Honey, I Shrunk the Laser Wars: From Pricey to Practical, the Coming Age of Affordable SLS Tech

The last five years have seen relentless one-upmanship by metal powder-bed fusion OEMs; A trend often referred to as the “Laser Wars.”  Is it now time to brace for the “Plaser Craze?” Polymer laser-based printing is at a crucial juncture: ripe for competition and, more importantly, democratization.

Here’s why:

1. Market demand validation: Production-grade Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) machines of the past were nearly impossible to purchase for less than $200,000. EOS (Germany), 3D Systems (USA, NYSE: DDD), Farsoon (China, SHA: 688433) and Prodways (France, EPA: PWG) were the early leaders in this space. In recent years, we’ve seen multiple machines for less than $50,000 from Formlabs (USA), Sharebot (Italy), and Sintratec (Switzerland), among others. Sintratec’s shutdown earlier this year was sudden and disheartening, but other developments offer reasons to be bullish. Just last month Formlabs acquired Micronics, a two-student startup from Madison, Wisconsin that ran a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign (1358% of its funding goal) on the promise of a $2,999 SLS printer. While the $3,000 price point may never have been sustainable in the long-run, it’s an indication of Formlabs’ direction for upcoming iterations of its Fuse lineup.

Another interesting project in this arena is SLS4ALL, an open-source project from the Czech Republic which is now taking orders for $6,999 SLS Kits shipping internationally. Yet another indicator pointing to cheaper SLS machines being recognized as a clear need in the market for engineers, pro hobbyists, and small to medium-sized businesses alike.

2. Thermal non-complexity: Unlike with metal PBF, polymers do not generally experience large residual stresses or curling when melted. For metal PBF alone, there is an entire ecosystem of companies that specialize in thermal management, melt pool monitoring, and stress analysis; Some of whom are pure-play software companies. The absence of this complex pre-processing makes SLS cheaper and faster than its metal counterpart. This also unlocks…
3. Truly support-free design: SLS is one of the few additive manufacturing (AM) technologies that allows support-free 3D printing as the powder “cake” provides structural support and holds parts in place during the printing process. A lack of support structures allows users to push the limits of packing efficiencies and part complexity. There are design challenges to overcome, such as drainage holes for powder removal, but the upsides, such as print-in-place joints and pre-assembled mechanisms, are tremendous. No supports and reduced assembly brings down labor costs. But this cost saving is offset by the labor-intensive powder handling, which I discuss further below.
4. Material accessibility: Polymer powders for SLS can be sourced as low as $40-$50 / Kg, putting these materials at price parity with the cheapest commodity resins for photopolymer printing. There is no shortage of large industrial manufacturers in this space including the likes of Arkema, Evonik, and BASF. All of whom have had AM-specific portfolios for years, with BASF recently spinning out its additive division, Forward AM, in July 2024 to react to AM market needs in an agile way. Low-cost and accessible materials also mean failed prints do not hurt the pocket like with metal AM. Most SLS powders also allow recycling of used powder, at rates anywhere between 20%-70%. Faster development cycles will therefore accelerate product development and commercialization of products.

Given the market conditions and recent developments, here are things to look out for:

1. The Shenzhen invasion: As we’ve seen in the Laser Wars, China retains its stronghold among OEMs in the metal space. In fact, this is a trend that has played out in electromechanical offerings generally across verticals and industries. The city of Shenzhen alone, known as the Silicon Valley of Hardware, is home to not only Huawei, DJI, BYD, OnePlus but also Bambu Lab, Anycubic, Creality, and BLT (who launched a 16-laser metal system in 2023) among others. These household names are a strong pedigree of companies that have moved beyond China’s legacy “cheaper is better” strategy and have offered industry-leading products by understanding global market needs. As competition ramps up especially from Asian manufacturers, this will lead to…
2. Steadily lowering prices: I fully expect a flood of SLS offerings heating up competition for Western manufacturers. This will push large industrial leaders including Prodways, EOS, 3D Systems to produce lower-priced machines, but it will also impact existing providers mentioned earlier. According to Formlabs, they already sell more than 50% of SLS printers worldwide. It will be interesting to see how this changes in the coming years as SLS continues to become more affordable and diverse, akin to what we see in other AM technologies.
3. Improved performance: This crucible of heated competition and lowering prices will breed innovation. The prospect of faster and more capable SLS machines is an exciting one. Israeli-based 3DM for example is pursuing a parallel laser beam approach using diode lasers. It’s the right idea: not just to add more lasers but to push SLS from the point-based technology it currently is toward a layer-based technology. The improvement in throughput may not match what DLP (Digital Light Projection)/LCD/mSLA (masked Stereolithography) did for SLA but it’s a step in that direction.

Material diversity across engineering-grade polymers also offers significant value. Verne AM Labs, founded by the team whose affordable desktop SLS printer was acquired by Prodways in 2014, has announced its high-temp SLS machine (for less than $200,000) with a focus on PEKK. This high-grade engineering material can be used in demanding applications across aerospace, medical device, automotive, and other industrial verticals. Performance improvements like these will lower barriers to entry for adopters of the technology and see broader use for serious manufacturers.

4. Improved workflows: A particular gripe I’ve had with printer OEMs is the lack of attention to workflows and post-processing solutions. So much so that we have multiple solutions-providers for non-printing steps of the workflows alone. While they generally offer good solutions, I’m looking forward to OEMs improving workflows as a differentiating factor and further pushing the need for streamlined solutions. This is especially true of SLS, where powder-handling can get messy and often hazardous, depending on the material of choice. The cost driver to improve post-processing and powder recycling are reason enough to motivate better solutions from providers which cascades into higher customer adoption. Verne AM Labs is partnered with IntegrAM, a consortium aimed at providing end-to-end solutions. Formlabs, known for its vertically integrated approach to offering seamless solutions, also has its own post-processing and material recovery solutions that’s a step-up from current market offerings.

Economic conditions are volatile, AM revenues and market valuations are at a local minima, and venture funding isn’t exactly free-flowing. However innovative players that are frugal and value-focused born out of these conditions often stick around for the long haul. SLS is well on its way to joining material extrusion and photopolymerization as democratized technologies, but what will these Laser Wars look like? Time will tell.