Another month means another 3D Hubs Trends Report, and although their newly released November report has shown some trends within the industry to appear unchanged, there are still some telling signs about who the leaders in the 3D printing market are becoming. This month, 3D Hubs showcases the top-rated desktop 3D printer that just can’t be overtaken, details the continuing rise of the Ultimaker 2, and tells us which Canadian city has moved on up into the top ten print cities.
Going on four months strong as the top-rated desktop printer in the market, the Prusa Steel has remained on top thanks to a 4.81 overall print quality rating. But trailing right behind is the Formlabs’ Form 1, with the SLA printer moving into a close second with a 4.79 rating. Making an even bigger jump is the Afinia H480, which has shot up from the 11th position to claim bronze. The rise of the Form 1 and Afinia H480 has come at the expense of the Rapid Lite 200, which fell back from second to fourth this month. In the industrial sector, the Objet Eden 260 has also kept a firm grip as the top-rated 3D printer with a near perfect 4.98 overall rating.
In last month’s report, we witnessed the Duplicator I3 Prusa in the top spot for trending 3D printers, but the Ultimaker 2 Extended has finally overtaken number one after two months in second place. Acting as the most widely distributed printer model of the month, the Ultimaker 2 has taken over 8% of the market for utilized printers. In fact, the November 3D Hubs report shows that the Ultimaker 2 is the most widely used 3D printer in both Europe and Asia, and is also in the top five in South America. Ultimaker has been showing continuous growth over time, their consistency and international reach has certainly paid off as the Ultimaker 2 becomes the world’s most widely used 3D printer model. While the Duplicator I3 Prusa dropped to a close second, inching behind it is the LulzBot TAZ 5, which jumped three spots to take third on this month’s top trending printers list.
Although New York City continues to lead the pack with 377 available 3D printers, Los Angeles is slowly closing the gap between them with 307 printers. Pulling away from Milan, in third place, is London, which saw a 6.5% growth over the month. But the major news here is the introduction of the first Canadian city in the top print cities list. Give a warm welcome to Toronto, which has overtaken San Francisco as the ninth top print city and has shown the greatest MoM growth (10.3%) of all the cities on the list.
In other industry news, RepRaps, in general, remain the most widely distributed category (though they are technically not a manufacturer, 3D Hubs treats it as so for the sake of the report), with MakerBot and Ultimaker taking the real lead. The number of international printing locations continues to grow past 23,500, and black and white colored materials rise, as well, combining for 52% of the Color Distribution Chart. The moves made on this month’s 3D Hubs Trends Report proves that while the Ultimaker 2 continues to succeed in distribution, the Prusa Steel is still the highest rated printer on the market.
