The Inkjet Opportunity in Rapid Prototyping

The world is speeding up - no doubt about it. One result of this speed up is the need to make products more rapidly. This then results in the need for rapid prototyping in order to get products to market more quickly. Past methods for rapid prototyping included casting, molding, and stamping. In the 1980s new technologies such as lamination and stereo lithography appeared to make the rapid prototyping process easier, quicker and less expensive through these additive manufacturing processes. Since then other new technologies have appeared, among them inkjet. These inkjet printers used in rapid prototyping are commonly known as three-dimensional (3D) printers. I.T. Strategies projects that vendor revenues from inkjet systems, consumables and services used for rapid prototyping will grow from $78 million in 2007 to $148 million by 2012.

3D Inkjet Printers
Minimal Worldwide Sales Projections
US $

An overriding argument for rapid prototyping systems across the range of applications up to and including short-run manufacturing is the elimination of the costs of die and tooling creation. According to Mark Hanley, president of I.T. Strategies, "This is analogous to the elimination of the plate making process in printing with digital print, except that the economies involved in manufacturing are on a greater scale where, for example, the cost of a relatively small part for an electronics system might cost $80,000, not including the delays involved in waiting for the creation of the die. Our forecasts in this area are conservative and assume an increasing share of ink jet sales against competing technologies. They also assume no major new market breakthrough, no major new vendors and an organic slackening of growth over time."