Arburg exits additive manufacturing market

Arburg has announced that it is withdrawing from the additive manufacturing market and closing its ARBURGadditive division at the end of this year.  

The company will continue to provide service and spare parts to existing customers and users of its Freeformer 3D printers.  

“This business decision was made after careful evaluation and consideration of the current market situation and the current economic parameters,” Armin Schmiedeberg, chairman of Arburg’s advisory board, said in a press release.  

The Freeformer platform launched at K 2013 and became available in the U.S. in 2015. Unlike many additive manufacturing platforms, Freeformers process standard resin pellets. 

The company said in the press release that the segment was not able to meet its economic goals, and the global 3D printing market has not developed as expected.  

The additive manufacturing space, while it continues to make technological advancements, is still finding its niche and has gone through a series of mergers, near-mergers and legal disputes in recent years.  

“The current economic situation also requires us to concentrate fully on our core business, injection molding machine construction,” Schmiedeberg said. 

 In an interview with Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing (PMM) in 2024, Martin Baumann, president and CEO of Arburg Inc., Rocky Hill, Conn., said Freeformer buyers in the U.S. tended to be highly specialized companies that were not always injection molders.  

Arburg’s traditional molding machinery sales force was initially responsible for selling Freeformers when they were first introduced, Baumann said, but eventually the company transitioned to a dedicated additive manufacturing sales team. “We found out that it is a different market. It is different customers,” he told PMM. 

Wohlers Associates, a consulting firm specializing in additive manufacturing, offered analysis in its weekly newsletter.  

At its launch in 2013, “the entry of a respected mainstream injection molding machine producer into 3D printing was seen as a positive indication of how additive technology could complement traditional plastic manufacturing. Product development proceeded steadily and, despite the systems’ ability to produce high-quality parts, sales never gained traction,” according to Wohlers.

“The cessation of Arburg’s AM business is another example of the disappointment experienced by mainstream machine companies when expectations for the 3D printing market did not materialize,” the Wohlers analysis continued. “While the AM sector has continued to grow at an above-average historical rate exceeding 20 percent annually since the late 1980s, companies like Arburg entered the field expecting even higher growth.” 

In addition to the Freeformer, ARBURGadditive's portfolio also includes the filament printers and silicone printers of Arburg's sister company innovatiQ. Arburg acquired and renamed the company, formerly known as German RepRap, in 2020. 

In addition to the Freeformer, ARBURGadditive's portfolio also includes the filament printers and silicone printers of Arburg's sister company innovatiQ. 

Arburg is based in Lossberg, Germany, and manufactures injection molding, automation and other plastics processing equipment.