Gartner predicts US$13.5 billion 3D Printing Global Market in 2018 - Why Hoover and Makerbot Deal indicates 3D Printing by DIY is on the rise in 2015

“This new innovative technology is a great fit for our progressive new cordless cleaners. Offering exclusive print-on-demand tools and accessories allows Hoover to address narrower consumer needs that might not justify whole-scale manufacturing. 3D printing allows us to be more nimble and respond to consumer accessory and customization needs quicker than typical manufacturing processes might allow.”

Hoover's Vice President of Product Development, Paul Bagwell on the partnership with Makerbot to allow 3D Printer owners to print accessories

With 2014 coming to a close, Statistics analysts are making it plain that with the wealth of information gained thus far, their Crystal Balls are seeing a bright futue on the horizon for Technology.

More importantly one such analyst is already predicting great things, particularly for the field of 3D Printing is analyst Gartner, which fits with my prediction back in 2013 about 3D Printing as declared in my blog article entitled “Tech Predictions of 2013 - 3D Printing and smaller smartphones”.

They’ve recently published a stats report that projects phenomenal and almost exponential growth for the 3D Printer business, something unheard of in the Printing Game as noted in the article “Gartner Forecasts The 3D Printer Market Will Be $13.4B By 2018”, published 12/18/2014 by Louis Columbus, Forbes.

According to the report that was at Gartner’s webinar entitled “Why You Must Invest in 3D Printing Now”, Pete Basiliere, Research Vice President and the presenter at the Webinar made the following point about the future of 3D Printing from 2012 to 2018:

1.      106.6% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in worldwide unit shipments of 3D printers

2.      2.3 million shipments per annum by 2018

3.      87.7% revenue growth for the forecast period. 

4.      US$13.4 billion dollar market by 2018

Here's a snapshot of a graphic from the Webinar below.

This growth is expected to be driven by companies doing R&D (Research and Development) and would thus be in need of rapid prototyping to make 3D models of components even working products for their clients. 

DIY Replacements Parts – From Handguns to Printable foods, Personal 3D Printing is booming

But Gartner appears to have overlooked the consumer DIY Market, which albeit small and insignificant when compared to these tech titans, is already being tapped to deal with a problem experienced by many manufacturers; Replacement parts sourcing.

Already it’s possible to make an entire handgun from Plastic using a 3D printer, the best example of which is Cody Williams, founder of Defense Distributed and maker of the First 3D Printable Plastic Gun that had a successful test firing on Sunday May 5^th 2013 as explained in my blog article entitled “Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson's 3D Plastic Gun, the Liberator - 3D Printer Arms Race heralds the coming of IKEA DIY Design for Consumer Electronics”.

However, a good example of the making of replacement parts for firearms can be seen from the work of Austin, Texas based Solid Concepts, a professional 3D-printing services company and licensed firearms holder.

They currently have a permit to make replacement parts for the Browning 1911 handgun using a DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) 3D Printer as reported in my blog article entitled “Solid Concepts in Austin, Texas prints the World's first 3D Printed Metal Handgun, the Browning 1911 - Metal 3D Printing is Thor The Dark Worlds for making of Replacements Parts for any appliance”.

There are even printers that can print food as well, such as the kickstarter-funded Discov3ry 3D Printer Extruder as explained in my blog article entitled “Structur3D Printing debuts Kickstarter for Discov3ry 3D Printer – Expand Imaginations Horizons with a Printer that Prints with any material”.

Truly, 3D printing is set to become popular with small business. But what of the regular consumer? Can it be said that 3D Printing will eventually reach the home and become a new must-have printing gadget? 

This looks very possible, especially as the traditional Printer is now basically dead as Tablets have made them an endangered species as pointed out in my Geezam blog article entitled “How the Apple iPad killed Ultrabooks, Printing and the Mouse as the World Rediscovers Tablets”?

Hoover and Makerbot team up on Replacement Vacuum Parts – DIY Replacement Parts

Hoover and Makerbot have teamed up to make it possible for user of their vacuum cleaners to 3D Print their own accessories for Makerbot's ThingVerse file library as stated in the article “Hoover and MakerBot offer 3D-printed vacuum upgrades”, published December 22, 2014 2:32 PM PST by Ry Crist, CNET News.

The first such accessories are for the new Hoover Air Cordless. 

Albeit not a concept unfamiliar to Makerbot, makers of the very pricey US$1,375 Makerbot Replicator that has the largest online library of 3D Printable files. The first printable file is for a clip-on attachment to hold the spare Lithium-ion battery on the vacuum cleaner and the next is a flashlight holder to clip on to the hose extension for their Hoover Air Cordless extension that'll make cleaning behind the whatnot that much easier.

Good to note these aren't replacement parts but accessories made freely available on the ThingVerse website. Far from losing sales, this partnership allows Hoover to quickly supply demand for rare and exotic demand or accessories that they can't allocate resources to economically produce on a large scale as the demand isn't that great.

More accessories may be in the pipeline as Hoover plans to launch an upgrade to the new Hoover Air Cordless called the Hoover Air Cordless Lift in the Spring of 2015 as reported in the article “3D-PRINTABLE VACUUM ACCESSORIES LET YOU UPGRADE YOUR HOOVER WITH A DOWNLOAD”, December 22, 2014 By Drew Prindle, Digitaltrends.

So you can start getting used to the idea of being able to print replacement parts for Hoover Air Cordless line of Vacuum cleaners.

With cheaper 3D printers coming unto the market such as the kickstarter-funded US$300 M3D Micro 3D Printer, it's not hard to see why printer companies like HP (Hewlett Packard) might want to jump back into the Printing game with a cheaper 3D Printer as predicted in my blog article entitled “US$300 M3D Micro 3D Printer for the Masses coming in March 2015 – HP may rise to challenge this Kickstarter to the Iron 3D Printing Throne”.

This already looks to be happening, making my prediction and those of analyst Gartner for 2018 look like a long shot that you can really invest in. Best of all, I'll be doing a follow-up article this trend of 3D printing for the rest of 2015, the Year of the Sheep and 3D Printing!