During the last webinar we hosted with Sculpteo and BASF, in collaboration with 3D Natives, we launched an interesting poll about additive manufacturing in general, and polypropylene 3D printing.

During the last webinar we hosted with Sculpteo and BASF, in collaboration with 3D Natives, we launched an interesting poll about additive manufacturing in general, and polypropylene 3D printing.

And here you see the results of the survey.

Question #1:

IN-house or outsourcing: How do you use 3D printing in your company?

In-house production seems to be the trend, but outsourcing to Service Bureaus is still relevant, whether in combination with in-house 3D printing or not.

19% of  “N/As” indicates a huge interest in 3D printing from companies that – at the moment – still don’t have AM systems.

Question #2:

Which is the most important factor when it comes to 3D printing, for your business?

Availability of materials, productivity, and training+support poll results are clearly highlighting the prototyping-to-production paradigm shift currently happening in the AM world.

Question #3:

What is the main purpose of 3D printing in your company?

It’s interesting to see how production wins over prototyping.

This was not the case just a few years ago, and it’s now possible thanks to the availability of higher-speed 3D printers and production-grade materials like Polypropylene.

Question #4:

With which technology are you currently manufacturing PP parts?

3D printing polypropylene is possible for some years, and we can see it from this chart. But still, there is a lot of curiosity about this material, and we see it from the first bar of the graphic.

But what is changing now is that 3D printing PP is no longer an exclusive prerogative of FDM printers: SLS® polypropylene is bridging the gap between FDM and Injection Molding manufacturing, in terms of productivity and surface finish.