Wohlers Launches New Website & Releases Executive Summary of 2022 3D Printing Report

Wohlers Associates, one of the world’s leading additive manufacturing (AM) consulting firms, announced the launch of its new website. In a press release touting the enhanced interactivity facilitated by the new site, the company also noted that the launch is concurrent with its publishing the executive summary for Wohlers Report 2022.

Released annually since 1996, the Wohlers Report is probably the source that analysts throughout the sector rely on most for up-to-date, comprehensive data on the state of AM. Notably, Wohlers Report 2022 is the first edition to be released following the late-2021 acquisition of Wohlers by ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials).

In the press release, the company’s head of advisory services and market intelligence, Terry Wohlers, commented, “We are proud to have developed Wohlers Associates into a global intelligence leader in the AM and 3D printing industry. The new website will help visitors more easily access our portfolio of products and services.”

To put that accomplishment in proper perspective, it was probably unthinkable, at the time Wohlers released its first annual report, that there might ever be demand for something like “a global intelligence leader in the AM [industry]”. Indeed, all the AM publications that have been launched subsequently (including 3DPrint.com) exist in no small part thanks to the precedent set by Wohlers. This adds a layer of symbolic significance to the fact that 3DPrint’s Joris Peels was one of the contributors to Wohlers Report 2022.

Obviously, anyone turning to the report as a reference for one’s own research and analysis will still want to get the full report: and one of the advantages to Wohlers’ new site is that it makes that process easier. Nevertheless, there’s still ample useful data contained in the executive summary, including information on machine installations by country, and a brief overview of the broader industrial sectors that have adopted AM techniques.

Moreover, a substantial amount of the background details in the report — on the history of AM and the like — will likely be familiar to individuals who have read prior editions, as well as simply those who have a decent base knowledge on the subject. On the other hand, anyone who feels like they don’t need to read the 2022 version because they’ve read past editions may want to reconsider that, considering how pivotal a moment the beginning of the 2020s seems to be for AM.

In other words, however knowledgeable you may have been of the industry, and of the technology, itself, prior to 2022, it’s likely there’s still much contained within the 2021 data that could change your perspective. Considering the ongoing growth of the industry, along with the emerging feedback loop between AM and the overall industrial environment, that seems like it will continue to be the case for the next several years, at least. To sum up, quality information on AM has never been more valuable.

Images courtesy of Wohlers Associates