3D Printing Industry in Canada
The Canadian edition of The 3D Printing World Guide was published on 2025-01-21. It featured eleven companies representing five segments of Canada 3D printing market.
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Canada 3D printing industry
The history of 3D printing in Canada has been little different from many other countries. During the 1980s, the initial technologies used were, of course, those from 3D Systems and Stratasys, SLA and FDM, respectively.
Systems from these companies, such as early Dimension gear, were typically installed in the engineering departments of universities for exploration and research.
However, it took much time for industry to catch on. Canada is a relatively conservative country, and many operations tend not to switch to something new unless someone else is doing it already. As students were exposed to the technology, they gradually filled the workforce, and business experiments with 3D printing began.
I recall being at early informational sessions in the 2010 era, where the crowd was asked, “Who among us is using 3D printing?” And seeing few, if any, hands go up. While I was certain there were companies using the tech, the number of hands was far less than expected. The conclusion at the time was that the few who were 3D printing knew it could be a competitive advantage and didn’t want to let their competitors know they were up to something.
Many experiments failed, as they did in most countries, because businesses initially attempted simply reprinting existing designs that were not optimized for or leveraged 3D print technology. That phase took many years to overcome and is still a problem within some companies.
At this point, there were plenty of individuals on the loose that knew about the technology, and two things happened.
One was entrepreneurship, where several ventures sought to directly overcome issues in 3D printing that emerged after usage gradually increased in industry. One example would be AON3D, based in Montreal, which attempted to solve problems in 3D printing high-temperature materials.
Another venture was Precision ADM, based in Winnipeg, which launched a major metal 3D print service for companies unable to operate complex metal 3D printing infrastructure. A third might be Toronto-based Mosaic Manufacturing, which solved the multicolor desktop 3D printing problem with their unique Palette technology, and has now shifted their focus towards 3D print arrays.
The other effect was one of discovery. In Vancouver, friends attempting to produce better motorcycle parts developed more advanced FFF 3D print technology, which eventually transformed into Pantheon. 3DQue, also from Vancouver, discovered a way to automatically release prints from FFF 3D printers, which they later leveraged into a full-on 3D print farm cloud software service.
Today we see not only several key 3D print ventures like those mentioned above, but there is growing use of the technology in many industries, particularly aerospace. Prototyping is still a major use of the technology, but it’s clear that production of end-use parts in manufacturing is the road ahead.
On the desktop side, it’s now very common to see small 3D printers in homes, libraries, makerspaces, and other public places. It’s no longer the magic technology it was ten or fifteen years ago, as today’s highly automated desktop systems are increasingly purchased by non-technical individuals.
These will be used for hobbies, but also exploration of new ideas. We may very well see a wave of small ventures emerging that base their products on 3D printing in coming years.
by Kerry Stevenson (Fabbaloo.com)
Kerry Stevenson is Founder and Editor of Fabbaloo.com, website about Additive Manufacturing & 3D printing, created in October 2007. He’s been writing for Fabbaloo since it began under the gradually-becoming-less-mysterious pseudonym “General Fabb”