3D Touch Probe Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)

The Global 3D Touch Probe market size is forecast to reach $287 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2021 to 2026. Growing shift from conventional manufacturing towards automated industrial operations along with rising investments towards part manufacturing within aerospace and defense sector can be considered some of the major factors driving the growth for 3D touch probes. Factors such as increasing demand for premium smartphones and laptops having metal alloy encasings along with growing shift towards intricate designed parts which requires highly accurate measurements, and are also analyzed to boost the growth of 3D touch probes and other computer numerical control machine tools in the long run. Due to the growing trend towards limiting CO2 emissions, there is increasing demand for wind power generation, which in turn is raising the need for manufacturing wind turbine blades. Since the manufacturing process of turbine blades are complex and require three-dimensional measurements with utmost accuracy and precision, the market growth for 3D touch probes will be positively impacted in the coming time. The rising need for hard wired 3D Touch probes for optical transmission and optoelectronic switch measurements will in particular drive the market.

The report: “3D Touch Probe Industry Outlook – Forecast (2021-2026)”, by IndustryARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the 3D Touch Probe industry.

By Type: Hard Wired, Wireless

By Transmission Technology: Optical Signal Transmission, Radio Signal Transmission, Others

By Category: Digital, Analog/Mechanical

By Offering: Probe Heads, Touch Trigger Probes, Scanning Probes, Styli, Others

By Application: Machine Centres (3-axis, 5-axis), Standalone Machine Tools (Lathes, Milling Machines, Grinders), CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine), Inspection Robots, Others

By End Users: Automotive, Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Electronics, General Manufacturing, Railways, Marine, Metal Processing & Fabrication, Heavy Machinery, Tool & Die, Others

By Geography: North America (U.S, Canada, Mexico), Europe (U.K, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Others), APAC (China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia & New Zealand, Others), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Others) and RoW (Middle East, Africa)

Based on transmission technology segmentation, Optical signal transmission segment is analyzed to grow with the highest CAGR of around 5.3% in the global 3D Touch Probe market during the forecast period 2021-2026. These 3D touch probes are capable of conducting operations like setting up inspection on small to mid-sized machining centres with an exceptional resistance towards light interference along with modulated transmission. Owing to growing usage of high-speed machineries fitted with small tapers or hollow tapers across various industry verticals, the need towards such touch probes have been also getting impacted significantly. Moreover, due to its capability of offering optimized reduction in setup time as well as scrap and fixture costs, optical transmission based 3D touch probes have been gaining wide popularity across varied industrial applications for high performance sensing, quality control, reliability, accuracy and many more. In November 2020, Heidenhain announced about the launch of a compact and high accuracy touch probe, named TS 750, particularly designed for use in grinding machines. This touch probe is capable of interchangeable with optical transmission touch probe during mounting, thereby making it an ideal choice for serving in-process part inspection within a grinding machine. Such factors is further set to drive the demand towards 3D touch probes with optical signal transmission in the long run.

Automotive sector is anticipated to account for the highest CAGR of around 6.4% in the global 3D Touch Probe market during the forecast period. Factors such as growing demand towards automobiles, increasing investments towards development of hybrid electric vehicles, expansion or establishment of auto part or component manufacturing facilities can be considered as some of the crucial factors analyzed to drive the market growth towards 3D touch probes in the coming time period. Owing to such factors, the demand towards improving hybrid vehicle engine designs as well as many other automotive components is also rising rapidly, thus creating a positive impact towards opting for 3D touch probing solutions in order to reduce production time with optimum manufacturing efficiency. In comparison to conventional CNC machines, touch probes combine capability of offering better or optimum resistance towards various signal inference losses, thus raising its adoptability within automotive application areas. Utilizing 3D touch probes helps the automakers and parts manufacturers in developing forged wheels, car chassis and so on, thus improving manufacturing quality regarding forged or fabricated metallic parts as well as castings. In June 2021, one of the leading automotive companies, Toyota Motor Corp announced about its plans of investing about $210 million in order to expand its engine production within West Virginia. With this investment, the company had aimed of boosting its production capacity by 70,000 engines a year at the West Virginia plant, which is comparatively higher from its annual production for assembled vehicles in North America. Such investments towards increasing production of auto part manufacturing from leading automakers is further set to propel the need for various machine tools, CNC machines, inspection robots and so on, impacting the growth of 3D touch probes in the near future. 

APAC region is analyzed to grow with the highest CAGR of around 5.7% in the global 3D touch probe market during the forecast period 2021-2026. Factors such as rising investments towards electric vehicle or autonomous cars manufacturing, growing shift towards automating processes across various end-use sectors, governmental regulations or standards regarding industrial safety and so on can be considered as some of the prominent factors analyzed to drive the market growth of 3D touch probe within the region. In April 2021, an Indian company, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd had revealed its plans of investing about Rs. 3000 Crores (around $10.08M) for its electric vehicle business in the coming three years. This investment was a part of its aim of putting around 5 lakh electric vehicles on Indian roads by 2025. Additionally, the company had already opened up its electric technologies plant within Bengaluru, meant for producing battery packs, power electronics as well as motors, alongside its investment in a new manufacturing unit at its Chakan plant for EVs production. Such investments are further set to aid the growth of various auto part manufacturing tools used in 3D design or prototyping, thus facilitating the growth towards 3D touch probes in the near future. With growing demand towards consumer electronics across various Asian countries including India, China and so on, the need for precise and accurate manufacturing activities is becoming highly essential, impacting the growth of 3D touch probes. In addition, with the surge of COVID-19 pandemic, demand for medical devices have been facing a significant growth, thereby raising the need for 3D touch probes to be used along CNC machining tools. In April 2020, the Indian Government had revealed about its plans of inviting Japanese medical device companies for shifting its manufacturing base from China to India, with subsidizing about $100 million. Such initiatives to drive “Make in India” programme, by enhancing medical sector through supporting new medical device manufacturing operations within the country was meant to contribute towards new machine tools, CNC machines and many more, impacting the growth of 3D touch probes owing to its high precision, accuracy and reliability in the coming time.

Increasing shift from conventional manufacturing towards automating industrial operations can be considered as one of the major factors boosting the growth of 3D touch probe market. 3D scanning acts as a prime requirement of CNC machines for controlling a broad range of complex machineries be it grinders, lathes, and so on. Deploying a 3D touch probe helps the manufacturers in automating various demanding applications including measuring geometries such as holes, edges, studs, grooves and many more with utmost precision and reliability, optimizing assembly line operations. Adoption of 3D touch probes have been gaining wide popularity across varied end-use verticals including aerospace & defense, automotive, medical and so on due to its capabilities of offering object scanning from three dimensions with high rate of accuracy and precision. Inspection robots have emerged as a popular alternative across several industries to simplify the quality inspection procedures with faster outcomes. Deployment of touch probes within inspection robots serve the purpose of the end of an arm tool, thereby allowing the robots measure optimal features, eventually meeting the need for more advanced as well as extensive inspections offering more accurate and reliable measurements. In June 2019, Katsa Oy had commissioned Flexmill Oy in order to design as well as build robotised cell for overcoming challenges regarding finish-machine and gear deburring operations. As a part of automating the manual gear deburring processes, Flexmill had revealed about developing a robotic cell through incorporating ABB robots with Renishaw’s RMP60 touch probes. Such investments towards supporting the adoption of advanced manufacturing tools for driving automation within the assembly line is analyzed to drive the demand for 3D touch probes in the long run.

Rising investments towards part manufacturing within aerospace and defense sector is analyzed to be one of the major drivers in the growth of 3D touch probe market. Owing to rise of aerospace and defense shift sector towards automating manufacturing processes related to aircraft parts or components, the need for automated CNC machining as well as CMM machine tools have been rising significantly. With rapid growth of these industrial sectors overtime, manufacturers have started adopting advanced manufacturing technologies including smart manufacturing, digital manufacturing and so on, in order to simplify as well as improve application areas like CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication and many more with highest accuracy, precision as well as efficiency. Deploying 3D touch probes help the aerospace or defense component manufacturers in delivering faster and repeatable 3D measurements, particularly ideal for applications with tight tolerance as well as those requiring high speed measurement. In January 2020, Airbus announced about its plans regarding development of 63 A320 family aircraft, as a part of expanding its industrial footprint in the U.S by increasing its production rates by the year 2021. Additionally, the company had revealed about investing an amount of $40 billion, with the construction of an onsite additional support hangar. Such factors further set to boost the growth towards 3D touch probe for serving aircraft manufacturing operations in the long run.

Adoption of substitutes such as 3D laser scanners act as one of the major factors restraining the market growth of 3D touch probe. Compared to touch probes, 3D laser scanning serve as a fast and reliable way of creating digital design files from existing parts, prototypes and others more easily and effectively. Utilizing 3D laser scanning technique helps in streamlining the designing as well as production processes across major industry verticals including automotive, aerospace & defense, electronics and many more, creating wide popularity in the markets. In addition, various industries have been facing surge in business growth overtime, creating a need for serving application areas including quality control, dimensional analysis, reverse engineering and so on with high levels of accuracy and precision. Moreover, factors such as ease of transport and usage compared to large machine tools or CNC machines helps in offering faster scans, while improving business productivity for the organizations in the long-term.

Product launches, acquisitions, and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the 3D Touch Probe market. The key players in the 3D Touch Probe market include Renishaw plc, Hexagon AB, Dr. Johannes Heidenhain GmbH, Blum-Novotest GmbH, Tormach Inc., Marposs S.p.A, Metrol Co. Ltd., Mahr GmbH, Carbide 3D and Carl Zeiss AG among others.