ogent.uk

Currently available professional 3d printers

2022 Oct 20

WIP

This is a look into which 3d printers are currently available, from ~£500 up to the £10k mark. So not hobby grade but also not for use in industrial products.

There are a lot of features to consider in 3d printing but the core attributes off the top of my head are:

  • Technology: Fused Deposition Moulding (FDM), Stereolithography (SLA), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) to name the most popular, in that order. Each have their own advantage, around cost, quality, speed and faff.
    • SLA resins are (all of them?) toxic so require careful handling until the parts are cured. They also require washing / curing process on top of the printing process SLA
  • Print volume: standard hobby grade FDM printers have volumes 220x220x250mm. FDM printers tend to have the largest build volumes for the same price.
  • Multi extrusion/material: currently for FDM , some printers may be able to switch between materials or extrude different colours at the same time.
  • Precision: layer thickness & dimensional accuracy
  • Networked: can you request prints over the network
  • enclosed build volume: useful for printing toxic substances, may have HEPA filters etc
  • leveling: auto levelling systems should improve print reliability
  • available materials: may be limited to an ecosystem or limited by machine max temperatures and other features
  • extruder type: for FDM, direct drive is generally seen as more desirable
  • and many others!

The companies considered:

Detailed list

Form 3+

Form 3L

Ultimaker S5 Pro, bundle

Ultimaker S5 Pro

Prusa SL1S SPEED Bundle

Prusa i3 MK3S+

Sermoon D3

3D Print Mill

Others looked at but discarded

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