Hubs Report 2023: What Do We Know About the State of AM Over the Past Year?

We all know that 3D printing just keeps growing. Now we have seen it once again in the Hubs Report 2023, which took a close look at the additive manufacturing market over the past year. The report includes exciting metrics and information around the latest trends in 3D printing, future forecasts, evaluation of current applications, to inspection of market growth and the role of sustainability in additive manufacturing. We took a closer look at the key points for this year.

According to the report, the average market size, which includes all sales of systems, software, materials, and services related to 3D printing, is $17 billion with a growth rate of 13%, and is projected to grow as much as 17% in 2023. Showing the continued health of the industry. Indeed, a survey conducted in February 2023 with over 1,000 respondents confirms this growth. 71% of respondents said they produced significantly more parts with 3D printing in 2022 than in the previous year. Only 8% indicated that their production numbers of 3D printed parts had decreased since 2021.

71% of participants said they 3D printed more parts in 2022 than the previous year.

As far as the 3D printing applications of 2023 are concerned, prototyping re-emerged as the most popular application of 3D printing technologies with around 66% of participant votes. This is followed by toolmaking, small batch production, customer-specific mass production and series production. Not surprisingly, the most favored printing technology is the FDM/FFF process with 56% of the participants’ votes. Followed by SLA (Stereolithography), SLS (Selective Laser Sintering), MJF (MultiJet Fusion) and SLM (Selective Laser Melting), with the methods representing the top five most popular printing methods of 2023.