Dr. Guai: The Current State of China’s 3D Printing Farms in 2025 — Fiercely Competitive, Yet Each Finding Its Own Path

At the 2025 2nd Annual 3D Printing Farm Conference—co-hosted by Panda3dp.com and Formnext Shenzhen, and sponsored by Tripo AI—Zhang Ximing (known online as “Dr. Guai”), General Manager of Fuzhou Wanxiang 3D, delivered a keynote titled “The Present and Future of 3D Printing Farms.” His talk dissected the industry from four perspectives: development stages, the “involution” gripping the value chain, survival strategies for farms of different scales, and opportunities on the horizon.

1. Development Stages: From “Blind Entry” to “Full Bloom”

Dr. Guai divided China’s 3D printing farm evolution into three phases:

· Germination (Aug 2023 – Jun 2024): Sparked by the “carrot knife” craze, the industry experienced a blind rush, with farms mushrooming from hundreds to several thousand. Simply powering on machines generated profits.

· High-Speed Growth (Jun 2024 – Dec 2025): Explosive equipment sales (some dealers moving 2–3k units per month), with farms expanding from dozens to hundreds or even thousands of machines. Public awareness of FDM soared.

· Full Bloom (2026 onward): As the market matures, industry users will recognize diverse applications, driving booms in personalization and small-batch production.

2. Current Reality: “Involution” and a World of Extremes

The industry now sits at the end of phase two, marked by relentless competition:

· Price Wars: Toy prints are thinner and lighter, often reduced to “cheap-and-low-quality” products, with inferior goods crowding out better ones.

· Polarized Capacity: 20% of farms are overwhelmed with orders, while 80% struggle to find any.

· Regional Splits: Inland farms (e.g., Xi’an) reliant on local tourism are shrinking; coastal hubs (Yiwu, Chenghai), benefiting from exports and distribution, are thriving.

3. A Squeezed Value Chain: No One Spared

· Equipment:

o National farm fleet: ~160,000 units (vs. 70–80k last year).

o Prices plummeted—Bambu Lab P1S dropped from ¥5,600 to just over ¥3,000; P1P from ¥4,000 to ¥2,600; A1 from ¥2,100 to ¥1,400.

o Pain points unresolved: low efficiency in multi-color printing, high energy use (2 kWh/day per machine), poor batch stability, vibration issues, and small platforms forcing frequent manual intervention.

· Materials:

o Once scarce (Mar 2024), now oversupplied.

o Competition spans every dimension: resin grade (US → Thailand → domestic → modified), purity (virgin → recycled → CaCO₃-filled), spool weight (shorted by 30–50 g), and logistics (local delivery, free express).

o Prices plunged from ¥27,000/ton to ¥14,000–16,000/ton.

4. Three Types of Farms, Three Survival Paths

The sector now consists of small, scattered, messy, and large farms—each with its own way of staying alive.

5. Capital Steps In: The Future Lies in “Rapid Customization”

Since early 2025, consulting firms, listed companies, and state-owned enterprises have been actively researching the farm industry, signaling growing investment interest.

· Core Value of 3D Printing: Rapid customization.

o Large farms deliver “rapid batch customization” (trial runs from a single file, zero tooling costs).

o Small farms excel in “rapid personal customization,” outsourcing surges in orders to larger facilities.

· Rising Barriers: Farms lacking business acumen, design capacity, or operational management will be eliminated. Survivors will be those with product development skills and supply chain leverage.

Conclusion: Involution Is Not the End, but the Beginning

Dr. Guai closed with a reminder: involution is an inevitable stage of industry growth. The real value of 3D printing farms lies in drastically lowering the cost of creative trial-and-error and batch customization. Opportunities in the next two years remain plentiful—but only for those who can pinpoint their niche within the value chain and build defensible core capabilities.