Additive manufacturing hardware, software, materials, and services for commercial and general aviation should create around $3.3 billion in revenue in 2022, according to research from Virginia-based market research group SmarTech Markets Publishing.
Read more: 3D Printing and the Future of Manufacturing
The recent study, “Opportunities for Additive Manufacturing in Commercial and General Aviation,” also projects that those revenues should be around $1.7 billion in 2020.
The study, which profiled opportunities in the additive manufacturing supply chain in markets outside of non-defense aerospace, includes a number of 10 year predications. One forecast touches on the installing of base printers, another focuses on expected revenue with breakout by software, services, hardware, and materials. Finally, another forecast touches on the amount of parts printed for each application, including breakout by prototypes, tooling, and final use components.
During its research, SmarTech found that revenue from the additive manufacturing hardware in the non-defense aerospace sectors should be $650 in 2020. A great portion of those revenues will come from powder bed fusion. The huge uptick in powder bed fusion revenue, SmarTech rationalizes, will occur because companies in that market are likely to develop machines with larger print bed sizes.
Also, in 2020, research suggests the non-defense aerospace market will spend $700 million on 3D printing. Despite the finds, SmarTech cautions that the print volumes created by customers in the aerospace sector could eventually become non-existent as manufacturing operations are handled in house.
SmarTech concluded that additive manufacturing providers should place focus on aircraft manufacturing and should support the aerospace supply chain.
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense, Industrial automation
