Wohlers Associates Reports Top Picks by Service Providers

By DE Editors

Wohlers Associates (Fort Collins, CO)  has surveyed service providers — for years it says — to measure the state of the industry. Service providers, also referred to as service bureaus,  offer part-building services to design and manufacturing organizations as an outsourced service. Many offer design, CAD/CAM/CAE, data translation, tooling,  urethane casting from silicone rubber molds, reverse engineering, and other engineering and manufacturing services.

This year,  58 organizations in 14 countries participated in the survey, which asked many questions, such as: If you were going to add new additive fabrication (AF)  technology, which would you most likely acquire? Nineteen known technologies were listed.

The most popular response was PolyJet from Objet Geometries, followed by laser sintering from EOS. Stereolithography was the third most accepted choice. Laser sintering from 3D Systems and FDM from Stratasys tied for the fourth most popular response. (The results are shown in the chart on the Wohlers Associates website.)

This information was supplied by the Wohlers Report 2008, a 240-page global study that focuses on the advances in AF worldwide.

For a detailed overview of the report, as well as additional information on the market and industry, go to Wohlers Associates.

For previous DE coverage, see “Wohlers Report Documents Additive Fabrication Developments and Trends,” (May 2008).

Sources:  Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.