METAL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING MARKET SIZE AND SHARE ANALYSIS - GROWTH TRENDS AND FORECASTS (2024-2031)

Market Concentration and Competitive Landscape

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Cost-effectiveness for low-volume production

 Competitive advantage of metal additive manufacturing for production of low volume parts with complex designs can drive the market growth. While traditional methods of machining or molding require high set-up costs and long lead times for non-standard parts, additive processes have much lower incremental costs for additional parts. Once the initial file preparation is done, additional parts can be printed with relatively lower material and time costs involved. This makes additive manufacturing highly cost effective for prototype development and low-rate initial production where very few parts may be needed.

An aerospace components OEM assessed production of minor spare part which was needed occasionally when older aircraft went through routine maintenance check. With traditional methods, the small production volumes did not justify investments in tooling or setup. With metal 3D printing, these were able to produce these customized parts on demand without minimum order quantities or shelf-life issues of pre-produced inventory. Similarly, medical device companies routinely use additive processes to produce surgical guides, dental moldings or customized implants based on patients CT/MRI scans. Provided each patient's anatomy is unique, conventional production becomes too costly.

Many industrial equipment manufacturers have transitioned from refurbishing old components to additive repair or replacement due to cost benefits. Rather than warehousing inventory of standardized parts, printers can now be setup on-site or near field service centers to print any customized parts when needed. Overall total ownership cost reduces significantly especially when transportation or inventory carrying costs are high for infrequently needed specialty parts.

Additive manufacturing allows traversing the learning curve much faster for new complex product development when iterations are needed. Limited production runs for testing designs or new materials become feasible as compared to conventional tooling. Effectively it lowers the barriers for low volume specialized component manufacturing.