3D Printing Filament Trends & Stats for May 2015

Each and every month, we see more new filaments released by various manufacturers, some of which are more of the same, while others are something completely new to the 3D printing space. Without a doubt, the future of desktop 3D printing will rely heavily on material science which will lead us into a completely new realm of uses for this up-and-coming technology.

One issue which many individuals complain about within the 3D printing space, is how difficult it is to find the perfect filament for a particular print job. There are literally hundreds of options to choose from, yet spools of filament remain quite pricey. Ranging from $15 per 1KG spool, up to over $100, and with the average price falling somewhere around $35 or so, one could easily spend a fortune testing them all out. This is where GlobalFSD – 3D Filament Sample Depot comes into play. The company was created to help solve the issues that people have when trying to select the “perfect” filament to use. They sell 5-10 meter samples of now over 80 different filament types, for just a couple dollars each. The website allows people to add several of these samples to their shopping cart and then have those samples shipped directly to their house or place of work.

Each month, GlobalFSD releases a report, outlining sales, popular filaments and more. Below you will find some the more interesting details of this recent report.

New Products Added in May of 2015

Last month saw the addition of several new filaments to the GlobalFSD marketplace. These additions included Copper FLEX, Copper PLA, Bronze PLA and Aluminum PLA by Reprapper Tech Ltd, as well as Flexifill and Timberfill from Fillamentum. Also Faberdashery’s High Quality PLA was added for users to sample. If you were contemplating the idea of trying out any of these new filaments, but didn’t want to spend the big buck for an entire spool, you can now do so in 5 – 10 meter samples.

Top Single Color Filament Samples Sold
The top three single color filament samples sold for the month of May were three very unique and very intriguing materials. They were as follows:

• bambooFill by colorFabb
• HDglass™ Clear by FormFutura
• brassFill by colorFabb

On top of this, the top manufacturer whose filament samples sold the best this month was colorFabb. They continue to be a leader in the filament manufacturing space, and individuals as well as businesses continue to show a strong interest in their materials.

Top Multiple Color Filament Samples Sold
While some companies specialize in creating composite filaments that are obviously only available in single colors, other companies focus on filaments which provide different properties yet are available in multiple colors. The top samples sold of these filaments for the month of May are as follows.

• FlexiFill by FormFutura
• NinjaFlex by Fenner Drives
• TrueFlex by Oo-Kuma

Top Filament Manufacturers of the Month
The top filament manufacturers of the month, based on the most filament samples sold on the GlobalFSD marketplace are as follows.

• FormFutura
• colorFabb
• Taulman3D

More Statistics

GlobalFSD’s past month sales numbers once again have surpassed that of the previous month.

• Total orders placed in May were 75.
• A total of 539 filament samples were sold in May, compared to 504 in April.
• The average order placed by a customer consisted of 7.18 samples, compared to just 6.46 in April and 5.39 in March.
• The total number of new customers to place an order on GlobalFSD in May was 49, compared to 60 in April and 43 for the month of March.
• There were 26 returning customers who placed orders in May, compared to just 15 in April and 18 in March.
• Brazil, Russia, Croatia and Singapore all saw their first ever GlobalFSD orders place.

Map of Orders Placed
GlobalFSD has also released an interactive map of all the orders ever placed on the site. This map can be seen below, and it really goes to show that people from all over the world have quite a strong interest in 3D printing.

What do you think of this month’s stats? Has anything surprised you? Have you given GlobalFSD a try yet? Discuss in the GlobalFSD forum thread on 3DPB.com.