How Unionfab Has Built the World’s Largest Fleet Of 3D Printing Production Machines

With nearly 800 systems (and growing), ranging from over 500 SLA machines from UnionTech to Stratasys, BLT and even HP for metal binder jetting.

Unionfab, a global leader in industrial additive manufacturing, has officially positioned itself as the world’s largest production-based 3D printing service by number of machines. This is a known fact in the industry but the sheer size of the company may not be immediately clear: With nearly 800 industrial 3D printers (and counting) installed across its production sites, UnionFab surpasses every competitor in both machine count and technological diversity.

Let’s explore the scope of their operations, the incredible scale of their printer factory, and how this company is literally reshaping global AM (imagine if all those SLA systems had come from 3D Systems…).

Total 3D Printers at Unionfab: A Breakdown by Technology

UnionFab’s unmatched printer fleet covers a comprehensive range of 3D printing technologies, including SLA, SLS, SLM, FDM, MJF, PolyJet, DLP, and even metal Binder Jetting (from both ExOne and HP, but not yet from EASYMFG). Each printer is optimized for specific production needs—from small, highly detailed parts to massive, functional components. UnionFab houses over 727 production-ready 3D printers. Their SLA fleet alone comprises over 540 UnionTech machines, a number that dwarfs many competitors’ entire inventories.

Today, like many other large AM service providers both in the East and in the West, Unionfab offers 3D printing, CNC, Casting, Injection Molding and other manufacturing services with multiple materials, fast turnaround and low cost.

A division of its mother company, UnionTech, Unionfab has taken up the position of Asia’s leading 3D printing manufacturing company for rapid prototyping and on-demand production parts. Counting technologies beyond 3D printing, the total number of manufacturing machines tops 1000, across five mega-scale production factories in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Anhui, all in China.

Unionfab provides parts manufacturing services from 1 to 100,000 pieces, helping customers achieve one-stop service from design, rapid prototyping, and direct digital manufacturing. In addition, the Unionfab online platform is networked to hundreds of manufacturing 3D printers. This guarantees fast lead times while offering a broad array of capabilities such as order management, customization, quoting, AI process, etc. Unionfab buyers range from small start-ups to Fortune 100 companies. The company claim it has over 30,000 customers across the globe.

Unionfab’s growth trajectory

Founded in 2000, UnionTech, the mother company of Unionfab, specializes in industrial-grade non-metallic 3D printing. The company has more than 20 product series, 68 niche products and 178 patents. Since its founding, UnionTech has maintained rapid growth for nearly a decade, with an average annual revenue growth rate exceeding 50% and equipment sales exceeding 80%.

Unionfab’s inflection point occurred in 2019, when the company established three super factories housing a total of 400 industrial-grade 3D printers, 200 CNC machine tools, and additional equipment. The factories were fully digitalized, with internally developed ERP, MES, and APS systems in place. In 2021, Unionfab became a strategic partner for the material manufacturing giants Evonik and BASF, enabling the two European companies to research and develop high-performance materials for 3D printing, thereby expanding their presence in additive manufacturing (AM).

From small-scale precision with DLP (like the T190 system) to massive SLA builds like the G2100 (up to 2.1 meters wide), UnionFab’s machines can now handle everything from prototyping to end-use part production.

Additionally, UnionFab doesn’t rely on a single technology. Their printers span eight additive manufacturing methods, including systems from competitors in both China and the West, covering both polymer and metal applications. The machine fleet includes large-format FDM 3D printers and PolyJet systems from Stratasys, as well as metal 3D printers from BLT (mostly), EOS and Nikon SLM Solutions (one of each). In addition, with 7 metal binder jetting (MetalJet) systems from HP, the company is the largest known user of this technology as well.

Serving industries like aerospace, automotive, healthcare, robotics, and consumer goods, UnionFab delivers high-volume, high-mix part production with industrial reliability.

Source: www.voxelmatters.com