Research Report Predicts Market for 3D Printed Precious Metals Components Will Reach $4.1 Billion by 2024

SmarTech Markets Publishing provides market research and industry analysis in the 3D printing and additive manufacturing sectors, and a recent report from the company says they expect the market for 3D printed precious metals components to reach $2.6 billion by the year 2020.

This new report, Opportunities for 3D Printing Precious Metals: Jewelry and Other Applications, also projects that the same market will climb to a total of $4.1 billion by 2024.

This report covers 3D printing components fabricated from gold, silver, platinum, and precious metal alloys, and it says the market upticks will be due in large part to advance in the jewelry, medical and dental, and electronics sectors.

The ten-year forecast examines precious metals consumed, services used, and printers deployed for 3D printed precious metals, and it includes details information about the types of metals and applications as well as product and market assessments of the leading lights in those sectors.

Among other firms, the report specifically mentions companies such as 3D Systems, Autodesk, Concept Laser, EnvisionTec, EOS, Materialise, Optomec, Shapeways, Sculpteo, Solidscape, Voxel8, and Xerox.

SmarTech says 3D printing will account for nearly $100 million in precious metals materials sales, and that the figure will rise to more than $170 million by 2024.

Niobium Based Alloy C-103 3D Printed

Much of the increase in revenues will be attributed to sales of gold powder. The high price of gold, and the demand for gold in jewelry and dentistry applications, are expected to be the drivers.

SmarTech says platinum materials will account for the fastest growth in the sector, as palladium will be key to applications in dentistry, while industrial R&D projects will increasingly use platinum and iridium.

The fabrication of jewelry, along with a host of dental and biomedical applications, will drive metal powder sales as all these processes are well-suited to 3D printing. It’s the ability of the process to create small, high-value parts which feature complex and novel geometries – shapes difficult to fabricate conventionally – which will drive laser-based powder bed fusion applications forward.

Shapeways precious metals coatings

SmarTech says another commercially available 3D printing technology, aerosol jet, uses precious inks and is currently expanding its presence in printed electronic components like antennas and sensors. Directed energy deposition systems, on the other hand, may have potential to serve biomedical applications in the future pending some development around metal powder materials in precious metals to be specifically usable in this type of print process.

The company adds that the value of printed electronic components will reach nearly $235 million in 2020, and they add that the expectation is that the market for those components will climb to more than $450 million by 2024.

What do you think of the numbers in this report from SmarTech Markets Publishing? Do you see the markets for precious metal 3D printing powders and materials reaching these kinds of levels? Let us know in the 3D Printed Precious Metals Components Market forum thread on 3DPB.com.