Why 3D Printing Is A Huge Business Opportunity For India ? The 3D printing material & equipment market in the Asia Pacific is predicted to witness high growth in the coming years

The 3D printing industry has grown enormously over the past few years. Several sectors like aeronautics, engineering, fashion design, education, healthcare and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) have already started adapting 3D printing in their production process.

According to a research by Global Market Insights, the 3D printing material & equipment market in the Asia Pacific is predicted to witness high growth in the coming years, owing to the substantial growth of manufacturing in sectors like automotive and the rapid technological advancements. This surge in 3D printing will create a whole new category of new jobs and investment opportunities.

Considering the growing importance of this industry, Entrepreneur India spoke to a few experts to know why 3D printing is a huge business opportunity in India.

A New Way to Build Products :

The needs of the India market are evolving along with the changes in the lifestyle of the Indian consumer. Companies are realizing the need for quicker and more efficient alternatives. For Anand Prakasam, Country Manager, EOS (EOS Electro Optical Systems) India, Industrial 3D printing has changed the way sectors such as healthcare, dental, aerospace and infrastructure build products.

For example, EOS in collaboration with CSIO developed a medical 3D-printing solution, to design patient-specific implants in segmentation with patient CT-scan data to generate a 3D-CAD model.

Prakasam added that today, additive manufacturing (the industrial version of 3-D printing) is being used to build a variety of products such as shoes, high rise building, and green automotive parts such as engines to handle evolving complexities in present day cars or even dental implants. Players in the manufacturing industry are now striving towards delivering cutting-edge products, that improve productivity and cost efficiency along with delivering consistent quality.

"The outcome of the adoption of industrial 3D printing is the increased importance given to design during the initial phases of manufacturing. It is no more about just delivering a product, it is about building customizable and design-driven components to catalyze this process, something that mere traditional ways of manufacturing cannot," he said.

Deliver Business Value:

According to Ajay Parikh, Vice President and Business Head, Wipro 3D, in the last few years, apart from mature markets like US and Europe, specific geographies in Asia like China is gaining a lot of momentum in terms of 3D printing ecosystem. Parikh feels India too is catching up.

"Repeatability, choosing the right type of 3D printing technology for the right type of application and use case is going to be a key consideration for business leaders. Eventually, the technology has to provide business value. As we go forward, in terms of tech maturity, you are going to see, increased build speeds, different energy sources, and raw materials and build techniques with a fair degree of democratization as opposed to a limited number of OEMs(Original Equipment Manufacturer) providers that one sees today," said Parikh.
Wipro 3D is already witnessing good traction with clients in Space, Aerospace, Defense and Automobile. Parikh believes this will accelerate faster in the future.

Disruption In Manufacturing Industry

3D printing is set to localize manufacturing and contribute to the Make in India movement. Ratandeep Singh Bansal, Director, Next Big Innovation Labs shared that 3D printing technology makes such fast iteration based product development possible in the manufacturing space.

As India makes its transition from a service based economy to a product based economy and the focus moves towards creating jobs in the manufacturing sector, 3D printing technology is playing a key role in aiding this transition and can help us compete with established manufacturing based economies like China.

"Although 3D Printing is a space commonly associated with plastics and metals, a plethora of applications can be found in the medical and biotechnology domains. 3D Bioprinting, an emerging subdomain within 3D Printing, utilizes the technology to combine tissue culture and biomaterials to print human cells and tissues. From prosthetics to implants to organ-on-chip devices, 3D Bioprinting is enabling unique applications in the healthcare domain," said Bansal.

Transforming India into a Global Manufacturing Hub :

Sumeer Chandra, Managing Director, HP Inc. India emphasized that 3D printing can immensely help India's endeavor to position itself as a global manufacturing hub.

"With its inherent ability to drive mass personalization, the technology has the potential to usher in the industrial revolution 4.0.The government also has rightly initiated action through special budgetary allocation on exploring the immense possibilities that 3D printing technology offers," he added.

HP introduced 3D printing solution in India earlier this year and Chandra believes this technology will not only democratize manufacturing but also leapfrog growth in terms of size, scale, scope and complexity.

"Sectors like automotive, aerospace, defence, consumer goods, healthcare, apparel & fashion, and construction will stand to benefit from 3D printing with reduced costs and improved lead time. In addition, 3D printing will have far reaching benefits such as skilling the workforce and efficient inventory management," concluded Chandra.