Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

"is it possible for a thousand-yuan 3D printer to take the road of household consumption? "

Who can remember the craze of 3D printing in 2022?

The start-up craze for 3D printing, which began in 2016, has attracted a lot of capital and entrepreneurs. But that wave of 3D capital carnival, in the end, due to expensive equipment and consumables, limited printing materials, and lack of commercialization, it was difficult to make waves, and in the end, it was "big thunder and little rain". It is gradually replaced by a new round of tuyere, such as artificial intelligence and block chain.

However, after years of low-key dormancy, 3D printing technology has not disappeared, and is still moving forward in the transformation. According to the forecast of China Business Intelligence Network, the scale of the domestic 3D printing industry may exceed 33 billion yuan in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of about 25%.

Compared with the professional 3D printing equipment with tens of thousands of yuan and tens of thousands of yuan, the "thousand yuan machine" which has been put forward in the past two years is also promoting the application of 3D printing technology in the consumer field. According to the relevant data of the forward-looking Industrial Research Institute, the proportion of domestic consumer 3D printing has reached about 36%.

However, some consumers pointed out that although 3D printing "thousands of yuan" is cheap enough to successfully occupy part of the "home market", based on consumer-grade 3D printers, it is still hard to escape the plight of "chicken ribs" in practical applications.

And why is that?

Can you achieve 3D printing freedom with about one thousand yuan? When it comes to high-end 3D printing technology, most people's impression still stays in the tens of thousands of devices used a few years ago, even consumer and desktop products are very expensive. But now many merchants claim that users can move 3D printers home for as little as a thousand yuan.

Search for the word "3D printer" on mainstream e-commerce platforms and you can find a large number of consumer desktop 3D printing devices priced between 1000 and 2000 yuan, and some even give away trial supplies.

Among them, can be found in the mainstream e-commerce platform, the lowest price of consumer-grade 3D printer, the price is even less than a thousand yuan, only 459 yuan, can be called close to the people. Thus it can be seen that 3D printers are no longer unreachable high-consumption products.

As for the sales of 3D printing "thousands of yuan", it is generally not low. A number of e-commerce stores sell household desktop 3D printers of the same brand and model (priced at 1599 yuan), with a cumulative evaluation of more than 1000.

As for another desktop-level 3D printing device recommended by many Zhihu netizens and launched by the industry's leading brand and priced at less than 1400 yuan, the official flagship store showed more than 2000 buyer reviews.

According to media reports, the brands behind these "thousand yuan" 3D printers are mainly based on consumer-grade equipment, with shipments of 500000 units and revenue of 800 million yuan in 2020 alone. Even so, the brand ranks only as the "second" position among domestic 3D printing equipment enterprises.

According to the relevant data of the "Antarctic Bear 3D Printing Network" statistics, the domestic 3D printer manufacturer ranks first in revenue, is a well-known enterprise based on consumer 3D printing equipment manufacturing.

Some people in the industry have pointed out that since 2017, sales of consumer 3D printers have increased year by year. The increase in demand for consumer 3D printers, on the other hand, reflects some disadvantages in the field of commercial 3D printing services.

The relevant e-commerce merchants operating 3D printers have revealed that the current selling point of 3D printing "thousands of yuan machines" is mainly cheap and convenient.

"when 3D printing first became popular, many consumers printed models and industrial design works looking for offline stores, first-and second-tier cities, and offline stores can be found near many universities. But in the past two years, many offline stores have been killed by lower-cost online service providers."

The merchant said that even in Shenzhen, where the 3D printing service industry is most concentrated, the number of offline 3D printing services that consumers can find is very limited. While some of the online 3D printing service providers, which claim to be cheap and fast, are full of tricks in charging.

"if you print online, the lowest charge for one gram is 30 cents. Users look cheap and let the service provider evaluate it. As a result, it is sky-high. In order to calculate more money, some online service providers will deliberately confuse weight and volume. Even use ultra-thick, solid printing to gain weight."

The businessman revealed that the so-called "a few cents a gram" in online 3D printing is extremely low, which usually refers to the cheapest white ordinary resin material. If you change the black resin or photosensitive resin, the price can be increased several times in an instant.

"therefore, many consumers who have a demand for printing and suffer from a lack of reliable printing services will choose to buy a thousand yuan 3D printer, which is cheap and convenient, but the key is not to be cheated." The businessman said that the recent 3D printers in the store are mainly sold to college students and manual enthusiasts.

Similar consumer groups also have a common feature-the requirement for 3D printing quality is not very high.

It can be seen that the consumer 3D printer of thousands of yuan is similar to the household inkjet printer industry in the early years. Instead of "fighting wits" with online 3D printing service providers, users might as well spend about a thousand yuan to buy a low-end device to achieve 3D printing freedom.

In this regard, entrepreneurs in the field of 3D printing have revealed that the current cheap consumer 3D printing devices are mainly aimed at personal hobbies and education, so sales are better.

However, the "thousand yuan machine" also has some limitations in meeting the needs of relevant individual consumers, which also makes 3D printing into the home full of uncertainty.

After the "02" entry-level thousand-yuan machine bought the machine, printing is free, but it is also more tired. "

Sharry is not only a hand-made enthusiast, but also a talent of "changing children". In order to make her "merchandise baby" look different, she often designs, models and "changes" her baby through 3D printing widgets.

She said frankly that there are too many tricks for front-line 3D printing services. In fact, the price of ordinary resin printing usually costs 2: 3 yuan / g, and the price of light-cured printing is sometimes as high as 3-4 yuan / gram. It's really not cost-effective.

To reduce printing costs, Sharry spent 1600 yuan last year on a desktop consumer 3D printer. She calculated that the printing cost of a consumer 3D printer is less than 0.1 yuan per gram.

"if you print two or three hundred parts by yourself, you can earn back the cost of the machine, which feels like a bargain." By printing at home, she can avoid designing documents, modeling results and becoming a "template" for merchants, which she thinks is very cost-effective. However, when it took a while to print a "thousand yuan machine" in 3D, Sharry expressed regret.

Although she had lowered her expectations for print quality before buying the printer, thinking about the lack of precision and sandpaper, she was surprised by the roughness of the final product. "it was like a three-dimensional mosaic, too disappointed."

Sharry complains that the current mainstream thousand-yuan 3D printers are almost all FDM cladding technology. The equipment she bought claims to be accurate to 0.1mm, but the layering of the finished product is still quite obvious.

This effect is not as good as the 3D printer of third-party merchants' professional FDM technology, and the effect of light-cured 3D printing is even more different. Friends familiar with her also suggested that she upgrade the drive module of the machine and spend money on a better motor to improve the quality of the finished product.

"but replacing the components is too complicated, so now I can only slowly polish the finished product with sandpaper." Sharry stressed that although 3D printing products can be polished to smooth with high-mesh sandpaper, it is very time-consuming and labor-consuming, often "printing for half an hour and polishing for three hours."

As a result, deeply aware of the "chicken ribs" of low-end consumer 3D printers, she put the equipment on second-hand sale a few months ago and returned to her daily routine of bargaining with online service providers.

Also selling 3D printers through second-hand e-commerce platforms is Xiao Shen, a college student majoring in landscape design, who has also completely lost interest in low-and middle-end 3D printers.

"I spent nearly 1300 yuan on a machine to make it easier to print my work." Xiao Shen said that he had already done his homework before buying equipment, and felt that consumer FDM technology could meet the current needs of printing works.

After all, compared with jewelry design and industrial design, his major does not have high requirements for the accuracy and quality of printing works. Therefore, when buying equipment, he and his roommates think more about the ratio of performance to price.

But soon they encountered a problem that consumer 3D printing devices could not print large (bulk) works. The finished product size of general printing can only be a cube with length, width and height within 20cm, that is, the size of a volleyball.

On the other hand, designs larger than 20cm still need to pay for online services to print. Therefore, after buying 3D printing equipment, daily printing design works are not only inconvenient, but also do not save money, it appears to be very "chicken ribs".

It can be seen that the 3D printing "thousand yuan machine", which focuses on cheap and portable selling points, is destined to have a "high" side. So, in the future, this kind of 3D printing device can only move closer to the direction of home entertainment and leisure?

The high threshold of "03" makes it easy for the equipment to be cheap, so I bought a 3D printer to do some home-made work. "

During the June 18 period this year, Mr. Zhou, who lives in Guangzhou, saw that the discount activities on the platform were so strong that he spent less than 2000 yuan on a consumer 3D printer. At the same time, the merchants of the online store also gave away 1KG consumables, as well as a set of colored pigments.

Talking about why he bought a 3D printer, he told him that it was mainly to print small toys for his children to teach and have fun. In addition, he will also try to print out the missing parts of home digital, household appliances and furniture to make some simple repairs.

However, when asked if Mr. Zhou had a foundation for 3D modeling and design, he said he had never learned it. The reason why we have the strength to print small toys and do home-made works all come from online tutorials and modeling and design tools promised by merchants.

"there are a lot of tutorials online, and the modeling tools that come with the merchants look simple." He said that he had read the relevant tutorials before buying a 3D printer and felt that these convenient modeling and design tools should be completed with the touch of a mouse.

"some design tools even need only 2D photos to generate 3D models, which can be printed in 3D after simple data fine-tuning." He said that before getting started and mastering the essentials of design, merchants also provided a model library that could print small models that appeared.

After owning this 3D printer, he and his children were really excited for several days, continuously "exporting" ready-made 3D model small toys, bringing the parent-child relationship closer.

Because I had a good time, the ready-made model supplied by the merchant was quickly printed out. On the other hand, Mr. Zhou had to start to "practice" the self-designed model of Flag--, which was set up at the beginning. "unexpectedly, when I really started, I found that it was very difficult to print out something relatively normal, even if it was a stupid application, I needed to have some design skills."

He admits that through the most rudimentary application design, it is possible to print some 3D objects, but the scale size is very strange, completely different from what was imagined. Even printing missing resin widgets for home appliances is almost impossible to use.

"it's not as easy to use as the 3D printing pen I bought for my child before. the threshold of this thing is too high." More than a month after buying the printer, the excitement of Mr. Zhou and his children has disappeared, and the equipment that was originally intended to "teach and have fun" is eating ashes in the corner.

Many netizens who have bought consumer 3D printers also said on the Internet that the cost of learning related design and modeling is too high, which is the reason why consumer 3D printers are difficult to infiltrate and popularize in the field of home entertainment despite their low price.

After the new equipment is available, almost all consumers can only print off-the-shelf models that come with the software, and once the models are used up, users who have no modeling ability will naturally lose interest in the equipment.

On some second-hand e-commerce platforms, many consumer 3D printers are being resold, perhaps because users buy on a "whim" and then find that the threshold for design modeling is too high to "control".

Compared with personal interest and education, consumer 3D printers will also become "low" in home entertainment because the threshold for the use of equipment is too high, which is the main reason why the relevant industries are not popular.

Once the average consumer's interest and curiosity in 3D printing products disappears, sales of consumer 3D devices will decline. A report from research firm CONTEXT also shows that the consumer-centric sales boom for 3D printers may be over. Instead, mainly high-end, professional-level 3D printing equipment, shipments are showing a rapidly rising trend.

[conclusion] this reminds us of the ups and downs of VR equipment. At present, the commercial VR / AR market is picking up, while the ordinary consumer VR / AR market is still unable to catch up even with the popularity of META. Obviously, the 3D printing technology, which is rooted in the commercial and professional field, has begun to return to its due essence.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: know Notes (ID:dongdong_note), write | Divine Music Editor | Qin Yan

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