Interest in metal additive manufacturing (AM) continues to grow. Some companies are making special efforts focused specifically on metal AM.

For example, a number of powder producers are beginning to match powders with the end-use application, not just with particular print processes.

Some companies are investing in new powder production equipment to optimize the powder specifically for AM, rather than simply selling acceptable powder already produced on existing equipment (at low yields) at a very high markup.

Metal AM users are finding more variations in materials and processes as companies develop new ways to build with metal powder.

According to the latest study from SmarTech Markets Publishing, the market for additive manufacturing (AM) of metal powders will generate revenues of around $1.2 Billion in 2021 going on to reach $2.4 Billion in 2025.  This new report is titled “Additive Manufacturing with Metal Powders 2016: An Opportunity Analysis and Ten-Year Forecast.”

Asia is one of the bigger markets for AM, and is forecast to account for $316 Million in metals powders by 2021. In 2015, the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration approved the use of additively manufactured hip replacement cups manufactured in China and the Chinese military has used a variety of metal AM technologies to manufacture critical components for military aircraft.

Materials covered in this report comprise steels, cobalt chrome, nickel alloys, titanium alloys, aluminum, copper alloys, and precious metals.  AM technologies analyzed include laser-based metal powder bed fusion, electron-based metal powder bed fusion, blown powder-based directed energy deposition systems, and metal powder binder jetting systems.

Leslie Langnau
llangnau@wtwhmedia.com