It’s been quite the wild ride for the additive manufacturing (AM) market over the last eighteen months—probably unlike any in history, which, in AM, is saying a lot. Looking back to 2020, SmarTech Analysis predicted a swift recovery and further market acceleration, thanks to big economic and supply change upheavals, as a result of COVID. The basis for this prediction came from heightened interest levels in the market in the early pandemic days which hadn’t been seen in well over a year as the additive market saw growth rates slowing down.
Although we all predicted a big hit to AM hardware purchasing for 2020, the expectation was that interest levels would begin converting to new orders for various AM technologies as manufacturers and service bureaus were able to get a read on their customer base. This has been happening the last few quarters and, as predicted, hardware sales from nearly all AM equipment providers are growing rapidly compared to a year ago, and in most cases exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
What has been a less predictable and tumultuous market has been the additive manufacturing services market.