I am pleased to announce the availability of Rapid Prototyping & Tooling
State of the Industry: 1998 Worldwide Progress Report. I have included the
report's table of contents below. More information is available at
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~wohlers. Let me know if anyone has any
questions.
Terry Wohlers
Wohlers Associates, Inc.
OakRidge Business Park
1511 River Oak Drive
Fort Collins, Colorado 80525 USA
(970) 225-0086
Fax (970) 225-2027
twohlers@compuserve.com
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~wohlers
Rapid Prototyping & Tooling State of the Industry:
1998 Worldwide Progress Report
By Terry Wohlers
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Focus of this report
Introduction to rapid prototyping and tooling
Summary of 1997
Growth into other countries
3D printers for concept modeling
Rapid tooling
Challenges for the future
History of RP systems
Industries being served
How RP models are being used
Installations by country
Time-to-market pressures
Communication
Engineering changes
Producing good ideas and powerful proposals
Developing concept models
Getting early input from suppliers, tool makers
Prototypes and prototype tooling
Metal castings
Verifying CAD databases
CAD databases
Styling, ergonomic studies
Requesting quotes
Packaging and shipping
Critical-to-function drawings
Downturn in the RP industry
Revenue growth
Secondary market
Product sales
Revenue from services
Service bureau market
Other service revenues
Unit sales
3D regains the lead
Systems sold by region in 1997
Cumulative systems sold by region
Units sold by US manufacturers in 1997
Units sold by Japanese manufacturers in 1997
1997 unit sales by manufacturer
Cumulative unit sales by manufacturer
Unit sales by vendor and year
Growth trends and sales forecasts
Unit sales growth percentages
Worldwide revenue estimates
Annual revenue growth percentages
Comparing growth of RP and CNC machining
Service bureaus
Concentration of service bureaus
Working with service bureaus
Times have changed
What’s driving prices downward?
Challenges ahead
Temporary market saturation
Second wave of service bureaus
Mix of RP machines
Prototype tooling
Silicone rubber tooling
Direct AIM tooling
Aluminum-filled epoxy tooling
Spray metal tooling
Cast kirksite tooling
SLS RapidTool
3D Keltool
Prototype tooling selection guide
New approaches to metal tooling
Competing against machined tooling
ExpressTool
CEMCOM
Dynamic Tooling
DMLS from EOS
ExtrudeHone
PHAST
Size of tooling market
RP materials
Stereolithography resins
Materials for other RP processes
Software for RP
Bridgeworks and SolidView
MAGICS, CT-Modeller
Rapid Prototyping Module
Rapid Tools
StlView
3D View
Velocity2
US system manufacturers
3D Systems
Aaroflex
DTM
Helisys
Sanders Prototype
Stratasys
What does a 3D printed model cost?
Z Corporation
Schroff Development
What happened to BPM?
RP stock values
RP stock indices
P/E ratios
Value of the US dollar
Europe
EU support
RP-related groups and associations
EuroMold
Next-day models
Fraunhofer activities
EOS
Fockele & Schwarze
Japan
Markets embracing RP
Unit sales growth
Unit installations
Trends in Japan
Obstacles to RP growth
Clinging to home-grown software
Tooling and high-speed machining in Japan
System developers from other regions
Cubital
Kinergy
New system developments
LENS technology at SNL
Directed Light Fabrication at LANL
Fraunhofer's Laser Generating
Topographic Shell Fabrication
MIT
Offset Fabrication
US government sponsored R&D programs
NSF funding
DARPA, ONR, NASA
RP education
Overcoming hurdles
Research activities
Trends in CAD/CAM/CAE
ACIS versus Parasolid
Windows compatibility
CAD unit installations
Software for industrial design
Machining STL files
Hardware and operating systems
UNIX sites willing to consider PCs
The Internet
Medical modeling
Skull model of young boy
Example models
Endoscopy project
Cervical spine pilot study
Reverse engineering
How the technology works
Laser digitizing systems
What works, what doesn’t
Other suggestions
Where’s it all headed?
Risks, land mines
Outlook
In some form, the technology is here to stay
Rapid manufacturing
The future
The challenge of prediction
3D printing
Virtual prototyping
Systems of the future
Future applications
Final comments
Where to learn more
Internet mail list
RPA/SME
Appendix A: Glossary of terms
Appendix B: Addresses of RP system manufacturers
United States
Israel and Europe
Japan
Singapore
Appendix C: Rapid tooling technology developers
Appendix D: RP software companies
Appendix E: US RP systems
Appendix F: RP systems outside the US
Appendix G: 3D digitizing systems
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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