3D Scanners

The 3D Scanning Market is Set to Boom, Expected to Exceed $6.05 Billion by 2022

Earlier this week, we covered the success and failures of 3D scanning devices on Kickstarter, many of which never reached their goal or delivered their product. But there’s a vast market for 3D scanning technology outside of the crapshoot crowdfunding game, a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc., shows some major expectations over the next few years. As the 3D printing market is expected to reach $20 billion by 2025, the 3D scanning market seems to be following suit. The latest market analysis shows the market is expected to exceed $6.05 billion around the globe.

Materialise 3D Scanner

As 3D scanning quality rises and prices fall, the number of industry adaptions are expected to rise quite greatly, particularly in the areas of archaeology, mechanical dimensional inspection, defense, and aerospace. The need for 3D content is more prevalent than ever before, and the technology is continuing to develop. Because of this, industrial manufacturing use of 3D scanning is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.9% from 2015 to 2022. There’s also the entertainment and media industries, which thanks to the need to build 3D models for video games and movies, had taken up 9% of the overall market 2014.

The Global Market Insights, Inc., report goes over the likely reasons for the expected growth, “Increasing application in engineering, construction and architecture sectors should facilitate new project development, as well as maintenance and operations of existing property. The technology also plays a crucial role in performing cultural as well as structural assessments, and also assists in supervision of construction activities. Surging R&D expenditure accompanied by growing innovation is anticipated to fuel 3D scanning market growth over the forecast period.”

There is a regional effect studied in the report as well, particularly in Asia-Pacific—where 20% of the overall 3D scanning market share rested in 2014— and Latin America, which has a current market value of $250 million and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.9% from 2015 to 2022. You can also see (below) that the growth in Europe is set to expand as well.

Screen Shot 2016-04-27 at 12.11.23 PM

The biggest industry segment is 3D laser scanning, which was valued at $1.5 billion in 2014. As for the actual 3D scanning products, short range scanning products are currently dominating the market, but as technology continues to advance, medium range scanning product are expected to make up 30% of the market revenue by 2022. You can purchase the report for single or multiple users here.

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