ST. PETERSBURG, FL – The adoption of 3-D printing continues to increase in production environments despite ongoing roadblocks with the cost and availability of additive materials, according to a survey by Jabil.

Jabil has conducted a biennial survey since 2017 to trace the trajectory of additive manufacturing while identifying the most promising opportunities and lingering challenges facing decision makers.

"The results of our latest manufacturing survey confirm our experiences in helping customers leverage the speed and agility of 3-D printing to transform different manufacturing steps — from prototyping to production," said Luke Rodgers, Jabil’s senior director of R&D for additive manufacturing. "In particular, this survey underscores how increased adoption of additive manufacturing is driving demand for differentiated additive materials with improved physical properties to deliver greater functionality, increased sustainability, and economies of scale."

Jabil commissioned SIS International Research to conduct the 3-D Printing Technology Trends Survey with participation from 200 additive manufacturing stakeholders worldwide. Questions were designed to offer a better understanding of decisions concerning 3-D printing and additive manufacturing materials based on current opportunities, challenges, and industry developments. More than half of the top executives surveyed regard additive manufacturing as a strategic opportunity to enhance their organizations, while 40% consider 3-D printing as a viable alternative to designing and/or producing products.

A vast majority of the participants (97%) currently are using 3-D printing to produce functional or end-use parts. Nearly three-quarters of participants produced at least 10,000 3-D-printed parts over the past year, and more than a third printed up to 100,000 parts. Overall, participants anticipate an uptick in the use of 3-D printing for production parts or goods in the next three-to-five years, despite being less bullish about overall 3-D printing industry growth than previous participants of additive manufacturing surveys.

Other key findings include:

• The top three use cases for 3-D printing are prototyping (97%), research and development (75%), and production parts (59%)
• 3-D printing use for bridge production (moving from prototyping to initial production) grew from 23% in 2017 to 59% in 2023, while 3-D-printing jigs, fixtures, and tooling nearly doubled from 2017 (30%) to 2023 (58%)
• Prototyping is widely recognized for delivering the most significant impact to product lifecycles by 95% of the participants, followed by product designs (52%) and small-scale production (27%)
• Additive manufacturing benefits have remained consistent since 2019, with the ability to deliver parts faster, decrease production costs, respond to issues on production lines, as well as enable production of personalized and customized goods.

Materials were identified as the primary financial or cost burden to adopting 3-D printing by 79% of participants, up from 18% just two years prior. Moreover, nine in 10 of those surveyed assert that the biggest challenge is the unavailability of desired materials.

Two-thirds of this year’s participants say they utilize custom-engineered materials as part of their overall additive manufacturing strategies. This finding may be in response to ongoing materials shortages, along with increased demands to produce parts with superior performance characteristics. Increased use of engineered materials with value-added attributes also reflects continued innovations in additive materials to improve the physical properties of end-use parts for greater utilization at lower costs, as well as faster delivery and less waste.

Overall, the use of plastics/polymers has been consistently pervasive among survey respondents since 2019. The use of metals, however, has greatly increased, from 39% in 2019 to 92% in this year’s survey. More than 96% expressed a preference for using metal materials under the right conditions, up from 63% in the 2019 survey.

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