BCC Research reveals in its new report, 3-D SCANNING: TECHNOLOGIES AND GLOBAL MARKETS, the global three-dimensional (3-D) scanning market is expected to grow to nearly $8.9 billion by 2018, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.7%. Asia, the fastest-growing regional segment, is moving at a steady 23.2% CAGR.
While the overall 3-D scanning is expected to see rapid growth in the next few years, the largest absolute growth segment is the North America segment, which is expected to reach nearly $5.4 billion by 2018.
Asia, however, is the fastest moving regional segment in this market. With a 23.2% CAGR, it is expected to reach nearly $1.6 billion by 2018.
"Laser triangulation is the system with the greatest presence in the market, which is expected to continue," says BCC Research instrumentation and sensors analyst Paul Bragulla. "This is due to its dominance in the industrial sector, primarily quality control and automated inspection. It also is beneficial in asset generation and body scanning, though body scanning is better served by structured light technology."
3-D scanning technology allows the rapid and accurate creation of a computer model from a physical object. It has applications in almost every industry from manufacturing to entertainment, and rapid development of the technology is allowing simultaneous increases in performance and decreases in cost. These advances will allow the penetration of 3-D scanning into additional markets and industries, as well as deepening its importance to those markets and industries in which it is already used.
3-D SCANNING: TECHNOLOGIES AND GLOBAL MARKETS provides a market overview for 3-D scanning technology that evaluates the current status of the market, the changes from 2012 to 2013, and the projections for the market's likely state in 2018. It contains an in-depth discussion of laser triangulation, conoscopic holography, and structured light scanning technologies as well as an overview of time-of-flight scanning. It also presents an introduction to the critical technical concepts needed to understand 3-D scanning, an analysis of patents relevant to the market, and a profile of 3-D scanning manufacturers and service providers.