By Mark Dickin, Head of Additive Manufacturing, Ricoh 3D
(15 October 2025)
Sources:
- The UK Economy & Additive Market Trends (AMUK Forum, October 2025)
- The Office for National Statistics
- Oxford Economics
- S&P Global
A Strong Start: Renewed Confidence Across UK AM?
The first half of FY25 has marked a return to stability and optimism for the UK Additive Manufacturing (AM) sector (most notably in Q1), following a challenging 2024. Across the industry, demand has improved significantly for both polymer and metal technologies, supported by a stronger-than-expected performance in domestic markets.
Furthermore, the Spring 2025 European AM Survey has highlighted investment expectations have improved, and the AM confidence index is at its highest since the Spring 2021 survey (including strong sentiment, specifically concerning outlook for demand in home and foreign markets).
This resurgence reflects a more positive outlook among manufacturers and engineers who are returning to investment in AM as a means to enhance flexibility, reduce risk, and strengthen supply chains. For Ricoh 3D, this renewed appetite for innovation has created opportunities to deepen our engagement with strategic sectors and reaffirm the role of AM as a critical enabler of sustainable, localised production.
Market Overview: Strengths, Shifts and Sectoral Insights
While global economic headwinds persist, the UK’s relative resilience stands out. The GDP forecast for 2025 sits at +1.3%, underpinned by a strong Q1 performance, and is expected to be largely consistent, remaining at +1.3% by 2027 year-end.
However, with inflation near 4% and the manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) at 46.2 (the lowest of any country or region globally), industrial output remains under pressure — particularly in traditional manufacturing. These figures reinforce the importance of digital production technologies such as AM, which enable businesses to operate efficiently and locally amid broader market volatility.
In the wider European marketplace, the trend for most of FY25 is positive, with several countries above the 50.0 mark, and many of those marginally below are on an upward trend.
We are keeping a close eye on European marketplace trends, in order to shape current and future opportunities for Ricoh 3D and our customers. For example, in the aerospace sector, demand continues to outstrip supply – and long-term growth is heavily supported by civil and defence sectors. We are still working closely with Ricoh’s global R&D team in Japan and our beta customers to accelerate the development of Ricoh’s aluminium binder jetting technology, building solid foundations for future adoption – including the realisation of mass production.
In the medical sector, the market is showing high UK confidence, largely focussing on the growth of patient-specific medical devices and solutions. Ricoh 3D continues to accelerate its strategic focus on polymer AM for medical innovations for both the public and private sectors, also leveraging the Ricoh Group’s business development expertise and go-to-market capabilities.
Lastly, in the automotive sector, there’s been short-term decline due to a rapidly changing landscape (the transition to electric vehicles) with wider socioeconomic supply-shifts. For Ricoh 3D, we are mitigating negative impacts through increased engagement with our key customers and partners, building expert networks regarding lightweighting and tooling applications – in addition to supply chain management considerations.
Materials and Market Dynamics
The Spring 2025 European AM Survey highlighted that metals and plastics recorded the strongest rebound since early 2022, while UK sentiment exceeded European averages in almost all sub-sectors. This aligns with our internal data — a steady increase in demand for high-performance PA12 and polypropylene polymers, especially across medical and industrial customers.
Metal AM also continues to attract growing interest, particularly as supply chains seek to localise high-value production and the increasing demand for electrification. In fact, electric vehicles accounted for just under 46% of the UK automotive market in H1-2025 – with battery-only vehicles being 21.5% of the total market.
At Ricoh 3D, working alongside Ricoh’s global R&D team in Japan, our metal focus is clear: empowering industries to overcome thermal limitations in the era of electrification. As battery manufacturers, system integrators, and OEMs race to deliver energy-dense systems, Ricoh’s aluminium BJT offers a powerful toolset to solve the heat challenges that come with compact, high-powered environments.
By co-creating with our customers and partners, Ricoh is facilitating battery technology solutions including the design and manufacture of inverters, motors, heatsinks, heat exchangers, cooling plates and more.
Economic Pressures and the AM Advantage
The macroeconomic backdrop has been mixed. Modest GDP growth, coupled with ongoing inflation and the lowest UK manufacturing PMI globally, has highlighted structural challenges
Yet, arguably, within this environment, AM’s value proposition becomes even clearer…
Additive Manufacturing offers tangible solutions to rising costs and global uncertainty — from decentralised production and rapid design iteration to reduced dependency on international logistics. Ricoh 3D continues to support customers in mitigating these pressures through localised manufacturing strategies, leveraging AM’s ability to lower lead times, eliminate tooling costs, and reduce waste.
In FY25, we have seen more organisations move from exploratory projects to embedded AM programmes (with our own customers moving through our service offerings: 3D Academy, 3D Print, 3D Innovate, 3D Managed Print, 3D Beyond) — particularly where speed, sustainability, and supply chain resilience are critical drivers.
Moreover, environmental targets and global mandates are accelerating future-friendly technologies. Ricoh 3D is actively supporting and contributing to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), targeting net zero by 2030.
Reflections on Ricoh 3D’s Position
At Ricoh 3D, our hybrid model (combining AM with Ricoh’s broader manufacturing capabilities, industrial inkjet expertise and extended product and service offerings – ‘3D Beyond’) continues to differentiate us. The second half of FY25, we will focus on targeted growth, aiming to recruit a small number of new strategic customers across the industrial, medical, and automotive sectors, whilst, simultaneously, continuing to improve the online experience for A-B transactional customers who are able to ‘self-serve.’
This focused approach ensures business sustainability and allows us to continue providing the level of support and technical partnership our customers expect.
Looking Ahead: Resilience Through Innovation
While the UK’s manufacturing environment remains ‘cautious’, the outlook for additive manufacturing is positive. The country’s leadership within Europe reflects not only stronger economic fundamentals but also a shift in mindset — recognising AM as a mature, commercially viable production method rather than a niche prototyping tool.
For Ricoh 3D, the priorities are clear:
- Harness ‘Kaizen’ culture for further quality and process developments.
- Co-create the next generation of thermal management applications.
- Leverage Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) to manufacture leading applications.
- Strengthen collaborations in our key growth sectors (industrial, medical, automotive)
- Remain customer-centric, empowering customers and partners to realise AM value-add.
- Help customers transition to decentralised, digital manufacturing models.
The first half of FY25 has reaffirmed the UK AM community’s resilience. By combining technical innovation with strategic customer partnership and co-creation opportunities, Ricoh 3D remains committed to shaping a more flexible, sustainable, and future-ready manufacturing landscape.