With nearly 50 3D printer systems to choose from, including jetting; lamination; electron beam melting or direct metal deposition; photo curing; and sintering, how do you narrow that down to the best 3D printer for your needs? Introduced in 2010, the Make Parts Fast 3D printer selector tool was created to help you narrow your choices. It is updated as new systems are introduced into the market. If you’ve been following the activity of the past 10 months or so, you know that a number of new 3D printers have been announced.
The selector tool will help you reduce your ideal choices to two or three machines. At that point, you may wish to consult the manufacturer to conduct a test part or trial run.
The Make Parts Fast Rapid Prototyping configurator is an easy to use tool to help you narrow your choice of AM machine from the nearly 50 available machines.
While no system will have every convenience that you need, some machine processes require more processing on the back end, some on the front end; some require support structures, some don’t, you will find one or two that definitely fit your application.
Price is only one factor in your choice, and it is not the most important factor. Initial purchase price often does not take into account the cost of ongoing use, purchase of materials, training, waste, and so on. Price is not necessarily an indicator of quality or value; that all depends on your needs.
We spoke with each manufacturer about the selection criteria listed in the selector tool. Information on machine size, weight, laser parameters, and so on are available in nearly all brochures; so once you’ve narrowed your choice, that information is easy to find.
Use of the selector tool is free, and you can select for a couple of items to try it out. After you’ve input a few parameters, though, you will be asked for some basic information and asked to create a password. This step helps ensure that your searches are private and specific to you.
Leslie Langnau
llangnau@wtwhmedia.com
Filed Under: 3D printing • additive manufacturing • stereolithography, Make Parts Fast
