Titanium Metal Ignites 3D Printing, Welcoming a Critical Turning Point in the Trillion-Dollar Potential Market

Overall, 3D printing is a combination of information network technology, advanced material technology and digital manufacturing technology, and the manufacturing process spans multiple disciplines, covering machinery, materials, software, electronics, design, computer vision, etc. 3D printing is a digital manufacturing technology that directly forms three-dimensional complex structures by stacking materials layer by layer in two dimensions. Compared to traditional manufacturing methods, additive manufacturing is best suited for low-volume applications, complex designs, and where speed is critical.

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At this stage, China's 3D printing is still dominated by engineering plastics, resins and some common metal materials. These raw materials used in 3D printing are specially developed for 3D printing equipment and processes, which are different from ordinary plastics, gypsum, resins, etc., and their forms are generally powdered, filamentous, lamellar, liquid, etc. In terms of the current use of 3D printing powder materials in China, non-metallic and metallic materials roughly form a 6:4 pattern, and non-metallic materials account for most of the material market.

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Among them, metal powders are mainly common metal materials, bowl alloys, aluminum alloys and stainless steel account for a large proportion, and non-metallic powders are engineering plastics, nylons and resins; and the continuous development of bio-based degradable materials, composite materials, etc. At present, there is still a certain gap between metal 3D printing technology and traditional precision machining technology in terms of machinable materials, processing accuracy, surface roughness, processing efficiency, etc. According to Wohlers Associates, the global 3D printing output value in 2022 will be 18 billion US dollars, and the top three downstream are aerospace (17%), medical (16%) and automotive (15%); In 2021, the output value of 3D printing in China will be 26.5 billion yuan, which is mainly used in aerospace, military industry, etc., and has not formed large-scale standardized production.

1. Why does the current node bring up 3D printing?

Consumer electronics titanium alloy trend + domestic technology is mature, 3D printing will welcome large-scale industrial application.

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Due to the low thermal conductivity of titanium alloy, the traditional CNC technology processing titanium alloy tool loss, according to Aibang Polymer, the traditional CNC machining titanium alloy yield is only 30-40%. And 3D printing technology to avoid the tool cutting link, and laser and metal powder price reduction, making 3D printing titanium alloy cost gradually with CNC machining parity.

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According to Counterpoint, the machine cost of Apple Watchseries6 case is about $18, and the cost of 3D printed Ultra titanium alloy is about $15, which provides a competitive advantage at the cost end.

3D printing titanium alloy has begun to be used in Apple, Honor and other products.

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In July 2023, the hinge of HUAWEI's Honor MagicV2 folding screen mobile phone announced that it will be manufactured using titanium alloy 3D printing technology, realizing the first large-scale application of 3D printing in the field of consumer electronics. According to Bloomberg, the case of the Apple Watch Series 9 is 3D printed with stainless steel Binder Jetting; Apple Watch Ultra's digital crown, side buttons, and some other action buttons are produced using titanium powder bed laser fusion (L-PBF) metal 3D printing. If the smartwatch is successfully tested, Apple may look to use the technology on more products in the coming years.

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In September 2023, Apple released the new iPhone 15 Pro and Apple Watch Ultra2 at the autumn conference, both of which use titanium alloy materials for the bezels; In October this year, Xiaomi released the Xiaomi 14 series of mobile phones, in which the Xiaomi 14 Pro offers a special edition of titanium. Among the above 3C products that use titanium, the Honor folding screen shaft cover and the AppleWatchUltra2 case are made of a single titanium alloy, while Apple and Xiaomi mobile phones use titanium-aluminum composite materials, that is, the internal bottom plate is aluminum, and the external bezel is titanium, of which Apple mobile phones use titanium alloys, and Xiaomi mobile phones use 99% pure titanium. Compared with the aluminum alloy and stainless steel widely used in the 3C industry, the difficulty of CNC machining of titanium alloy has increased significantly, and 3D printing has become another promising alternative processing method.

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Under the demonstration effect of the head manufacturers, 3D printing technology is expected to expand to more consumer electronics products in the future, and the application of titanium alloy in the 3C industry has formed a trend.

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At the same time, the maturity of domestic manufacturers' technology has also provided a foundation for the outbreak of domestic industries.

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3D printing is divided into metal 3D printing and non-metal 3D printing, of which metal 3D printing technology PBF has been widely used in industry, and DED has formed industrial applications. The additive manufacturing process is divided into 7 categories, and different technologies usually have differences in materials, energy sources, and molding methods, of which 4 routes involve metal 3D printing, powder bed fusion PBF (including SLS, SLM, EBM, MJF) and directional energy deposition DED (including LSF, WAAM) can manufacture metal parts that meet the forging standards, which is a mature application of the technical route.

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According to Wohlers' 2022 Senvol database, 94% of the world's 1,026 metal additive manufacturing products are manufactured using PBF (902 pieces) and DED (61 pieces) technologies.

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Taking SLM, the most widely used metal 3D printing technology route, as an example, its processing principle is that the powder spreading system lays a layer of metal powder on the processing platform, and the laser sinteres and shapes the metal powder particles layer by layer. It solves the processing and manufacturing problems of complex structural parts, and is especially suitable for manufacturing difficult-to-machine titanium alloys, high-temperature alloys and other parts with complex cavity structures.

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The major equipment manufacturers of the SLM technology route include EOS, Trumpf, SLM Solutions, Concept Laser (GE), BLT, HBD,VMP,?, and Farsoon. The domestic equipment manufacturers Farsoon?and BLT have reached the international advanced level in terms of molding size, scanning speed and other indicators.

SLM: Selective laser melting

Material: Suitable for high-efficiency processing of metal powders such as stainless steel, aluminum and nickel alloys

-Multi-laser: More small parts can be produced in a single production cycle, increasing the throughput of the device

-Application: Complex geometries, reduce raw material waste.

Titanium alloy

-Properties: high strength, corrosion resistance, light

-Limitations: The thermal conductivity of titanium is very low. Heat will be stored in the tool during CNC machine tool processing, causing the tool to wear out quickly and produce a lot of waste.

-Application areas: consumer electronics, aerospace, medicine, automotive

2 In addition, the cost of 3D printing will continue to fall.

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The current price of raw material metal 3D printing powder continues to go down. Take Platinum Lite as an example, the sales price of homemade metal 3D printing powder in 2020-2022 decreased from USD203K/ton to USD110K/ton, a decrease of 46%. The downward trend is expected to remain in the future.

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Coupled with the advancement of localization of lasers, the unit price of parts and components purchases is on a downward trend, making the unit price of the 3D printing equipment end of the downward trend; as well as like Platinum Lite 2023 release of BLT-A400, BLT-S400, BLT-S450 multi-laser configuration program, from the number of lasers in the equipment, the powder circulation system, supporting software and other aspects of the improvement of the production efficiency and stability of the equipment, titanium alloys 3D printing still has a lot of space for cost reduction.

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Professional organizations to dismantle the cost of titanium alloy 3D printing, in the future of 3D printing powder material prices and 3D printing equipment price decline and 3D printing efficiency enhancement of the magnitude of prudent assumptions, found that the price of titanium alloy 3D printing link is expected to fall from the current $1 / g to $0.5 / g in 2027, a drop of nearly 50%. After the cost reduction drive, the penetration rate of 3D printing in the manufacturing of 3C titanium alloy products is expected to continue to increase.

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2. How big is the market?

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First of all, titanium alloy technology cuts into the field of consumer electronics to see the 3D market space, there are currently 3 equipment parts using titanium alloy, professional institutions estimate that the hinge by 2027 3D printing titanium alloy hinge penetration rate to 50%, the market space will reach 1 billion US dollars. In terms of mobile phone middle frames and smart watches, through the estimation of smartphone/watch shipments, and reasonable assumptions about the penetration rate, value ratio, single mobile phone usage, titanium alloy price, and powder utilization rate, it is concluded that in 2027, the global market space for smartphones and smart watches will be 7.6 billion US dollars and 1 billion US dollars, respectively, and the Chinese market will be 1.7 billion US dollars and 500 million US dollars.

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Some institutions believe that under the premise of 80% penetration rate of 3D printing folding screen titanium alloy shaft cover, 80% penetration rate of 3D printed AppleWatch titanium alloy case, and 25% penetration rate of 3D printing iPhone titanium alloy middle frame in 2027, the cumulative market size of titanium alloy 3D printing products, 3D printing equipment, 3D printing powder, 3D printing laser and 3D printing galvanometer from 2023 to 2027 will be 3.1 billion US dollars, 2.56 billion US dollars, 370 million US dollars, $150 million and $190 million.

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With the development of 3D printing technology, the application field is becoming more and more extensive, and the R&D and manufacturing of new products drive the downstream to continue to expand, and more and more fields are being transformed into additive manufacturing production.

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According to the statistics of Wohlers Associates, an American consulting agency engaged in additive manufacturing industry research, the global additive manufacturing output value (including products and services) in 2021 will be 15.244 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 19.50%. After more than 30 years of development, the additive manufacturing industry is moving from the initial stage to the growth period, and on the whole, it has shown a rapid growth trend in recent years. According to Wallers' forecast, the revenue scale of additive manufacturing is expected to reach $29.8 billion by 2025E, with a CAGR of 18.24% from 2021 to 2025E; It is expected to reach $85.3 billion by 2030E, with a CAGR of 23.41% from 2025E to 2030E.

The current global 3D printing head enterprises are mainly concentrated in the United States, China's 3D printing industry is still in the early stages of growth, the scale of China's 3D printing industry in 2021 accounted for about 17% of the world, a number of domestic patents through the application but not put into specific applications, the core technology and cutting-edge talent is the key factor restricting the development of China's current 3D printing industry.

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China attaches great importance to the development of additive manufacturing industry, in recent years, the degree of application of the domestic 3D printing market continues to deepen, in various industries have been more and more widely used.2017-2020, China's 3D printing industry scale is a year-on-year growth trend, the scale of China's 3D printing industry in 2020 was 3.26 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 32.06%. According to the forecast of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, China's 3D printing market size is expected to exceed $15.6 billion in 2026E, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 20% from 2021-

3. What are the relevant companies?

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The upstream of the 3D printing industry chain is divided into three major sectors: printing raw materials, core hardware and auxiliary operation software. Raw materials are the cornerstone of the 3D printing industry chain, and the participants are mainly leading enterprises and powder suppliers with the layout of the whole industry chain. At present, the commonly used printing materials in the industry include metals, plastics, photosensitive resins, ceramics and composite materials, and metal materials and composite materials are the future development trend. The gap between core hardware and auxiliary operation software at home and abroad is obvious, and at present, there is a diversified competition situation in China, and there is great potential for domestic substitution.

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The midstream includes 3D printing equipment manufacturing and technical services, which is the core body of the entire industrial chain. Domestic manufacturers are mainly desktop printer suppliers, industrial-grade printers are technically difficult and have high process requirements, although the number of domestic manufacturers is small, but they generally have the supply capacity of the whole industry chain.

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Downstream applications are mainly divided into direct manufacturing, design verification and prototype manufacturing, which have been widely penetrated into aerospace, automotive, medical and other fields, among which metal industrial-grade 3D printing is an important growth pole in the future.

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Among them, BLT is the core enterprise of metal 3D printing in China, and has a layout of the whole metal 3D printing industry chain. The founding team of the company is one of the earliest 3D printing R&D teams in China, which has been deeply involved in the field of metal additive for more than 20 years, and has now formed a complete product service system covering upstream raw materials, midstream equipment and downstream manufacturing of 3D printing.

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Relying on self-developed equipment, the company actively develops downstream customers in aerospace, medical and other fields, and customized products have entered the stage of small batch production. As one of the few 3D printing comprehensive solution providers in China with the supply capacity of the whole industry chain, the company's technical capabilities are leading in China, and the company is expected to fully benefit from China's continuous increase in investment and policy support for the 3D printing industry.

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Farsoon is a leading enterprise of industrial-grade 3D printing equipment in China, and has independent research and development and production capacity of materials and software. The company is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of industrial-grade additive manufacturing equipment, and provides 3D printing materials, processes and services, which are used in aerospace, automotive, medical, mold and other fields. The company is one of the few enterprises in China that has independently developed additive manufacturing industrial software and control systems and realized the industrialized mass production and sales of SLM and SLS equipment, benefiting from the rapid development of the global 3D printing industry.

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VMP is the largest metal 3D printing powder enterprise in China, mainly engaged in the research and development and production of metal 3D printing powder, VMP mainly focuses on metal powders for additive manufacturing such as superalloys, titanium alloys, die steels and aluminum alloys, and its main products have a market share in the forefront of the industry, and the autonomy rate of high-end intelligent equipment and key components is 100%, reaching the world's advanced level. The company has accumulated more than 50,000 rounds of technical data, passed ISO9001, AS9100, ISO13485 and other system certifications, obtained three types of medical registration certification, CNAS national laboratory certification, took the lead in drafting 2 national standards, participated in the formulation of 15, and obtained 111 authorized patents. After the completion of the second phase of the factory, it can produce 4,000 tons of metal powder for 3D printing per year.

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Shinning3D is a scarce target of 3D digital dentistry in China, and its 3D scanning technology is leading in China. The company has been deeply involved in the 3D printing industry for 17 years, and has independently developed a complete technology chain integrating software and hardware from 3D digital design to 3D printing manufacturing. The company's dental digital products are rich, including 3D oral scanning, 3D table scanning, dental DLP printers (including materials), CAD/CAM systems, etc., the technical advantage lies in the front-end scanning, and the self-developed scanner with high gross profit margin has become the company's main products.

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Yinbang Clad Material is a leading enterprise of high-end metal composite materials, and its subsidiary Feierkang is one of the earliest manufacturers engaged in metal 3D printing application services in China, which has been deeply involved in the aerospace business for more than ten years, building industrial production plants, and actively promoting the industrial application of 3D printing. Feierkang is the first enterprise in China to pass the metal 3D printing airworthiness certification and has a complete production process of metal powder preparation, metal 3D printing parts manufacturing, hot isostatic pressing treatment, and performance testing, and the 3D printed parts manufactured have been applied to the production of C919 aircraft in batches.

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?----The relevant information is sourced from:www.p5w.net