For the last 2 to 3 years, 3D printing fever has swept over the whole world, promising to revolutionize the manufacturing industry. However, “there probably were bubbles,” said an official of MakerBot, an affiliate of Stratasys which is a leading global 3D printing company.

People who have crowded into 3D printing soon backed off, disappointed at its moderate performance and high price. “As in the case of other industries, I think bubbles have come and gone now for 3D printing,” said the MakerBot official. However, technology advancement is very likely to solve these challenges one by one, achieving its commercialization soon enough.

Five years from now, 3D printing is expected to achieve 10 times increase in output speed and 5 times increase in precision along with halved price. Jin-Won Seo, Researcher of LG Economic Research Institute (LGERI), said that “the curtain has gone up on the era of 3D printing. With its limitations overcome, product areas which can benefit from 3D printing technology will gradually expand.”

 
▲Industrial applications are one of the potentially big markets for high-end 3D printing (Picture source: cnc-grafteng)

An official of Mirae Int’l Trading Co. Ltd stated that “current 3D printing markets are clearly divided into low-end and high-end ones, the former being for education or private use while the latter being mainly for industries.” 

3D printing markets are steadily expanding. According to a market researcher, global market for 3D printers is projected to show steep growth, from USD 3.7 billion in 2015 to USD 4.9 billion in 2017, USD 6.5 billion in 2019 and USD 10.8 billion by 2021. The same might go for its domestic market. The size of domestic 3D printer market was KRW 30 billion in 2012 and KRW 50 billion in 2014, according to a report.

Concerned people in the 3D printing industry said that its popularization is only a matter of time. In other words, the era of 3D printing is just starting!