3D printing products sold on the streets of Guangzhou
The market looks very big and the orderly "player level" can't make money. The high-tech "industrial level" can break the game.
A few days ago, 3D Systems, a global leader in 3D printing, announced that it would stop production of its consumer online 3D printer. After the existing machines have cleared their inventory, the product will disappear. When the news came out, it caused a hot discussion: Why is the player-level 3D printer cold? Why are the giants also withdrawing from the market?
In China, it seems to be another scene. The reporter saw the sales of 3D printers on the streets of Guangzhou. Many of them came from families, schools and enterprises. Online store sales were also very popular. However, there are many problems behind the hot, the retail market is developing disorderly, and the low-end price war is heating up. Infringement is commonplace. Some industry insiders also bluntly said that 3D printing technology is just looking very busy, and cost has become the biggest bottleneck restricting the development of 3D printing technology. However, some companies have begun to engage in high-end industrial-grade 3D printing.
In a consumable store in Yuexiu District, the sales staff told the reporter that the 3D printer sold in the store came from a technology company in Shanghai with a retail price of RMB 18,000. “At present, we have some customers of schools and enterprises. The school mainly buys and conducts research. And teaching, companies are doing some specific product samples, bought dozens of units last year."
Retail market
2000 yuan a "price war" white fever
Many sales people in the industry told reporters that in fact, since 2014, 3D printers have been sold in Guangzhou, but because the market has not been cultivated and perfected, few people have been interested. "The country has attached importance to it, and the technology has been updated. Some companies have When it comes to calculating the economic account, I will start buying 3D printers."
Since 2015, Guangzhou has also set off a 3D printing fever. In February of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the “National Additive Manufacturing Industry Development Promotion Plan (2015~2016)â€, and the plan proposes that by 2016, Initially establish a relatively complete additive manufacturing industry system.
An industry source said that the difference between industrial and consumer grades is mainly in the accuracy of printing, in addition to the hardness and other indicators.
The bigger advantage comes from the "Made in China 2025" released on May 19 last year. This document, which plans to develop China's manufacturing industry in the next decade, mentions the need to promote technological breakthroughs in many emerging fields. Among them, 3D printing has been placed. The first one.
The above documents have been published for more than half a year, and today, on the Internet, a wide variety of consumer-grade 3D printers have been fiercely competitive in the retail market. For 3D printers whose print accuracy is "player level", the range of use is very limited because only plastic products can be printed. And for home users, the cost of using 3D printers is still high. Before printing an item, the user must understand 3D modeling, then convert the data into a format that the 3D printer can read, and then print. Therefore, the current market for desktop-level 3D printers is mainly biased towards the relatively specialized fields of industrial design, education, and scientific research.
More than a month ago, Guangxi Wuming Middle School ordered a batch of 3D printers at a price of 14,800 yuan. Speaking of the characteristics of this model, Li Jie (a pseudonym), head of Guangxi Wuming Middle School, said that the size of this printer is suitable, it is suitable for operation on the desktop, and the body is designed with transparent door for students to observe. Throughout the printing process, the operation screen is a Chinese color LCD touch screen, and students can intuitively see the progress of printing, making it easier to grasp how to operate.
Today, not only the primary and secondary schools around Beijing, but also many key universities across the country have purchased a large number of different models of 3D printers. This series of desktop-class 3D printers designed for educational institutions has become the sales champion in the university market.
Until now, there is still no authoritative data to calculate the share of the 3D printer retail market. The market research site "China Report Hall" said in a research report that the overall sales revenue of 3D printers and related materials/services increased by 56% to $5.2 billion in 2015.
Barbaric growth
Copying each other has little independent intellectual property rights
“Guangzhou, there are more than one hundred and three 3D printer manufacturers, not including some small workshops.†Chen Kai (pseudonym), a person in charge of a 3D printer manufacturer in Shenzhen, feels that 3D printers are strategically valued, but The consumer market is still in a state of barbaric production, and the competition is fierce, but it is also very chaotic.
Chen Kai's company was founded in 2013. At present, there are more than 20 teams, most of whom have a background in studying abroad. With his own evaluation, he is a high-grade enterprise in Shenzhen, but they still have a lot of troubles.
"At present, we have our own patents, and we have developed nearly 10 models, but each product looks too much on the market. Once launched, the imitators will soon follow. This is the current reality in China. Chen Kai said that the current technical threshold of the retail industry is relatively low, and even a small workshop for a few people can make a 3D printer, although the accuracy is poor, but it can also meet the needs of the average player.
Chen Kai’s company sold more than 6,000 printers in 2015, with sales exceeding 10 million yuan. “The price of a machine is less than 3,000 yuan. The profit inside can be imagined.†He said that the profit is only enough for the company to maintain its operations. .
Half of Chen Kai’s products are sold overseas. “Like many small items made in China, the price of our 3D printers is also very attractive overseas. Foreign countries simply cannot buy this price.â€
The reporter visited several platforms and learned that many domestic 3D printer manufacturers have sold their products abroad. In the 3D printer sales list of a famous foreign retail platform, the top ten printers are all from China. “The root cause is cheap.†Chen Kai said, but the trouble with cheapness is that the price is so low that it makes it difficult for the “old and honest†enterprises to survive.
A 3D printer provided by a seller in Shenzhen only needs 1,500 yuan. The other party said frankly that there is no patent, and the price is low because of "the most cost-effective materials." "Now the 3D printer is that you copy me, I copy him." The reporter inquired about the price of more than ten 3D printers, the functions are similar, but the price is more than 2,000 yuan.
"Disordered competition can lead to the survival of the fittest, but patent infringement happens almost every day, no one will go to court, won the lawsuit and lose money, no one will do it." A 3D printer sales person said.
Maximum bottleneck
High precision printing costs
In medical applications, 3D printing technology was once the most popular application area. Experts once expected that if widely used, 3D printing technology will be able to print high-precision objects instead of human tissue.
In June last year, a 6-year-old boy from Guizhou who suffered from brittle bone disease, because of fractures many years ago, doctors used this model to accurately define the location of the operation and the follow-up surgical plan, and performed surgery for the boy. Now the boy You can walk independently. Many people have seen the dawn from this case, but the numbers behind it have given people a head start. The person in charge of the company responsible for printing the above model said that the model was provided free of charge to the hospital by the company. The cost of printing one leg bone was about 2,000 yuan, and the equipment capable of achieving such high precision was completely imported from Germany, and the equipment cost exceeded 4 million. yuan.
At present, there are very few cases about the use of 3D printing technology in hospitals, and there are very few hospitals that use them autonomously. “It is still in the testing stage, there are cost issues, and there are related policies and regulations,†said an industry source.
At present, the application of 3D printers in the fields of education and medical care is still in the “experimental†stage. Most of the individual users are for “early adoptersâ€, and more are just gimmicks.
Problem to be solved
3D printing supplies "no rice under the pot"
Moreover, the current domestic 3D printing industry has a fatal flaw: the consumables are basically imported from abroad, and the printer "has no rice."
Domestic 3D printing manufacturer Tailian 3D recently launched a dex series 3D printer for printing small and medium-sized printing labels such as jewelry and dental products. The product is priced at 85,000 yuan, which is much cheaper than the foreign price of 200,000 yuan. But customers need to buy consumables from abroad.
Compared with the situation that many traditional equipment manufacturers do not rely on machines to make money and rely on consumables to make money, Tailian three-dimensional "sell only equipment, do not provide consumables" is extremely common in China's 3D printing industry, and many domestic 3D equipment users are also positive. Faced with the need to purchase imported consumables after buying equipment in China.
The reporter learned that the current 3D printing consumable materials are mainly divided into nylon, powder, pla plastic and metal. Among them, pla plastic has the lowest cost and the most expensive metal. For example, a hand bone model widely used in the medical field, the printing cost of pla plastic is about 100 yuan, the cost of nylon and powder is about 2,000 yuan, and the cost of metal consumables is up to tens of thousands, printing a hand bone. Most of the models take 8 to 10 hours, and the printing company often sells these printed products to customers at twice the cost.
In the eyes of many industry insiders, the shortage of consumables corresponding to domestic 3D equipment mainly comes from two reasons: cheaper to make money, manufacturers are not willing to produce, and expensive consumables can not keep up with the existing technology due to lack of policy support and Subsidies, manufacturers are reluctant to invest capital and labor costs to research and development.
Breaking
Some companies take the lead in testing "high-end" products
Chen Bing, a Wenzhou native who is starting a business in Dongguan, has recently caught the attention of the industry.
Chen Bing, a graduate of bioengineering, became interested in 3D printers when he was studying. He started with an imported 3D printer. This printer from Germany cost nearly 500,000 yuan. Chen Bing is thinking, can you do it? A 3D printer with similar accuracy but low cost?
Soon, Chen Bing set up a team and developed a low-cost FDM3D printer based on foreign programs. The so-called FDM, which is a process of fused deposition, generally uses thermoplastic materials. The material is melted before leaving the nozzle, and it quickly solidifies after extrusion. And glue each other. The printer developed by Chen Bing quickly sold hundreds of units, which made him see a huge market.
In the process of starting a business in Wenzhou, Chen Bing found that about 60% of the users were from Dongguan, Guangdong, and they were all corporate users. In the end, he decided to move the company to Dongguan.
After the company moved to Dongguan, it received a lot of support and help from the local government.
Chen Bing said that industrial-grade 3D printers, which are quasi-industrial-grade printers, are not the same as those sold in online stores. The accuracy requirements are very high. The first-generation production of enterprise concept products is very demanding for such printers. There can be no half point error.
Chen Bing believes that at present, there are few large orders in the manufacturing industry, and there are many small and medium-sized orders. Many products will be uneconomical for enterprises if they reopen the first production line or purchase the first edition of millions of printers. With tens of thousands of pieces, you can get the first edition very quickly, so you can still make a profit even when the order is small.
Chen Bing's current FDM3D printer is priced at around 28,000 yuan. "Actually, we are talking about 'Industry 4.0', 'manufacturing change', these concepts are not consumer-grade printers, but industrial-grade printers." Chen Bing said, this is why global giants 3Dsystems want Give up the player-level market.
At present, production companies similar to Chen Bing are emerging nationwide, and it is not difficult to realize low-cost industrial-grade 3D printers in the future. "Our goal is to have such research and development results in 2017."
Promote drama
Promote the "industrial revolution"
3D printing has undergone dramatic changes at both the consumer and industrial levels. In the industrial market, the revolution in 3D printing technology for manufacturing has actually begun.
Chen Bing told reporters that in the past, the manufacturing company wanted to produce the first edition of a new product, and did not want to spend the cost on its own. It would be handed over to the first edition of the first edition of the factory, which was produced by the first edition factory and returned to the enterprise. Investment, advertising and a series of assessments, if you decide to mass production, will produce it yourself.
Chen Bing said that in the current environment, the manufacturing industry needs to rely on a large number of small orders to spend the winter. At this time, the 3D printer is a very cost-effective choice for the first edition or the enterprise itself, as long as the price is right, if there is Large orders are more cost-effective. "This is an open market. I believe that low-priced, high-precision printers will come. The technical barriers here will guarantee the profits of printer manufacturers, and will block the imitation of pirates. The market for SMEs will really be done, and the space will be huge."
In a family who bought a 1,800-yuan 3D printer, the father could teach the child to print the foot of a table; for the 3D printer salesperson Zhou, a cup would take 12 hours to print and still become his machine. Obstacles to the sale. “If you can hurry, the accuracy is higher, the materials are cheaper, and you will sell better.†The 3D printing market looks great, but it seems to be still in a stage of start-up and disorder. How long does this road take? No one can give an answer.
(Editor)
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