Rapid Prototyping Customers
Rapid prototyping systems have been sold to customers in a diverse group of industries. While the business originated in the United States, much user and vendor activity now takes place in Europe and Asia. Major buyers are still found in the automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics and business machine industries which were the earliest adopters. Applications are also found in other segments, such as the toy, jewelry, medical and consumer product industries. Many small to medium size businesses are becoming more involved, however, as the average price of systems drops and the benefits of 3D printing become more widely understood. Indeed, with the advent of affordable systems, a large number of high schools and smaller colleges have been able to acquire systems.

Adoption of 3D CAD (three dimensional computer aided design; also referred to as CAD solid modeling) is a prerequisite to the use of rapid prototyping systems. A three dimensional description of the item to be fabricated is needed. Software provided by the rapid prototyping system vendor analyzes and transforms the 3D CAD design into a form suitable for the particular rapid prototyping system.

Rapid Prototyping Market Drivers
There are strong business and technology trends which drive the rapid prototyping market. The business trends include users' need to reduce time to market and tooling costs, ever-shortening product life cycles, reorganization along cross-functional lines, and globalization. The technology trends include the vast reduction in the cost of computing, the introduction of lower cost 3D CAD applications, and the growth of network communications.

The business trends result in a need for design and manufacturing engineers to seek ways to reduce both the cost and length of the product introduction process. In addition, they result in a need to improve communication with other departments and suppliers, as well as geographically remote teams. The ultimate goal is to introduce more competitive, higher quality products, and to do it much more quickly.

An increasingly important market driving force is the trend toward the manufacture of low-volume or individualized parts and products, sometimes called mass-customization. Industries and applications which can benefit from greatly lowered tooling costs or using no tools at all, or where customization results in enhanced performance are strong potential markets for additive fabrication technologies. Indeed, these possibilities are wide enough to dwarf all other applications of the technology combined.