3D Printing Filament Trends & Stats for June 2015

July 3, 2015 by adlughmin 3D Printing 3D Printing Materials

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With the desktop 3D printing hardware space continuing to evolve, it seems as though every day we are covering new unique uses for the technology. While these new uses come about due to the creativity of various designers, as well as the evolution of the hardware itself, ultimately these creations rely on the various filaments that the objects are printed with. The innovation seen within the filament space as of late has been truly phenomenal and ground-breaking. With the introduction of various composites, we are now able to print out objects that look and feel similar to copper, bronze, iron, and more. Copper filaments can even be exposed to elements that create a patina finish, as can iron filaments in creating rust-like finishes. There are even conductive filaments, which allow users to actually print electronic devices on standard desktop 3D printers.

If there is one catch-22 within this ever growing market of various filaments, it would probably be the fact that there are so many filaments out there that no one could possibly afford to try them all. That is unless you know about GlobalFSD, the Global Filament Sample Depot. GlobalFSD allow owners of 3D printers to purchase 5-10 meter long samples of a huge variety of over 80 different filaments, for just pennies on the dollar.

Each month, the company releases a report with stats and figures to help us better understand the direction in which the filament space as well as the company themselves is going. This report features sales numbers, popular filaments, and more. Below you will find some of the more interesting details within the latest report.

New Products Added in June of 2015

Kai Parthy’s Laywoo D3 Flex

Last month GlobalFSD added three new products to their sample marketplace. These included LAYWOO D3 FLEX, which is an elastic wood-like filament, and LAY-PVA from Kai Parthy CC Products, as well as CF0 Carbon Fiber Reinforced ABS from Oo-kuma. These are all new composite materials which just add even more options to choose from when 3D printing your favorite designs.

Top Single Color Filament Samples Sold
The top single color filament samples sold in June were also some very unique composite materials. They included:

All of three of these filaments have been ranked very high by experts within the field, and open up quite a few new doors for printing with different textures and material properties.

Top Multiple Color Filament Samples Sold
While composite materials remain exciting within the 3D printing space, colored filaments that can perform different tasks have been popular for some time. Fenner Drives and Recreus are two companies that specialize in creating multiple color flexible filaments that provide for less rigid printed parts, as well as parts which can act as buffers, impact absorbers, gaskets, and seals. We have really begun to see a lot of designers get creative when printing with these popular flexible filaments. The top 3 multiple color samples sold in June are, no surprise, flexible and semi-flexible materials. They are as follows:

Top Filament Manufacturers for June
GlobalFSD’s top filament manufacturers, by samples sold, for the month of June looks very similar to last month’s top list, with FormFutura and colorFabb making an appearance once again. The top 3 this month are as follows:

More Stats
For yet another consecutive month, GlobalFSD’s total orders placed have increased. Here are some noteworthy stats for the month of June:

Total orders place in June were 78, eclipsing last month’s total of 75.
A total of 464 individual samples were sold during the month.
The average number of samples per order placed in June consisted of 5.98 different sample types. This compares to last month’s average of 7.18 samples.
The month of June saw a total of 58 new customers place an order on GlobalFSD.
There were 20 repeat customers who had previously purchased filament from the marketplace.
The very first orders were placed from several new countries this past month, including Hungary, Colombia, South Africa, South Korea ,and Croatia. We didn’t even know 3D printing was that popular in some of these locations.

It is worth noting that many users took advantage of a special 5% discount code currently being offered on 3DPrint.com. That code is “3DGBL5” and it can be redeemed now. Also the GlobalFSD Filament Database, which launched in May of 2015, continues to evolve, with now over 45 different samplings documented.

What do you think about this month’s numbers? Which of these filaments have you enjoyed testing out? Have you made a purchase on GlobalFSD yet? Discuss in the GlobalFSD forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the map of orders placed on GlobalFSD below.