3D Printing Market & IP Landscape

Three dimensional printing (3D printing) is an additive manufacturing process. A 3D object can be created by laying down successive layers of material, based on a computer-aided design (CAD) model or a digital 3D model.

Key advantages of 3D printing include flexible design of complex structures, rapid prototyping, mass customization, print on demand, minimizing waste and cost effectiveness.

Makerspaces of 3D printing are growing rapidly, and are expected to surpass $63.46 billion by 2026, at a compound annual growth rate of 29.48%.

In manufacturing industries, 3D printing allows companies to draft prototypes quickly and test them even before manufacturing begins. 3D printing is commercialized in e.g., electronics (e.g, printed circuit boards) that are produced with electrically-conductive inks.

Additive manufacturing also has commercial traction in the construction industry where it is perceived as more affordable, faster and sustainable than traditional methods. As COVID-19 disrupted global supply chains, 3D printing emerged as a key technology to fulfill some of the demand in affordable housing.

Representative 3D printing technologies include digital light processing, direct metal laser sintering, drop on demand, electron beam melting, fused deposition modeling, material jetting, metal binder jetting, sand binder jetting, selective laser melting, selective laser sintering and stereolithography.

The top industrial uses of 3D printing relate to healthcare and medical products

3D printed medical devices help address several critical needs in the healthcare and medical industry: personal protective equipment; ventilator valves; prosthetics and implants; and patient-specific anatomical models
Intellectual property and technology portfolio leaders comprise academic and research institutions, medical device manufacturers and pharma companies e.g., University of California, Chinese Academy of Science, University of Texas, Medtronic, Stryker, Aprecia Pharma, and Novartis
Active partnerships (110+ in the landscape) relate to not only healthcare and medical industries, several others are related to 3D printing modeling and design optimization. E.g., Medtronic recently partnered with Stratasys to improve the design of ratcheting counter-torque instruments. 3D Systems and Stryker partnered to combine anatomical models with the 3DS Virtual Surgical Planning service for personalized surgery

Breakthroughs in 3D printing materials appear to be promote double-digit adoption growth rates in several industrial sectors

The 3D printing material market is expected to exceed $6 billion by 2028. Even though polymers and metals are still leading materials, emerging (nano)materials are enabling new applications to further drive the industrialization of 3D printing
Exemplary 3D printing materials with 16%+ compound annual growth rates of publishing in the past 3 years include elastomers, bioinks and composites
The 3D IP landscape reveals details on leaders in recently-growing 3D printing materials:
- Stratasys IP and technologies are captured related to durable elastomer 3D printed materials with superior reliability and repeatability
- Advanced BioMatrix news is captured related to the world's first pure collagen bioinks for extrusion-based 3D bioprinting
- Markforged innovations also stand out, including composite fibers with advantages over traditional thermoplastics used in 3D printing in terms of strength, stiffness, heat resistance, and durability

Many foundational patents have expired in 3D printing. Where is there now freedom to operate?

There are more than 4,100 inactive patents and applications (abandoned or expired) that account for ~19% of patents and applications in the current 3D printing competitor landscape
The top 5 originators with inactive IP are: General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Siemens, United Technologies Corporation and New Kinpo
There are now opportunities to align this stranded IP to emerging business strategies

Objectives of 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing IP Landscape Dashboards

Intellar 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Landscape Dashboards are designed to visualize who is doing what, when and where - and for how much?
Key concepts: 3D printing, additive manufacturing, direct digital manufacturing, direct laser deposition, free-form manufacturing, laminated object manufacturing, electron beam melting and powder bed fusion

Data Coverage for 3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing IP Landscape Dashboards

More than 22,000 de-duplicated global simple patent families published in (machine translated) English since 2015
Technical literature, scientific, medical and engineering journal abstracts, full text (when available) & images published in English since 2017
News articles, press releases, business research, market forecasts, announcements and magazine content published in English since 2019