So I had to go to the Consumer Electronics Show this year and decided to take a detour through the 3D printing display area. This is an industry only show filled with media, buyers, exhibitors and lots more - over 150,000 people attend and it is in the top 3 biggest trade shows that come to Las Vegas every January.
The 3D printing exhibits are all in one location in one of the display halls and draw most of the small to large players. Everyone from FormLabs to EnvisionTec to Autodesk are on display with most of their sales, marketing and technical staff on hand. I'm not an expert on 3D printing outside of my interest here and what I've gleaned doing a lot of online research. So I was able to ask a lot of questions and view a lot of machines and samples. Overall I came away with a few solid ideas and impressions and still have some minor confusion regarding some of the ways specs are reported and how those correlate to the output.
The 3D printer market is exploding. Once relegated to high-end prototyping with just a very small handful of companies making printers (for big $$$), we are now seeing a ton of low-cost units starting to reach the market. Technology and volume is changing and expanding very quickly in this segment with the resolutions and build volumes (size of things you can print) going up and costs (printers and consumables) coming down. Overall it will be interesting to see what exactly a general consumer will do with a 3D printer. Even large companies like Dremel have introduced consumer-level 3D printers now that you can buy at big-box stores like Home Depot. I could see some of the general public buying these, printing a couple things and then letting it sit in a corner because they don't really have any practical use for it. Hobbyists like us however see some big potential and low-cost manufacturing could become a niche thing as well. We'll see what happens.
One of the more amusing things I saw was the commercial amusement use (for lack of a better term) where people would get a complete body scan like this:
and the company makes a 3D model based on that scan that looks like this:
Just a little creepy not to mention what you do with that lovely statue of yourself is beyond me. One company would even take a 3D scan of your face and put it on an action figure that comes in a commercial box and everything.
Anyway, the printers on the market are divided into primarily two kinds of 3D printers. The flood of recent low-cost units use a plastic filament (looks like weed whacker line) that gets fed into a print head, heat up and builds up layers like a baker piping frosting on a cake. This technology generally produces 3D prints that are a little rougher, have obviously/visible layers and aren't typically used for things requiring very high detail (engineering prototypes, jewelry, etc., etc.). The filament material is cheaper than resin and generally these printers are a bit quicker due to their lower "resolution" (higher layer thickness).
Filament printer:
Large-scale filament printer:
The other type of 3D printer uses stereolithography (SLA) which uses light (most commonly laser or projector) to fuse a layer of material in a liquid resin bath. The SLA printers typically have higher resolution (smaller layer thickness measured in microns) thanks to the very narrow focus beam of light from a laser or projector. Because the layers are much smaller, the print times take longer. Resin is also (right now anyway) more expensive than the plastic filaments.
SLA printer:
Based on most of the samples I looked at, you would need a printer capable of making 3D prints at 30 microns or less to get an acceptable amount of smoothness. The specs on these printers are a bit confusing in terms of how they relate to what you see in the final print. There are a number of variables involved that include the type of resin you use, the stepper motor for the platform, the type of projector or laser and the amount of beam focus just to name a few. Usually the specs report an X/Y access measurement (in microns) and a Z axis measurement in microns. To add more confusion they will also sometimes list a "Laser Spot Size" or "Minimum Feature Size" as well.
Overall though in the samples I saw, the printers that claimed a 30 micron resolution or less produced the least amount of stepping getting closest to a smooth surface. Generally the 25-35 micron printers cost between $1500 - $3500. The few companies making 10 micron printers cost between $5000-$6000 dollars. At 10 microns the pieces are by all outward appearances almost completely smooth. Or put another way, I wouldn't hesitate to use them in a second for model making. The 25 micron printers are actually "good enough" that I would also likely use them. Here is an example from the XYZ Printing Noble 1 (which was announced at CES and won't be available till 3rd quarter this year). This printer costs only $1500, has a decent build volume that could handle an n scale passenger car and prints down to 25 microns.
Chess piece:
close up 1:
close up 2:
For a little perspective, notice in the photo above my finger prints and how deep those grooves are in comparison to the build lines you see on the final piece. If you look at this piece from a foot away you don't see the lines. Further, this is an unfinished piece. Painting it will actually level out the surface even more (particularly the primer you use).
Here is another example. This was printed on a FormLabs 1+ which costs around $3000 (including resin and a finishing kit) and also prints at 25 microns. The black cyliner is part of a mockup of a surgical device and was a slide piece (you can see the slide marks) that inserts into a larger cylinder. This piece was beat up pretty good from use. Again these are unfinished pieces with no paint:
Here is a closeup (sorry this was shot through glass in a display case):
You can see the build layers in the closeup, but even on a round cylinder, this is very acceptable.
The FormLabs guys are actually aware of the model makers, particularly model railroaders. I chatted with him for a bit and he offered to print up some samples if I send him files. Mike Skibbe has some Solidworks models already produced and we'll send them some worst case n scale stuff with rivets, passenger car fluting and maybe a tank car with rounded ends and rounded relief dome on top.
Honestly at this point I may take a serious look at one of these printers if the samples come back at a detail level I can live with. It will probably be a couple weeks or more till we get something back from them, but I think there are huge possibilities in this whole thing.
-jamie
