it has received less recognition on the global stage than its composites business so far.
It may be strange that we started using PBF so late in the Formnext 2021 review, but this technology is now in a transitional phase, which may determine its future. First of all, no one doubts that metal PBF will become the dominant technology of metal AM for at least the next few years. In addition, the traditional market leaders EOS, 3D Systems, SLM Solutions, Renishaw and GE (through Concept Laser and Arcam) will remain the leading companies for the foreseeable future, even if none of these companies make major announcements or display heights on Formnext Disruptive innovation. They are mainly focused on optimizing the current system architecture and workflow, with the goal of gradual and gradual progress in production and throughput. For example, Renishaw launched two new systems based on the RenAM 500 architecture, and 3D Systems expanded its direct metal printing (DMP) product portfolio by launching DMP Flex 350 Dual and DMP Factory 350 Dual. Both systems are equipped with two lasers to speed up construction time (up to 50% faster) and reduce production costs.
However, the biggest story on the Formenxt floor comes from some newer companies that challenge traditional players to dominate the market. They follow very different strategies and come from different parts of the world. The first one comes from Additive Industries and is completely focused on workflow optimization. The Dutch company is entering a new growth phase with the new MetalFABG2, which integrates a series of updates to truly take Additive Industries' technology to a new level. As the company explained, the new system series has more than 150 updates, including optimized airflow, optimized thermal management, updated process parameters and beam quality measurement. The new series can provide significantly higher productivity, offering three versions-core, automated and continuous production-to meet the different needs of the company's customers.
U.S.-based Velo3D takes a completely different approach, focusing entirely on optimizing the build process. The company has also expanded its operations in Europe to support its growth efforts in the region, which is now regarded as a key market for future growth. The expansion includes the opening of a technical center in Augsburg, Germany, where Velo3D's Sapphire system is assembled and displayed, and the European contract Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield (SBO) technology to provide the first end-to-end manufacturing solution specializing in oil and gas Manufacturers of high-value metal parts in the industry.
TRUMPF is also becoming a major player in the field of metal additive manufacturing, including powder bed and powder feed. Although TRUMPF can hardly be described as a new player in the field of metal additive manufacturing, the company has only re-entered the market in recent years and has been very active in building the market, becoming one of the most serious and innovative companies. At Formnext, TRUMPF has issued a number of announcements in the field of software and sensor innovation, dedicated to improving the reliability and accessibility of its technology.
Finally, EPlus3D is rapidly emerging as the most serious Chinese company preparing to establish influence in the European market. The company has established a European business near Stuttgart, strategically close to the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz and the European headquarters of its former partner SHINING3D. Despite travel restrictions, the Eplus3D team appeared in the Formnext showroom to showcase its machine lineup, which may be the largest of all metal PBF hardware companies.
Another related aspect that should not be underestimated is that although General Electric has chosen to keep a low profile for its L-PBF and EB-PBF businesses, three new EBM companies have emerged, and their Formnext business has the largest scale. Healing line JEOL from Japan, together with Freemelt from Sweden and Wayland Additive from the UK, now seems to be ready to enter the market and challenge the current monopoly of GE (Arcam). This seems to be a much-needed infusion of new enthusiasm in the EBM field, stimulating GE and Arcam to become the leaders of the growing market, rather than the sole owners.
The metal DED-powder and wire feed-part and the large-format metal AM part in general (including metal consolidation technology) are also undergoing a dynamic growth and innovation phase. Some market operators hope to separate their business from the powder bed sector and Other companies wishing to extend AM to new production applications that cannot be covered by traditional PBF systems. Although companies like TRUMPF and DMG Mori will still be leaders in this field, other start-ups are emerging with many ideas and active market development strategies.
In particular, we discussed with Meltio the company’s ambitious strategy, which is to build a factory with hundreds of more affordable (less than 100,000 euros) systems, and cooperate with ultra-affordable metal wires to become a major metal company within a few years. A leader in mass production. We also have the opportunity to meet the MX3D team in the showroom. In the field of integration, as the current leaders of cold spray AM in Australia, SPEE3D and Titomic, were unable to travel to Germany, we had the opportunity to meet the team of Impact Innovation, a European company engaged in cold spray metal AM hardware.
In particular, a company seems ready to take advantage of and help promote the growth of metal DED companies: Hexagon. Its manufacturing intelligence department hopes to establish a flexible and open additive manufacturing (AM) ecosystem to help overcome the complexity of the 3D printing process, and has cooperated with metal DED companies, including Sciaky, Propin, DM3D , Gefertec and Meltio. The common goal of the partners is to support customers in effectively constructing their product development and manufacturing workflows. In this work, Hexagon is following in the footsteps of Siemens Digital Industries, which started building a network of AM companies a few years ago, which includes several DED companies.
Even if the metal PBF segment is making a comeback due to the slowdown in the aviation industry, overall, the metal AM market has significantly expanded in terms of the number of operators and the throughput capacity of the systems involved. With the increase in material consumption, metal materials companies can now finally benefit from their investment in powders and metal wires of different sizes. There is nothing better than Sandvik, which is becoming the leader in European (and possibly soon global) metal additive manufacturing powders, especially in many different types of steel (which is the company's core business).
No company has made so much investment in the development of additive manufacturing recently. Sandvik has directly participated in leading metal additive manufacturing service providers BEAMIT and 3T Additive Manufacturing. At Formenxt, we met with Vice President and Head of Additive Manufacturing Business Unit Mikael Schuisky and Sandvik Additive Manufacturing Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Pasi Kangas to discuss the latest developments. Although the biggest news is that Sandvik has added two atomizers in the UK factory to further expand its production capacity, the most impressive thing is the company’s breadth of knowledge in metal powder manufacturing, covering everything from PBF to DED All sizes to the adhesive jet. In fact, although Sandvik’s current focus is on Osprey super duplex steel for PBF, Sandvik is ready for adhesive spraying and has already bonded some impressive cemented carbide parts. Mixture injection production (via ExOne system).
Formnext has seen the participation of a large number of metal powder market operators of all sizes, from Carpenter (probably the largest prior to the recent restructuring) to Oerlikon (we provide an in-depth introduction to the latest achievements of this Swiss company in a recent report) Metal AM e-book, which contains information collected in recent AMTC events). Interestingly, in addition to the beautiful Urwahn bicycles, the main story that appeared on the Oerlikon booth was related to the new high-entropy alloy (AlxCrFe2Ni2), which was developed as an alternative to super duplex stainless steel (DSS) and has considerable Strength and corrosion resistance characteristics. Other very interesting materials and products include aluminum experts Equispheres and Tekna and refractory metals expert HC Hafner. We also have the opportunity to sit down with Aubert & Duval, another large metal materials company, which focuses on nickel superalloys and provides metal powders for all major technologies (based on PBF, DED and jetting technology) under the Pearl Micro brand.
On Formnext, the technical ceramic AM market confirmed that it is still a market segment built to target (and face) extreme challenges. This is not surprising, as these materials are used in other useless applications. There is a clear leader in this segment, the Austrian company Lithoz, which is the only company dedicated to truly expanding and large-scale ceramic AM and even beyond the most advanced applications. Other leading companies such as ExOne and XJet are now more focused on building their metal business, while voxeljet is focused on sand and high-speed polymer 3D printing.
Combining ceramic material extrusion pioneers such as Nanoe and Xerion (and even Tritone) are actively improving their ceramic capabilities, especially Nanoe, expanding its facilities to double its output to keep up with the growing demand for its ceramic and metal 3D printing materials . To this end, the company's facilities will include not only a material production facility, but also a customer demonstration center and a printing plant.
As a pioneer in ceramic additive manufacturing technology, 3DCeram owns some of the most advanced and industrialized ceramic additive manufacturing systems in the world. It continues to focus on building a core industry network and is supported by Xindong Group in terms of financial security and structural strength. The company does not appear to be interested in targeting the global mass adoption of its most advanced technology.
Go to Ceramic Additive Manufacturing Market Research →
This market research by 3dpbm Research provides an in-depth analysis and forecast of the ceramic additive market.
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