China 3D Printing Industry Report in 2022

3D printing research report

Core Summary:

3D printing is different from traditional material reduction manufacturing. Through digital stereo scanning and layered processing of the model, with the help of digital manufacturing equipment similar to the printer, the required solid model is formed by continuous superposition of materials. 3D printing greatly saves production costs and improves efficiency in specific application fields.

Compared with B2C printed in 2D, 3D printing is currently focused on B2B mode, and is also further expanding the customized and diversified consumer market of B2C.

3D printed metal and composite materials have become the future development trend due to their superior mechanical properties (rigidity, impact resistance, portability, etc.) and mechanical properties compared with traditional materials. The production cost and performance of materials are still the pain points of 3D printing upstream.

At present, China's 3D printing equipment mainly focuses on sintering/bonding molding (SLS, SLM) and non-metallic melt extrusion molding (FDM). Equipment performance and application timeliness are the main pain points.

Innovative breakthroughs in technology and materials and the training of composite talents will become the key factors for the spiral development of 3D printing industry.

3D printing -- innovation of traditional technology

From "material reduction" to "material addition", 3D printing is an upgrade and innovation of traditional technology

3D printing (3DP) is a kind of rapid prototyping technology, also known as additive manufacturing. It is a technology that uses powder metal or plastic and other adhesive materials to construct objects layer by layer printing based on digital model files. Different from traditional material reduction manufacturing, 3D printing continuously superimposes materials to form the required solid model by means of digital stereo scanning and layered processing of the model and digital manufacturing equipment similar to the printer. Compared with traditional technologies, 3D printing has obvious advantages in cost control, personalized production, production predictability, and material utilization of small and medium-sized batch production.

3D printing industry policy sorting

The policy was introduced quickly and supported strongly, helping the transformation of "Made in China Intelligently"

At present, the policy focuses on 3D printing materials, technology improvement and standard construction. In 2015, China's 3D printing industry ushered in a high-speed development opportunity under the guidance of "Made in China". A series of policies such as "Made in China 2025" described the development path of additive manufacturing industry. The 13th Five Year National Strategic Emerging Industry Development Plan issued by the State Council in 2016 marked the landing of industrialization. Since the development of 3D printing in China, the industry support policy has developed rapidly. From the overall strategy, application fields, key technologies to enterprise standards, policy guidance is constantly refined to promote the development of the industry.

3D printing business model

2D printing vs. 3D printing

The business model of 2D printer is relatively simple, and printer manufacturers mainly rely on consumables to make profits. The possible business models of 3D printing exist at five levels - manufacturing end (3D printer manufacturing), material end, mold end, retail end, and sample end (R&D). Compared with B2C printed in 2D, 3D printing is currently focused on B2B mode, and is also further expanding the customized and diversified consumer market of B2C.

Development process and inflection point of 3D printing industry

Fast transformation from manufacturing flow to digital flow

As the guider of high-end manufacturing technology, 3D printing is highly valued by the industry. The country has issued relevant policies, objectively and scientifically planned the layout, led the rational development of technology, and has laid a number of scientific research institutes and universities for technology research and development. At present, the 3D printing industry is rapidly changing from a manufacturing flow to a digital flow, and the digital economy has become a new growth point for the economic development of various countries. The deep integration of digital technology represented by industrial digitalization and manufacturing is the key driving force and strategic choice to promote the upgrading of the industrial foundation, the modernization of the industrial chain, and the construction of a new development pattern.

R&D stage - scientific R&D promotes the development of 3D printing

Core patents expire to stimulate market vitality

Before 2009, the number of 3D printing patent applications remained in single digits. From 2009 to 2015, many leading industrial 3D printing patents expired. With the release of 3D printing core technology, the industry access threshold and cost were lowered, the market vitality was stimulated, and the industrialization process was promoted. After the expiry of the FDM patent in 2009, it promoted the development of 3D printers in China. The patent layout focused on improving reliability and reducing costs; After 2012, with the active participation of universities and research institutes in research and the in-depth layout of core patents by 3D printing companies, the number of 3D printing patent authorizations has exploded; 2014 was the peak year for the expiration of patents, and SLS and SLM core technology patents expired successively, promoting the commercialization of metal 3D printing. In 2021, China's 3D printing patent authorization will mainly focus on manufacturing tools and medical science, while the number of consumer level fields such as clothing and food science will be small.

Industrialization Stage - 3D Printing Continuously Strives towards Industrialization

Multi enterprise layout 3D printing equipment/material industrialization

In recent years, 3D printing has become increasingly popular. In 2021, there will be 34 cases of 3D printing financing in China and 108 cases of financing abroad, with a significant growth compared with 2019. China's 3D printing head enterprises rapidly layout the 3D printing industrialization, and many enterprises have high annual production capacity/annual sales volume of 3D printing equipment and materials.

At present, domestic industrial 3D printing equipment and materials are mainly supplied to China, while consumer 3D printing equipment is mainly sold abroad. According to the opinion of 3D industry experts, this is because domestic raw materials are relatively cheap, the cost of processing 3D printing equipment is low, and the domestic consumer level supply chain is relatively complete, which can already meet the needs of daily necessities such as shoes, clothes, etc. The use of 3D printing is not fully highlighted, and overseas countries need 3D printing to simplify the supply chain.

Future development form of 3D printing

3D printing develops towards discrete production mode

As consumption upgrading promotes technological progress, competition in the 3D printing market will be more dispersed in the future. In the industrial level, it can meet the high, sophisticated and sophisticated demand, while in the consumer level, it is more discrete to meet the needs of each consumer, and may even be more applied to products that customers are more willing to pay at a premium. At present, companies and individuals prefer to produce orders through 3D printing platforms, while some enterprises also establish their own 3D printing centers. In the future, the 3D printing platform will further develop into a 3D printing farm. Through efficient management of cloud connected multi machine clusters, hundreds of 3D printers can be controlled by simple operation instructions, which greatly improves time efficiency, saves labor costs, and realizes personalized batch production.

3D printing industry chain

The upstream of the 3D printing industry chain is the supplier of raw materials, core hardware and auxiliary operation systems.

Midstream is mainly a manufacturer of 3D printing equipment and related services.

The downstream is mainly for 3D printing service objects. 3D printing is mainly used in aerospace, automotive industry and other fields, mainly for industrial applications.

Competition pattern of China's 3D printing industry

3D printing enterprises are in the rising stage of development, and the industry competition is relatively weak

Driven by relevant policies in China (for example, the Development Action Plan specifies that the additive manufacturing industry will grow by 30% by 2020, and the core technology will be in line with the foreign level), and under the guidance of policies, the enterprise side, R&D side, and capital side will develop together to promote the 3D printing industry to meet the boom. According to the statistics of China Additive Manufacturing Industry Alliance, the revenue of China's additive manufacturing enterprises will be 26.5 billion yuan in 2021, with an average growth rate of about 30% in the past four years, about 10% higher than the global average.

In 2021, there are 22 listed companies focusing on additive manufacturing in China. The more powerful ones are Platinum, Xianlin 3D, Huashu High Tech, etc.

The regional characteristics of 3D printing in China are as follows: Beijing Tianjin Hebei takes the lead in the country, and the Yangtze River Delta has preliminarily formed a full 3D printing industry chain development form by virtue of its favorable economic development advantages and location conditions; The central region of China focuses on R&D, and takes Shaanxi and Hubei as the core to establish an important area for industrial cultivation. The Pearl River Delta is the highland of 3D printing application services, mainly distributed in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places.

3D printing workflow

The 3D printing operation process is usually divided into three steps. First, before printing, it is necessary to rely on computers and specific software to build the model of the required products in the system, and then improve the preparatory work through optimization and adjustment, hierarchical slicing, planning path and other operations. In the process of printing, 3D printing equipment is used to stack materials layer by layer according to the planned model and path to obtain finished products. After printing, the finished products shall be put into use for actual inspection after surface treatment as required.

The modeling of early software is very important, and it requires multidisciplinary talents who are proficient in software modeling technology and materials to participate in the check. Model building plays a decisive role in whether the product meets the required standards. The printing equipment is mainly responsible for the production and molding of products, and the technology and materials are matched to each other to make physical objects with good comprehensive performance.

Upstream: the importance of 3D printing software technology

Software technology - a platform of nine layers, starting from the accumulation of soil

Whether in the process of 3D data model acquisition, 3D data model processing or 3D printer control, 3D software technology is indispensable. The software system integrates the functions of scanning and slicing, manufacturing and fault diagnosis, temperature field control, remote monitoring, digital scanning control, data feedback and integrated control to ensure that the refined products meet the needs; Improve data preparation efficiency, optimize print quality, and enhance product refinement.

Upstream: current use of 3D printing materials

China's material market is still dominated by non-metallic types; Material R&D towards compounding

The rise and development of 3D printing technology is inseparable from the development of 3D printing materials. There are many kinds of 3D printing technologies, such as SLS, SLA and FDM. Each printing technology uses different materials, such as metal materials commonly used in SLM technology, photosensitive resin commonly used in SLA, and engineering plastics suitable for FDM.

At present, nonmetals are still the main part of materials used in China, forming a 6:4 pattern with metal materials. However, it is also found that China's innovation in materials technology is accelerating. At present, the number of relevant patent applications will reach 3079 in 2021, ranking first over the United States. It can be seen from the patent content that various composite materials, degradable materials and metal materials with better performance are the focus of current research and development.

Upstream: development constraints and solutions of materials

The production cost and use performance of materials are the core pain points of upstream

Midstream: 3D printing equipment market status and characteristics

At present, China's 3D printing equipment mainly consists of SLS, SLM and non-metallic FDM, the former two accounting for about 32%, and FDM accounting for about 15% of the total, corresponding to the industrial level and desktop level respectively.

The business models and technological paths of domestic and foreign manufacturers are different. Comprehensively, the core technologies of foreign enterprises cover metal and non-metal sectors, with a wide range of applications. The core technology of domestic enterprises is highly specialized, for example, more than 70% of the equipment of Platinum is used in aerospace manufacturing.

Main pain points of 3D printing equipment

The problems of 3D printing equipment in midstream are mainly scattered

3D printing equipment is still in the stage of continuous running in technology, improving the maturity and refinement of equipment use. The problems are scattered, such as high failure rate during equipment operation, stuck feeding system operation, and low printing accuracy. At present, research and development experiments are carried out simultaneously in the scientific research field and the enterprise practice field to jointly promote the optimization of equipment operation.