3D Printing
– Seizing the Commanding Heights of Science & Technology and Industries

By Additive Manufacturing Alliance of China

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing has developed from the R&D stage to industrial application, and its deep integration with information network technology will impact China’s efforts to transform traditional manufacturing. It is one of the iconic technologies of the current industrial revolution.

Rapid scale expansion in China

After more than 20 years of development, China’s additive manufacturing industry is now growing rapidly, with many breakthroughs in key technologies. Equipment performance has been significantly improved and applications have been expanded, forming a number of industrial clusters.
According to statistics of Additive Manufacturing Alliance of China covering 23 companies of significant scale, the total output value of scaled additive manufacturing producers reached RMB2.03 billion in 2016, up by RMB1.08 billion over 2015, a growth of 87.5%. The total output value in the first half of 2017 was RMB1.16 billion, up 50.5% YoY. The scale of the industry is growing rapidly.
The proportions of the industry’s output values of equipment, materials and services are 50.1%, 26.9% and 23.0% respectively.
The industry is concentrated in Bohai Bay, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, while central and western areas also have seen this industry boom. Bohai Bay leads, with Beijing as the core and coordinated development in other areas. Over 70 companies are engaged in additive manufacturing R&D, production and services, with combined sales revenue of RMB500 million. In the Yangtze River Delta region, where the economic development is advantageous and the industrial base is strong, an additive manufacturing industrial chain has been formed, including equipment R&D, production, application, services and relevant support equipment. In the Pearl River Delta, the development of additive manufacturing industry focuses on application services and is mainly in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Dongguan. Shaanxi, Hubei and Hunan are additive manufacturing technology centers and key industrialization regions, and a number of leading enterprises are sited there. Anhui is also an important additive manufacturing region, and Chungu 3D Printing Intelligent Equipment Industrial Park in Wuhu City has become the biggest additive manufacturing industry cluster in East China.

Accelerated development not able to conceal the difficulties of industrialization

Low scale of industrialization

There are hundreds of additive manufacturing companies in China, but no large, powerful international leading enterprises. The annual sales revenue of the largest company is only RMB300 million.

The development of special materials lags behind

China still lags behind in the development of new special materials for additive manufacturing. The materials available are limited to only a few varieties and suppliers, and high-performance materials must be imported. So far, China has developed only dozens of metallic and non-metallic materials like titanium alloy and high strength steel, and metallic products do not have good reliability and stability. Installed powder raw materials cannot be recycled and are cast off as wastes. Bulk production of nickel-based alloy, cobalt-chromium alloy and high temperature resistant and high strength engineering plastics have not been realized.

Key equipment and parts need to be imported

There is a big gap between China’s additive manufacturing equipment and developed countries’ in terms of environment temperature control and process stability, so key equipment and parts must be imported. Germany’s EOS had over 200 additive manufacturing units installed in China as of 2016. The software in use is also foreign. China’s special process software and control software for design, scanning path formation and program formulation are still in the initial stage.

Industry standard system not perfect

There are seven national standards in the sector, but there is no perfect system of standards covering design, materials, process and equipment, product performance, and testing & certification. This restricts development.
China’s ability to innovate with new applications is weak. Meanwhile, the cost and maintenance fees of industrial grade additive manufacturing equipment are high, which hinders transforming and upgrading traditional production methods. Further exploration is needed to further speed up application development and diffusion.

Still growing fast

Additive manufacturing industry will keep growing fast

Globally, additive manufacturing industry will keep growing fast in the coming 10 years, and its development potential is huge. As predicted by IDC, the global compound growth rate of this industry will remain 22.3% from 2016 to 2020, and the global annual output value will reach US$28.9 billion by 2020.

Industrial grade additive manufacturing becoming the mainstream

Industrial grade additive manufacturing can be widely used in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the development of strategic emerging industries. With gradual maturity of the technology and continual reduction of costs, the market and development potential are large. There has already been strong growth in metal additive manufacturing. Sectors like aerospace, automobiles, navigation, nuclear industry and medical equipment have huge demand for metal additive manufacturing, and the application expansion is rapid.

Integration boosting large-scaled application

The advantage of additive manufacturing technology lies in prototype manufacturing and small batch production, and the potential is mainly embodied in the mass production of personalized products and complex products. Additive manufacturing is neither a replacement for nor a challenge to traditional manufacturing technology; rather it is a supplement and innovation of existing production modes, supply modes and commercial modes through integration with traditional manufacturing. With further development of the technology and improvement of the software, additive manufacturing will be integrated into existing production systems to realize large-scaled applications.

The depth and breadth of applications continue to expand

In the industrial applications, the application of additive manufacturing technology has evolved from conceptual model and functional prototype production to functional component manufacture, and it is developing toward complex structural parts design and manufacture. At the same time, there are more and more applications in model review, design verification, complex structural parts, multi material composite parts, lightweight structural parts, customized special tooling, surface repair, personalized replacement parts and so on. In the field of biomedicine, a biological model made via additive manufacturing method based on patient’s medical imaging data has become a means of adjuvant therapy and has been used in fields like preoperative simulations, and the “non-living” printing might be gradually developed into “living” printing in the future.