The consumer market is stuck until something can break the current inertia in material pricing for the equipment.
By Dr. Ron L. Hollis, P.E., President & CEO, Quickparts.comThe consumer market is the current nirvana for the manufacturers of additive manufacturing, commonly known as rapid prototyping, and their loyal service providers.
Only in the last few years did this market really get attention with the evolution of the social systems of the Internet, such as Facebook, MySpace, etc., which have made it easy to communicate with anyone.
However, no one has made this market profitable. Everyone is still in the “wait and see” mode while they try to stay in business with their current ways while keeping an eye on the market.
There are a few that have put their toe in the water to try to be closer to the action and continue to accept the losses that come. Most of the examples of success in the market are more about the desire for there to be something exciting and new in this emerging market, than the reality of a few small businesses with limited revenue and true profits.
But the stories are cool and the pioneers want to believe. Nothing fans the flames of hopes and wishes more than when some of the big boys, such as the gaming giant, EA, announce their involvement in the industry. Or when some smart NY investors make a sizeable investment in a business where the future is still being developed and the true scale and profits are not obtainable with the current challenges for the market.
This smart NY investor is now asking, “So, what are these challenges again?” Great news, there are only a couple of minor challenges that need to be addressed and the consumer market will be able to open up, and become a mammoth market of potential.
I say ‘minor challenges’ because they are common in the evolution of many markets. The challenges for consumer market today are not really the additive fabrication manufacturing processes, which are not great but acceptable, or the consumer interaction with social systems. It all comes down to price and input.
Prices of parts from the processes are significantly prohibitive for the consumer market because of the cost of materials.
While this is no real secret, it is the area that most companies trying to be the providers are accepting even though it is a stranglehold on their success.The only companies that can really fix the problem are the makers of the materials, which are the equipment manufacturers, such as Stratasys, Z Corp, etc., in most cases. These guys have no motivation to reduce their current 100 percent-plus profit margins on the bet that the consumer market will make up the difference in lost profit. There are some of these companies that would die before the market evolved.
The consumer market is stuck until something can break the current inertia in material pricing for the equipment. This could be with new equipment, new players, or new business units.
The companies today that are trying to build the consumer market are managing the challenge by using the manufacturing processes with the cheapest materials and then pushing their market to buy the smallest parts. While this is logical, it also inhibits the mass adoption with such a low-value proposition that it keeps the market in the early stages with early adopters.
However, the biggest challenge for the consumer market may not be price. Without the ability to easily create the input data for the processes, it does not matter how much they cost. Since the current technologies evolved out of the engineering world, the input data were established from CAD and is still the dominant source for input for all of these technologies. CAD can be expensive, but more importantly, it can be hard to learn, which makes it a challenge for a mass market not made up of engineers.
There have been efforts from the leading software companies to develop very easy-to-learn systems, but they have not made it in the market. I remember years ago SolidWorks made a great effort to introduce a product for kids that was fun and easy to use; it was called Cosmic Blobs — and was very cool. However, it was a failed attempt and is now defunct.
Perhaps it was market timing or business execution. Regardless, for the consumer market to ever take off, there must be an easy way for data input to be generated or it will stay stuck in the land of the tech-savvy early adopters, which today seems to be mostly the artistic folks (which, by the way, have produced some amazing products).
The dream of mass customization and the ability for every consumer to be able to make their own parts is still in the future. It is viable and we get closer every day. However, there are a couple more challenges that need to be addressed before the market can be fully educated on their options in order to get the desired “hockey-stick” growth.
Unfortunately, the players in the market today have no real ability to address or overcome these challenges. They can only wait and hope they can last long enough for them to be solved.
This industry needs the Henry Ford of additive fabrication to overcome these challenges with desire, innovation, and courage.
If you would like to know more about the technologies used in this market today, check out the Quickparts.com encyclopedia (www.quickparts.com) for more information or get a hot copy of Better Be Running! Tools to Drive Design Success at www.betterberunning.com.
