1、 Development background: policy-driven 3D printing industry strengthens technological innovation
From the perspective of global 3D printing industry scale, China ranks second in the global 3D printing industry scale and regional structure, accounting for 17%, due to the early growth of the 3D printing industry and the shortage of relevant core technologies and cutting-edge talents. In order to better promote the development of the 3D printing industry, China has issued a series of measures. In the 2021 Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Reduction of Losses and Efficiency in the Processing of Agricultural Products, it is proposed to use new technologies such as intelligent manufacturing, biosynthesis and 3D printing to integrate and assemble a batch of agricultural products processing processes and supporting equipment with high technology content, wide application range, grain saving, water saving and energy saving, and reduce the energy consumption of agricultural products processing. In the "Key Points of Agricultural, Rural, Science, Education, Environment and Energy Work 2019" released in 2019, it was proposed to accelerate the research and development of agricultural intelligent technologies such as big data, cloud computing, 3D printing, and form the advantages of independent innovation in emerging fields.
2、 Development status: downstream applications are extensive, and the industry market scale continues to grow
With the increasing variety of upstream raw materials, it has greatly promoted the expansion of the application field of the 3D printing industry, and also promoted the expansion of the consumer market of the industry to the high-end manufacturing market. At present, the application fields of China's 3D printing industry mainly include engineering machinery, aerospace, automobile, consumer&electronics, medical&dental, academic institutions, government&military, architecture, and others. In construction machinery. Its market size has been further expanded. According to statistics, the market size of China's 3D printing industry has an obvious upward trend. In 2017, the market size was only 9.8 billion yuan. By 2021, the 3D printing market size reached 26.5 billion yuan, an increase of 16.7 billion yuan. It is expected to maintain the growth trend in 2022, with the market size reaching 34.45 billion yuan.
3、 Enterprise pattern: enterprise revenue rose and R&D investment increased
From the perspective of the distribution of enterprise competition levels, Plait and Xianlin 3D are in the second tier, with operating revenue of more than 500 million. In the first three quarters of 2022, Plait's total operating revenue was 520 million yuan; Xianlin 3D's main business income reached 548 million yuan. Among them, Platinum is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the manufacturing of industrial grade metal additives. Its main business income is mainly products in the 3D industry, and its R&D investment is also showing a growth trend. By 2021, the company's R&D investment will reach 114 million yuan, accounting for 20.69% of the total business income. Xianlin 3D is a scientific and technological innovation enterprise focusing on high-precision 3D digital software and hardware technology based on computer vision. 3D printing is one of its products. In 2021, the operating revenue of 3D printing products will account for about 8% of the total operating revenue. The company's R&D investment will be 144 million yuan, accounting for 25.37% of the total operating revenue.
4、 Development trend: The application field of 3D industry continues to expand, and sustainable development is the top priority of the industry
In the future, the global 3D printing industry will still be in a period of rapid growth, while China continues to break through technical barriers, and the industry continues to grow, entering a period of large-scale industrialization. There is a strong demand for metal 3D printing in the fields of aerospace, automobile, navigation, nuclear industry and medical devices, and the application side shows a rapid expansion trend. As the country gradually attaches importance to the protection of the environment, the development of the industry has gradually changed in line with the policy trend. Engineers and designers will rethink the design throughout the product life cycle to achieve the structural integration of parts, reduce material consumption and waste by producing lightweight parts with complex geometric shapes, further reduce the weight of vehicles and aircraft, improve fuel efficiency, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. Moreover, as more and more manufacturers transmit digital files to local production, Instead of delivering goods by transporting goods in remote places, transportation will be greatly reduced, thus further reducing costs, energy consumption, waste and emissions.
Key words: 3D printing, application field, enterprise pattern, development trend
1、 Development background: policy-driven 3D printing industry strengthens technological innovation
From the perspective of the global 3D printing industry scale, the global 3D printing market scale will reach US $15244 million in 2021, with the United States accounting for 40% of the global share, which is currently the main concentration of 3D printing enterprises; Due to the early growth of the 3D printing industry in China, the lack of relevant core technologies and cutting-edge talents has seriously restricted the development of the current 3D printing industry in China, ranking the second in the scale and regional structure of the global 3D printing industry, accounting for 17%.
Under the tide of global digital manufacturing, intelligent robots, artificial intelligence and 3D printing technology have been continuously developed. Although China's 3D printing technology is insufficient and the industry is still immature, it has shown its unique advantages in product design, complex and special product production, and personalized services. Therefore, China fully recognizes the profound impact of intelligent manufacturing and digital manufacturing on China and accelerates the development of 3D printing industry, Promote the transformation of China from an "industrial power" to an "industrial power". In 2021, the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Reduction of Losses and Efficiency in the Processing of Agricultural Products proposed to use new technologies such as intelligent manufacturing, biosynthesis and 3D printing to integrate and assemble a batch of agricultural products processing processes and equipment with high scientific and technological content, wide application range, grain saving, water saving and energy saving, so as to reduce the material consumption and energy consumption of agricultural products processing. In the Overall Plan of Shanghai's Comprehensive Pilot Program for Expanding the Opening of the Service Industry, in order to strengthen the function of the national digital service export base, encourage it to develop the leading industries such as integrated circuits, digital culture, artificial intelligence, information security, etc., actively layout the emerging fields such as 3D printing and big data, and accelerate the gathering of a number of digital service enterprises with global influence. In the "Key Points of Agricultural, Rural, Science, Education, Environment and Energy Work 2019" released in 2019, it was proposed to accelerate the research and development of agricultural intelligent technologies such as big data, cloud computing, 3D printing, and form the advantages of independent innovation in emerging fields.
2、 Development status: downstream applications are extensive, and the industry market scale continues to grow
3D printing is a kind of rapid prototyping technology, also known as additive manufacturing. It is a technology based on digital model files, using powder metal or plastic and other adhesive materials to construct objects through layer-by-layer printing. From the perspective of 3D printing industry chain, the upstream industries mainly include raw materials, core hardware and auxiliary tools; The midstream mainly includes equipment manufacturers and 3D printing service providers; Downstream industries are mainly used in machinery manufacturing, aerospace, automobile, medical treatment, education, military, culture, etc. Special applications include biology, food, architecture, portrait printing, etc.
3D printing materials are one of the midstream links supporting 3D printing. According to statistics, 3D printing materials are mainly divided into metal materials and non-metallic materials. Metal materials mainly exist in the form of powder, while non-metallic materials are relatively widely used, mainly including engineering plastics, photosensitive resins, synthetic rubber, ceramics and other non-metallic materials. Engineering plastics are the most widely used 3D printing materials at present, with the characteristics of impact resistance, heat resistance, aging resistance, etc; Liquid photosensitive resin is widely used in manufacturing parts with high precision due to its fast curing rate, high temperature resistance and photosensitivity; Synthetic rubber has good tensile strength and is mainly used in medical equipment, automobile interior and other fields; Ceramics have good chemical stability and strong corrosion resistance, and are widely used in aerospace, biological industry and other fields.
With the increasing variety of upstream raw materials, it has greatly promoted the expansion of the application field of the 3D printing industry, and also promoted the expansion of the consumer market of the industry to the high-end manufacturing market. At present, the application fields of China's 3D printing industry mainly include engineering machinery, aerospace, automobile, consumer&electronics, medical&dental, academic institutions, government&military, architecture, and others. In the field of construction machinery, the application of 3D printing technology is mainly reflected in the 3D printing additive technology, the combination with CNC technology, and the change of the machinery manufacturing pattern, which plays an important role in improving the overall production efficiency and reducing production costs; In aerospace, 3D printing technology can rapidly manufacture some complex parts and repair existing parts; In the field of automobile, it can be applied to the research and development of automobile shape design. It can print out the model in a short time. At the same time, it can quickly make parts with complex shapes and realize small batch customization of parts.
The continuous improvement of 3D printing technology under the influence of policies, coupled with the rapid development of downstream industries, has led to a surge in demand for 3D printing equipment, which has led to further expansion of the industry's market scale. According to statistics, the market size of China's 3D printing industry has an obvious upward trend. In 2017, the market size was only 9.8 billion yuan. By 2021, the 3D printing market size reached 26.5 billion yuan, an increase of 16.7 billion yuan. It is expected to maintain the growth trend in 2022, and the market size will reach 34.45 billion yuan. From the perspective of the revenue of the subdivided fields in 2021, the revenue of 3D printing equipment accounted for more than 50%, ranking first. It can be seen that its equipment is the main part of the 3D printing industry, followed by 21% of the revenue of 3D printing services and 16% of the revenue of materials.
With the continuous promotion and popularization of 3D printing technology, the sales volume of 3D printing equipment for personal consumption has increased rapidly. According to China's customs data, China's export volume of 3D printing will be 2.873 million in 2021, an increase of 13% over 2020; The export volume in the first three quarters of 2022 was 1.452 million units, an increase of 25 percentage points over the same period in 2021. From the data of recent years, China's export of 3D printing has been on the rise. In 2017-2020, the export volume increased from 656000 units to 2539000 units. With the increasing base, its growth rate decreased from 85% in 2017 to 42% in 2019, and then increased to 77% in 2020.
With the continuous support of national policies, the technology of 3D printing industry has been continuously developed, thus promoting the increase of patent applications in 3D printing industry. From the perspective of the number of 3D printing patent applications, the number of 3D printing patent applications in China has been on a rising trend in 2017-2020, from 5718 in 2017 to 7501 in 2020, and by 2021, the number of patent applications has gradually declined to 6618, down 12% from 2020. The number of patent applications in 2022 is also on a downward trend, to 3597, down 3021 from 2021.
3、 Enterprise pattern: enterprise revenue rose and R&D investment increased
In 2021, there were 50 enterprises in China's 3D printing industry with a revenue of more than 100 million yuan. The total annual revenue of these 50 enterprises was about 11 billion yuan, while in 2020, there were only 32 related enterprises with a revenue of more than 100 million yuan, up 56% year on year. From the perspective of the distribution of enterprise competition levels, Creative 3D and Vertical Cube are in the first tier, with operating revenue of more than 1 billion yuan; Located in the second tier are Bulit, Xianlin 3D and Liantai Technology, with operating revenue of more than 500 million; The third tier is Guanghua Weiye and Jinshi 3D, with operating revenue of more than 200 million. It can be seen that the gap between the top enterprises and the second and third tier is not large; Verari and Aurora Technologies are located in the fourth tier, with an operating income of more than 50 million yuan.
Bulit is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the manufacturing of industrial grade metal additives, and its overall strength is in a leading position in the field of metal additive manufacturing at home and abroad. Focusing on the metal additive manufacturing industry chain, the company carries out the research and development, production and sales of metal 3D printing equipment, metal 3D printing customized products and metal 3D printing raw materials, and also provides customers with metal 3D printing process design and development and related technical services. From the perspective of the total operating revenue of the company, in 2017-2021, the operating revenue of the company increased from 220 million yuan in 2017 to 552 million yuan in 2021, and the total operating revenue of the company was 520 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2022. Xianlin 3D is a scientific and technological innovation enterprise focusing on high-precision 3D digital software and hardware technology based on computer vision. It is mainly engaged in the research, development, production and sales of dental digitalization and professional 3D scanning equipment and software. The total operating revenue is on the rise from 2017 to 2021. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 in 2020, the main business revenue declined, and gradually increased to 567 million yuan in 2021. By the first three quarters of 2022, The company's main business income reached 548 million yuan. In terms of 3D printing, the dental 3D printer is a dental digital product independently developed by the company. Its operating revenue has dropped from 190 million yuan in 2019 to 46 million yuan in 2021.
From the perspective of the gross profit rate of enterprises, the gross profit rate of the two enterprises, Platinum and Xianlin 3D, is on the rise as a whole. The gross profit rate of Platinum has increased from 2017 to 2020, reaching the highest level in recent years in 2020, at 52.72%. By 2021, the gross profit rate has gradually declined to 48.23%. The gross profit rate of Xianlin 3D decreased in 2019, from 51.98% in 2018 to 49.17% in 2019. After that, the gross profit rate gradually increased. By 2021, the gross profit rate of Xianlin 3D increased to 59.87%, up 10.20% from 2020.
From the perspective of enterprise R&D investment, Plait adheres to the strategic direction of industry-university-research integration. At present, it has significant competitive advantages in many aspects. During 2017-2021, Plait's R&D investment has been growing. By 2021, the company's R&D investment has reached 114 million yuan, accounting for 20.69% of the total operating revenue. Through independent research and development, Xianlin 3D can improve the extensibility and stability of 3D printing equipment, facilitate the improvement of subsequent research and development capabilities, and facilitate the docking of upstream and downstream raw materials and software, as well as the upgrading and upgrading of software and products. Its research and development investment will be reduced by the epidemic in 2020, and will rise to 144 million yuan by 2021, accounting for 25.37% of the total operating income.
Relevant report: Report on the Development Model Analysis and Future Prospect Planning of China's 3D Printing Industry in 2023-2029 issued by Smart Research Consulting
4、 Development trend: The application field of 3D industry continues to expand, and sustainable development is the top priority of the industry
1. The demand continues to expand, and the development potential of 3D printing industry in the future is huge
As we all know, scientific and technological innovation plays a crucial role in the development of all walks of life, as does the 3D printing industry. With the development and promotion of global 3D technology, the demand for 3D printing material industry is increasing, and the particularity of 3D printing industry technology is highly dependent on the material industry, which makes the market participants of 3D printing material industry gradually increase, the industry profits increase, and the technical barriers of 3D printing material will also further increase. It can be seen that the industry still needs to increase R&D investment to expand the application field of 3D printing industry. It is expected that the global 3D printing industry will still be in a period of rapid growth in the next decade, while China's industry will continue to grow and enter a period of large-scale industrialization in the process of constantly breaking through technical barriers. There is a strong demand for metal 3D printing in the fields of aerospace, automobile, navigation, nuclear industry and medical devices, and the application side shows a rapid expansion trend
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