It seems another 3D printer manufacturer is moving along to other products.
The past two years have been quite devastating for several smaller 3D printer manufacturers, as their market has been eaten up by the Chinese Dragons (Bambu Lab, Creality, Elegoo, and Anycubic), which together hold almost 90% of product sales.
I’ve been wondering what will become of these smaller manufacturers. The moment for them to act was probably about a year ago, when they could have introduced machines with newer features (multicolor options, high speeds, higher temperatures, AI, etc.). While some companies did so and are still (somewhat) in the game, others did not.
Some of these companies have simply stopped altogether, with an example being ANET. That company was once one of the leaders in the industry, but they gave up quite some time ago.
Others shifted into new products. An example of this strategy would be from Kingoon, a long-time 3D printer manufacturer. About two years ago, they shifted into 3D print material sales, and that’s all they do today. And, it seems, they are doing quite well.
Today I noticed another one: LONGER 3D. This company has been around for quite a long time (no pun intended), and has produced many different devices over the years, both filament and resin.
Recently, they announced an entirely new product, the LONGER ePrint.
It’s not a 3D printer. It’s a UV printer.
A UV printer is one that deposits droplets of coloured photopolymer ink that are then instantly cured with a UV light. This technology can produce quite vibrant, full-colour objects, but there are significant limits to the height that can be achieved. In other words, a UV printer can build “mostly flat” full-colour objects.
They are not 3D printers.
The ePrint is featured prominently on LONGER 3D’s website. But do they still sell 3D printers?
It turns out the answer is “sort of”. If you look on their sales pages, the majority of machines are “sold out”, and the few remaining models are significantly marked down.
This tells me that:
- They have stopped producing multiple 3D printer models.
- They are blowing out the remaining inventory of 3D printers.
- They are not marketing any new 3D printers.
In other words, they are effectively exiting the 3D printer manufacturing business.
Why shift into UV printers? I suspect the company was attracted to the technology by several recent successes by a couple of other companies entering that market. One was Ankermake, which stopped making 3D printers and launched a UV printer that collected a massive amount of cash in a crowdfunding launch. Another more recent success is HeyGears, which also entered the UV market.
It seems that LONGER 3D wants some of that, too. And why not? Building a UV printer is similar to building a 3D printer. Each has a motion system, software, etc. The major difference is the use of a different printhead, along with software changes.
LONGER 3D is betting the company that this switch will succeed.
It may very well succeed, as the first entrants to the new market tend to do well. But as more and more companies enter, things will get more competitive.
Meanwhile, the 3D printing market is just a tad less competitive now with the exit of yet another smaller 3D printer manufacturer.
Via LONGER 3D
