EOS leads a group of key players in metal AM, according to the latest VoxelMatters Metal AM Market Report 2023 that was released on December 4th.
If we combine revenues from all core AM segments (hardware, materials, and services), all of the top 10 metal AM companies by revenue in 2023 are hardware manufacturers. This is one of the key findings from VoxelMatters Research’s latest Metal AM Market 2023 report, which was released last week.
Most of these hardware companies are also first-party metal AM material suppliers to their customers (and sometimes third-party suppliers of materials for other types of hardware as well). Three out of ten of them are also leading metal AM service providers (using mainly their own technologies). Out of these top ten companies, nine offer hardware based on metal L-PBF technology.
Desktop Metal is the only company out of the top 10 that does not offer PBF hardware. The company founded by Ric Fulop is also one of two companies on the list offering metal binder jetting (and the only one generating significant revenues with this technology today). Two companies on this list, DMG Mori and TRUMPF, offer DED (powder-based L-DED) technology, along with metal L-PBF, while one company, GE Additive, offers EB-PBF and binder jetting technologies, also along with L-PBF.
Some of the revenue data that has been collected by VoxelMatters includes both estimates and confidential information provided by the companies so it cannot be disclosed in detail. However, some of the data is also available from public sources so we can say with a high degree of confidence that the order of magnitude and the companies’ positioning in this list is highly accurate.
From EOS on down
EOS, a provider of both metal L-PBF AM hardware and metal AM powder materials for L-PBF, is the largest company in the world, generating approximately $150 million from its metal AM-related activities according to VoxelMatters’ own estimates and sources. The other top three contenders in this space include SLM Solutions and 3D Systems, both of which have risen to the top of the list because they can complement their hardware offering with sales of materials and – in the case of 3D Systems – services.
While 3D Systems sold its industrial part manufacturing business to Quickparts, the company can also count on revenues generated by its Belgium-based metal AM service business for healthcare (implants) from the Layerwise acquisition almost a decade ago.
The next group of three companies sees a more varied range of companies. The fourth largest company by revenue is Desktop Metal. Even though the company has been struggling since going public, its business foundation is solid as it combines revenues generated by its hardware business, including various metal binder jetting technologies (some inherited from the acquisition of ExOne) as well as proprietary bound metal printing hardware solutions. Desktop Metal revenue also comes from services offered via ExOne’s service centers and smaller acquisitions such as Aidro.
The fifth company by overall revenue, GE Additive, is the only one offering three different hardware technologies: L-PBF (through the acquisition of Concept Laser), EB-PBF (through the acquisition of Arcam), and metal binder jetting via internal development. GE also offers metal AM powders via AP&C (acquired via Arcam). GE’s additive operations have so far obtained mixed results. The company made a huge investment ($1.4 billion) to acquire Concept Laser and Arcam and it encountered many difficulties in expanding the market for these technologies, especially Concept Laser’s L-PBF.
Now the company’s binder jetting technology has been several years in the making but only a handful of systems have so far been installed globally. The overall GE group also went through some challenging times but is now back on the upswing and AM activities may benefit from this. The sixth company, Bright Laser Technologies (or BLT), is the largest Chinese company and the only major Chinese company to offer metal AM hardware (L-PBF), metal AM powders, and metal AM services.
Read the rest of this story at VoxelMatters
