'The 3D printing market in China is theoretically huge, but it is still catching up to 'North America & Europe' - Ryan Liu

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Chinese manufacturers still have some catching up to do when it comes to the application on additive manufacturing, according to Ryan Liu.

The new Anisoprint CEO gave his perspective on the 3D printing market in China on the latest episode of the Additive Insight podcast.

Liu was appointed to the role of Anisoprint CEO earlier this year, with founder Fedor Antonov transitioning to the role of CTO. The company also moved its headquarters to Shanghai, a year after opening its Shanghai office.

In doing so, it has positioned itself as an early mover when it comes to composite 3D printing in China, but concedes its new domestic market still has some maturing to do.

“The market in China, theoretically, is huge,” Liu said. “But if you look at industrial 3D printing, the market mostly goes to North America and Europe. The understanding of how to use this technology, most of the Chinese manufacturers are still behind. The good news is [the market's] catching up, but our top priority is still focusing on the global market because it [requires] much less effort to educate the market. You just have to deliver a good solution.”

China, as well as Anisoprint’s new home, is seen as a bigger part of Anisoprint’s ‘second wave’ as a company. The first is to continue serving the more mature Western markets, helping manufacturers to identify applications for its composite 3D printing process and get them into production.

In parallel, Anisoprint will settle into the Chinese market, gradually making connections and educating the market before replicating much of what has been done in North America and Europe with its Chinese-based clients. It will also forge ahead with advancements to its technology, enhancing the user interface when it comes to design and increasing the reliability of prints.

The company is excited about the prospect of developing the Chinese sector for continuous fibre 3D printing technology, but is not shying away from the work it will take to mature the market.

“[One of the biggest challenges] is that continuous fibre solutions are still relatively new, not only to China but to the world,” Liu said. “And there’s still a tremendous amount of work to do to improve this product and improve this technology. On the one hand, we want to polish our product. On the other hand, we want to further develop the possibility of this very new technology.”

Anisoprint expects to close a second round of investment in the second quarter of 2024, and will invest much of its R&D efforts into the development of a robotic continuous fibre 3D printing solution. The company, in time, also has ambitions to list on the stock market in China. 

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