3D printing marketplace

Last updated

3D printing marketplace
Type of site
Marketplace
CommercialYes
Current statusActive

A 3D printing marketplace is a website where users buy, sell and freely share digital 3D printable files for use on 3D printers. They sometimes also offer the ability to print the models and ship them to customers.

Contents

Concept

The market for 3D printers has grown tremendously over the past several years. According to Wohlers Report 2018, 3D printer Market reached 7.3 billions $ in 2017, with +21% growth over the previous year. [1] The market is mostly B2B right now, because 3D printing is still a complex process. But even for SMB or freelance, they cannot develop all the knowledge around this technology, that's why 3D printing marketplace have been developing since the last years. [2]

The field of 3D printing is a fascinating field that develops new avenues of creation and engineering. The field is developing rapidly and reaches many industries in the industry as well as mainstream users.

The open source community helps with the effort and makes the 3D creative and learning experience accessible to anyone who wishes, while lowering the barriers for the community worldwide.

Industries and sectors benefiting from the technology are aerospace, medical (dental, maxillofacial, craniofacial, cosmetic surgery, medical equipment, orthopedics, bio-printing), automobile, engineering, tools, architecture, construction, jewelry, fashion, design, food, art, entertainment and education.

How 3D printing marketplaces work

3D printing marketplaces are a combination of file sharing websites, with or without a built in e-commerce capability. Designers upload suitable files for 3D printing whilst other users buy or freely download the uploaded files for printing. The marketplaces facilitate the account management, infrastructure, server resources and guarantees safe settlement of payments (e-commerce). Some of the marketplaces also offer additional services such as 3D printing on demand, location of commercial 3D print shops, associated software for model rendering and dynamic viewing of items using packages such as Sketchfab. The most widely used 3D printable file formats as of 2020 are STL, OBJ file, AMF, and 3MF. [3] [4]

Type of 3D printing marketplaces

There are different varieties of 3D printing marketplaces. Some of them like Thingiverse are dedicated to free sharing of 3D printable files. Others, like Shapeways offer a 3D printing service for objects which have been provided for sale by designers. MyMiniFactory offers a combination of these two: their main activity being the free sharing or 3D printable files, they also offer print-on-demand and design-on-demand services. Another category are websites exemplified by Threeding. These offer free and commercial exchange of digital 3D printable files for use on 3D printers but do not directly include 3D printing services themselves. These marketplaces do however, offer integration to databases of 3D printers provided by third parties. These three resources each contain geo-location services to several thousands of registered 3D printers. The two largest personal 3D printers manufacturers Makerbot (part of Stratasys) and Cubify (subsidiary of 3D Systems) offer their own file repositories for sharing, respectively Thingiverse and Cubify Store. For professional 3D printing needs there are platforms which offer a reverse-bid style auction interface, an integrated escrow payment system and many features specifically tailored for B2B transactions. In 2024, 3D Sourced, a 3D printing magazine, ranked the 11 best 3D marketplaces, which included Sculpteo, Shapeways, and Xometry in the top 3 of the list. [5]

Current intellectual property (IP) legislation in the developed countries does not explicitly regulate 3D printing. This creates numerous questions about the IP status of 3D printing marketplaces. Some analysts predict that 3D printing marketplaces will be "the next Napster". Most marketplaces remain conservative on this topic. Most large 3D printing marketplaces also have procedures for copyright complaints. Further development of 3D printing and more new marketplaces for file sharing will most probably cause copyright to become a significant issue in them. [6] [7] [8]

List of 3D printing marketplaces

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Napster</span> On-line peer-to-peer file sharing software

Napster was a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application primarily associated with digital audio file distribution. Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the platform originally launched on June 1, 1999. Audio shared on the service was typically encoded in the MP3 format. As the software became popular, the company encountered legal difficulties over copyright infringement. Napster ceased operations in 2001 after losing multiple lawsuits and filed for bankruptcy in June 2002.

Streaming media is multimedia for playback using an offline or online media player. Technically, the stream is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner by a client, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. Streaming refers to the delivery method of content rather than the content itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">3D printing</span> Additive process used to make a three-dimensional object

3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer control, with the material being added together, typically layer by layer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratasys</span>

Stratasys, Ltd. is an American-Israeli manufacturer of 3D printers, software, and materials for polymer additive manufacturing as well as 3D-printed parts on-demand. The company is incorporated in Israel. Engineers use Stratasys systems to model complex geometries in a wide range of polymer materials, including: ABS, polyphenylsulfone (PPSF), polycarbonate (PC) and polyetherimide and Nylon 12.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MakerBot</span> American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company

MakerBot Industries, LLC was an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach "Hoeken" Smith to build on the early progress of the RepRap Project. It was acquired by Stratasys in June 2013. As of April 2016, MakerBot had sold over 100,000 desktop 3D printers worldwide. Between 2009 and 2019, the company released 7 generations of 3D printers, ending with the METHOD and METHOD X. It was at one point the leader of the desktop market with an important presence in the media, but its market share declined over the late 2010s. MakerBot also founded and operated Thingiverse, the largest online 3D printing community and file repository. In August 2022, the company completed a merger with its long-time competitor Ultimaker. The combined company is known as UltiMaker, but retains the MakerBot name for its Sketch line of education-focused 3D printers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thingiverse</span> Design-sharing website

Thingiverse is a website dedicated to the sharing of user-created digital design files. Providing primarily free, open-source hardware designs licensed under the GNU General Public License or Creative Commons licenses, the site allows contributors to select a user license type for the designs that they share. 3D printers, laser cutters, milling machines and many other technologies can be used to physically create the files shared by the users on Thingiverse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shapeways</span> New York-based 3D printing marketplace and service

Shapeways, Inc. is a global, 3D printing marketplace and service, publicly traded company. Users design and upload 3D printable files, and Shapeways prints the objects for them or others. 3D printing resources are available for university students, faculty, and educators with an .EDU email

Sculpteo is a French company specialized in 3D printing in the cloud. Sculpteo offers an online 3D printing service, for rapid prototyping and production using technologies such as laser sintering, stereo lithography, Multi Jet Fusion, FDM, Polyjet, DLS, DLP/LCD, SLM/DMLS or Binder Jetting. The company was founded in June 2009 by Eric Carreel, Clement Moreau and Jacques Lewiner. Sculpteo offers online 3D printing services, particularly in Europe and North America The company was acquired in 2019 by the German multinational chemical company BASF.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defense Distributed</span> American non-profit developing digital firearm schematics

Defense Distributed is an online, open-source hardware and software organization that develops digital schematics of firearms in CAD files, or "wiki weapons", that may be downloaded from the Internet and used in 3D printing or CNC milling applications. Among the organization's goals is to develop and freely publish firearms-related design schematics that can be downloaded and reproduced by anyone with a 3D printer or milling machine, facilitating the popular production of homemade firearms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sketchfab</span> 3D modeling platform website

Sketchfab is a 3D modeling platform website to publish, share, discover, buy and sell 3D, VR and AR content. It provides a viewer based on the WebGL and WebXR technologies that allows users to display 3D models on the web, to be viewed on any mobile browser, desktop browser or Virtual Reality headset.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DEFCAD</span> American technology company

DEFCAD, Inc. is an American startup that has created a search engine and web portal for designers and hobbyists to find and develop 3D printable and other CAD models online.

A recyclebot is an open-source hardware device for converting waste plastic into filament for open-source 3D printers like the RepRap. Making DIY 3D printer filament at home is both less costly and better for the environment than purchasing conventional 3D printer filament. In following the RepRap tradition there are recyclebot designs that use mostly 3-D printable parts.

Threeding is an online 3D printing marketplace and community for exchange and sale of designs and templates to assist in 3D printing. The website provides users with personal storefronts where they can list and sell 3D-printable models to a global audience. Threeding is one of several 3D file repositories that have emerged in the fast-growing 3D printing industry.


3D publishing concerns the production and distribution of content for 3D printers. 3D publishing holds the promise of an industry for the creation and distribution of files for the production of 3D objects, or physibles.

MyMiniFactory is a file 3D printable object-sharing platform where 3D printers can share their design and ideas. It was founded in 2013 and headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The online platform hosts digital creators with a primary focus on hobbyist with an interest in 3D printing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinshape</span>

Pinshape Inc. is an online 3D printing community and marketplace with headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It allows designers to share and sell their 3D printable designs. People with 3D printers can print those designs on their own printers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">InMoov</span> 3D-printed humanoid robot

InMoov is a humanoid robot, constructed out of 3D printable plastic body components, and controlled by Arduino microcontrollers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cura (software)</span> 3D printer software

Cura is an open source slicing application for 3D printers. It was created by David Braam who was later employed by Ultimaker, a 3D printer manufacturing company, to maintain the software. Cura is available under LGPLv3 license. Cura was initially released under the open source Affero General Public License version 3, but on 28 September 2017 the license was changed to LGPLv3. This change allowed for more integration with third-party CAD applications. Development is hosted on GitHub. Ultimaker Cura is used by over one million users worldwide and handles 1.4 million print jobs per week. It is the preferred 3D printing software for Ultimaker 3D printers, but it can be used with other printers as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Applications of 3D printing</span>

In recent years, 3D printing has developed significantly and can now perform crucial roles in many applications, with the most common applications being manufacturing, medicine, architecture, custom art and design, and can vary from fully functional to purely aesthetic applications.

Cults is a 3D printing marketplace allowing designers, makers and other users to share free and paid models meant for 3D printing. It is also a social network where 3D printing enthusiasts can interact. In March 2023, the Cults community had nearly 8.2 million members, including nearly 123,000 designers and 1.2 million 3D models to download for 3D printing, laser cutting or CNC machining.

References

  1. ↑ McCue, TJ. "Wohlers Report 2018: 3D Printer Industry Tops $7 Billion". Forbes. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ "The Future of Consumer 3D Printing Marketplaces".
  3. ↑ "Most Popular 3D Printing File Formats (2020 Edition) | Makenica.com | Blog". Makenica -3D Printing, Vacuum Casting, Injection Molding, CNC Machining -Complete Online Manufacturing Hub. February 3, 2020. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  4. ↑ "2020 Most Common 3D Printer File Formats". All3DP. February 13, 2020. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  5. ↑ "11 Best Online 3D Printing Service Providers in 2024". 3DSourced. August 9, 2023. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  6. ↑ "What's the Deal with Copyright and 3D Printing?". Public Knowledge. January 29, 2013. Archived from the original on February 9, 2014. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Can 3D printing avoid a Napster moment? — Tech News and Analysis". Gigaom.com. September 18, 2013.
  8. ↑ "3-D Printing, Copyright, and Fair Use: What Should We Know?". Purdue University. June 4, 2014.
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