Working with Industry to Address 3D Additive Manufacturing Challenges

In recent years, Additive Manufacturing (known as “3D printing”) has made impressive progress in the areas of equipment, material, technology and application. China is at the heart of this development and IDG says it’s “the force” behind 3D printing growth in Asia. Statistics also show that China’s 3D printing market was estimated at RMB 8.2 billion in 2017 and the sub-sector worldwide is estimated to be worth $32.78 billion by 2023.

But fast growth and demand has raised a few challenges. Failure to find suitable opportunities for industrialization, the lack of talent in the industry and the high cost of 3D printing have now become the main development bottlenecks for China’s 3D printing market.

“China’s 3D industry is constantly changing. Companies need to always pay attention to the overall changes and adjust their development strategy accordingly,” said Mr. Pan Xueson, chief editor of Nanjixiong during a recent 3D Additive Manufacturing Forum hosted by EMG.

EMG hosts first 3D Additive Manufacturing Forum

The forum, held in Shanghai on January 18, was jointly organized by EMG, Chuang Ke Jia Technology and Nanjixiong.com. EMG, as a world-leading B2B marketing and communication agency, has many clients in the resins, additives and equipment fields focused on 3D printing. Providing a professional forum that brought together 3D printing enterprises, industrial experts and leading media in China was something we felt was needed to help encourage innovation and growth in the industry – especially at a time when investments are doubling and the Chinese government is making the development of additive manufacturing technology a priority for the country.

“In 2018, all the 3D printing enterprises in the world received more than RMB 20 billion of investment which is more than double the amount in 2017. In the economic winter, the 3D printing industry has been continuously recognized by the capital. It has passed the hype period and has entered a solid stage of development. We are optimistic about the future of the 3D printing industry,” said Xueson.

This positivity of the future of 3D printing was echoed by Ms. Julie Zhu, Curator of China 3D Printing Cultural Museum. “At the beginning of the New Year, we gathered with industry experts from many well-known enterprises to deep dive into the global development trend of 3D printing and share the successful cases of the 3D printing industry. The forum has been a great success. It has helped promote the establishment of 3D printing ecosystem and lead the Industry 4.0 era,” said Zhu.

Paving the Way for New verticals

The 3D Additive Manufacturing forum is only a starting point. A report by Markets and Markets predicts more growth as 3D printing penetrates into new verticals, such as electronics, biomedical, pharmaceuticals and construction. The aerospace industry is also using more 3D printing to manufacture critical parts of airplanes.

The news is exciting as opening up more verticals has enabled enterprises that have been focused on other additives to diversify their offerings and enter the market. Clariant is just one of them: an already established leader in specialty chemicals, they are now providing high quality materials and professional services to the 3D industry in China and around the world. For them it was a natural evolution of their offerings.

“Clariant has recently entered into the 3D printing industry underpinned by its global resources and knowledge of specialty chemicals and resin materials. Thank you EMG for providing this great platform and hope we can have more opportunities to cooperate with enterprises in the 3D industry chain in the future,” commented David McCann, Senior Business Architect from Clariant.

Based on the positive response we received, it’s obvious that more events like the Shanghai forum will be needed to allow clients to communicate and interact with upstream and downstream enterprises to help drive future 3D industrial development. By supporting our clients by opening channels of communications through forums and other media, EMG is proud and honoured to be part of this development.

We hope to continue discussions on facilitating growth in the area at the upcoming TCT Asia Exhibition. The exhibition will be held February 21-23 in Shanghai and we’ll be there supporting our clients at the show.