"Consider day-to-day maintenance and costs when choosing your 3D printer"
"Users of the Formlabs, Form 2 3D printer reported a success rate of over 95% on millions of prints across tens of thousands of machines."
How easy a 3D printer is to use, and how reliable it will be in production are also important considerations. After all, your team is going to have to learn how to use the equipment and maintain it on a daily basis.
1. Try to get a sense of the learning curve that will come with a new 3D printer by watching videos online, visiting a trade show, contacting sales, or asking colleagues about their experience.
2. Think carefully about the equipment’s setup requirements. Some newer printers are designed intuitively enough to start printing straight out of the box. Other more complicated machines require a service technician to be present during setup.
3. Pay close attention to the types of everyday interactions and maintenance the printer will need once it is up and running. Automatic resin dispensing, available on select SLA machines and material jetting printers, can make a big difference in keeping a clean, low-maintenance production environment, and also allows for quick switching between materials.
4. Dig deep into published reliability information, and make sure that a manufacturer has appropriate warranties and service offerings to ensure you’ll be taken care of if a service is needed.
Early 3D printers had an infamous reputation for spending half of their life in service, with many failed prints even when they were online. Fortunately, the latest generation of printers are pushing beyond this. For example, users of the Form 2 3D printer reported a success rate of over 95% on millions of prints across tens of thousands of machines.