MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Carbon

2018 was a big year for the 3DP/AM industry as the field showed signs of bifurcation to now include clear capabilities for digital manufacturing at scale. The powerful convergence of hardware, software, and molecular science is enabling production at a scale the industry hasn’t seen before. At Carbon, we launched the largest digital fabrication example in history with the launch of the adidas Futurecraft 4D franchise. More than 100,000 pairs of 4D running shoes were fabricated and we are on track to manufacture into the millions in 2019. Other customers of ours also have examples of manufacturing with our Digital Light Synthesis™ technology, which will be announced in the first half of 2019. These production examples in the aggregate have triggered an important tipping point for the industry: we now see, for the first time, a cost-down curve with volume in the digital manufacturing world akin to the cost down-curve with volume that everyone relies on in the injection molding industry.  As a result, Carbon was able to take the price of our large volume resins from $300/L to $150/L last year to an unprecedented $50/L here in 2018.

The competitiveness of our technology for manufacturing has driven adoption: we nearly doubled our network of global production partners, which now spans across four continents, fueled by continued pushes into verticals like dental, automotive and healthcare. Not only did we see growth in the market for mass manufacturing, but we also saw companies really start to rethink how they design their products and parts, opening up a whole new world of design freedom. One example of this was Carbon’s work with Vitamix. Together with our production partner The Technology House, Carbon reimagined part design and production to develop an innovative micro-fluidic nozzle at mass scale that is 10 times more durable, uses 30 percent less material, and is 33 percent more economical, all while reducing the number of parts that needed to be produced from six to one. This is a truly remarkable time for Carbon and for the industry.

In 2019, the industry will continue the swift movement into mass manufacturing on a global scale. The industry will start to see injection molding as the printing press of manufacturing and look to digital-first solutions. As more companies start to understand the true value of Carbon Digital Light Synthesis™ as a mass manufacturing solution, we’ll continue to see exponential growth with industries like aerospace/defense coming into the fold while others, like automotive, healthcare, and consumer goods, continue expanding their use of the technology. With that growth will come a wide range of new materials to address new types of applications. At Carbon, we work closely with each of our customers and partners to understand their individual needs, and develop new materials that can be used to produce durable, functional, end-use parts. In 2018, we developed several new materials to push further into industries like healthcare, consumer goods, and automotive, and we’ll continue to develop more innovative materials in 2019. As we do that, we will be thoughtful in how we develop them, and our hope is that the industry will work together to establish standards and coordination when it comes to sustainability for digital manufacturing. We want to ensure we’re creating a sustainable future, and we’re in a very unique position to do that. There is a huge opportunity here for us to create something that can have a lasting impact, and Carbon is committed to doing that in 2019 and beyond. In total, these advances in capability will enable the traditional 3DP/AM industry to go from a modest $10B industry to a multi-hundred billion digital manufacturing juggernaut!

Tags: Industry Predictions

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