An article where I complain about the miserable poverty in the AM industry
The Atomic Layers: S7E1 (00179)
Atomic Layer of the Day:
Today, I wanted to write an article about the poor state of media in the AM industry. But as I was organizing my thoughts, every argument led to the same conclusion—things are the way they are for one reason and one reason only: poverty.
Guys, if I told you some of the stories I’ve heard and experienced myself, you wouldn’t believe me. Maybe one day I will, but seriously… Some of the offers out there are downright insulting. Humiliating. AM companies allocate such tiny budgets for media activities that every major publication has to do something extra just to survive.
Writing takes a back seat. The same goes for editors—even the most well-known ones. Every recognizable name in this industry is doing something on the side that, while still AM-related, is not pure journalism.
But this isn’t the fault of the media or the people working in it. It’s not about greed—it’s about chronic underfunding. When writing about AM becomes a side gig, you can’t expect top-tier quality…
One day, I’ll come back to this topic and share some truly shocking stories.
But today, I’m going to complain about the metal AM sector—and, by extension, the entire industry.
As you know, this week, the latest VoxelMatters report, Metal AM Market 2025, hit the market, and I had the pleasure of contributing to it. I wrote about it here:
It contains a wealth of valuable—yet, from my perspective, disappointing—information. Specifically, the number of systems sold worldwide. The figures are really dismal. If you compare them to the CNC market, the entire additive manufacturing industry looks like building a car out of LEGO bricks compared to assembling a real car. In other words, just playing around.
Yes, the percentage growth looks great. Year-over-year and even decade-over-decade growth appears impressive, both historically and in forecasts. The market will continue to grow—nothing will stop it. Not even hypothetical regulations requiring 3D printers to be registered as “firearm manufacturing devices.”
But the actual numbers are still small. Unfortunately, I can’t disclose them—they’re in the VoxelMatters report—but I can try to illustrate the situation with EOS as an example.
You might remember that in mid-January, EOS announced the installation of its 5000th 3D printer in its 36-year history. Important note: this figure includes all types of 3D printers—both for metal powders (DMLS) and polymer powders (SLS).
Then, last Thursday (January 30), we celebrated the 7th anniversary of the EOS facility in Maisach-Gerlinden. On this occasion, EOS announced that they had sold 3,000 3D printers.
So, in seven years, they sold 2,000 machines. That’s an average of 285.71 printers per year.
Remember the data from Davide Sher’s article teasing the report? Go back and check. Pretty eye-opening, right?
Now, do you know how many CNC machines the biggest manufacturers sell annually?
Haas Automation (USA) – approx. 20,000–25,000 CNC machines per year
DMG Mori (Germany/Japan) – approx. 15,000–20,000 CNC machines per year
Mazak (Japan) – approx. 10,000–15,000 CNC machines per year
Okuma (Japan) – approx. 7,000–10,000 CNC machines per year
Makino, Doosan, Fanuc, Hurco, Hyundai WIA, Brother, Chiron – several thousand each per year
"But you can’t compare these things at all. They are completely different manufacturing technologies. You don’t compare car sales to train sales just because both transport people from one place to another! You don’t compare drone sales to airplane sales just because both fly! What kind of nonsense is this? What kind of ridiculous comparison?"
Okay, so what should I compare metal 3D printer sales to? To nothing? Just so the year-over-year growth figures always look good?
Do I look like a keynote speaker at the “most important AM conference of the year,” spewing usual propaganda nonsense?
The money in this business is small, and everyone is saving. The money for media is a fraction of what media covering “real manufacturing technologies” receive.
And to finally wrap up this rather depressing Saturday article, I’d like to highlight my past article that give a broader perspective on this issue.
Good night and good luck.
Atomic Layer from the Past:
02-01-2016: Markforged introduced the Mark Two 3D printer.
News & Gossip:
San Diego-based Firestorm Labs has filed a lawsuit against RapidFlight over false patent infringement claims regarding its 3D-printed Tempest drone. Firestorm alleges RapidFlight used baseless legal threats to stifle competition. The company seeks a court declaration of non-infringement, legal fees, and additional relief in this ongoing AM industry IP dispute.
Remember how a few weeks ago I wrote that something moved in Zortrax because the share price rose significantly. Well, it fell back to historical lows. Sigh… Not even worth talking about...
If you haven't had a chance to do it yet, I encourage you to listen to my premiere podcast with Jonathan Jaglom. It's still far more optimistic than this article…
Do you think the AM sector is overall underfunded because the Manufacturing VCs don't believe in the technique? I presume the underfunding of the industry has a lot to do with less money in media and publications for the sector? Even stock markets kind of point to this if you look at MLFG,DM and VELO?