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Hello Ed-
You have a terrific website. We are a developer of curriculum and hands-on materials
for schools. We develop many products that have 2 month and 18 month development cycles.
We are looking at entry level RP machines (3d printers) and would love to get a sense of
the ones we have identified in our price range (but would listen to reasons to go outside
of this range.)
The machines we identified are:
Dimension SST
OBJET 250
Z-Corp. 310
After seeing the Z-Corp., it does not make sense to get something in this price range
that is as finicky as that one is to post process.
Any comments you might want to share would be appreciated, but certainly not expected,
Thanks,
TN
Hi TN:
There are probably no reasons for you to go outside that price range unless you need
some specialized characteristics that can only be had with another technology;
(sterolithography: resol and finish; selective laser sintering: final useable plastic
parts). A lot more $ for either, though - and a lot more training.
The tradeoffs among the machines you're considering are roughly as follows:
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If full color is important you might consider the Z310's color counterpart, but the post
processing and sandy finishes are same as the 310. Also, Z corp. technology is much faster
than others, although still slow by other standards. If full color or speed is not
important, but functionality is - pass on this machine.
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If high resolution is important, your best choice is the Eden250 - but it's quite a bit
more money and the choice of materials and their mechanical properties might be limiting.
Pass on this if functionality is more important than appearance.
-
The Dimension offers pretty nice looking parts these days - and most important - it's
materials allow use in operational prototypes and even limited production. Also,
office/lab operation is clean and quiet. Many people like that, but it is sloooow. For
your kind of products, probably your best bet.
One other thing you might consider is Subtractive CNC technology from Roland and other
providers. But it's machining, and the chips fly, and harder to program unusual surfaces.
Also it might be necessary to do things in multiple set-ups, but it's a hell of a lot less
money and there's a much wider choice of final materials. We provide links in our
commercial directory pages to most of the players.
Also consider using a SB or 2 or 3 to test technologies before buying. The complete
range of them is available locally and it's strongly recommended if you are inexperienced.
You can find many hundreds of them in our SB directory.
Thanks and regards,
Ed Grenda
Castle Island Co.
The Worldwide Guide to Rapid Prototyping
Dear Ed-
Thank you for the time you took in listing pros and cons. We have had the vendors here
on the three RP machines that you gave us guidance on. I feel that your comments are right
on the mark - specifically for us.
It would seem that the Dimension is the right machine for us at this juncture -
especially if photopolymer technology will come down in cost in the next 1-2 years, as my
company's appetite for more speed and greater
throughput increases.
I will check out your website and look into Roland. We have cnc'g ability now, but have
not invested in surfacing software to do complex parts. Perhaps we will find something in
Roland that we like.
Thank you, again, I hope that we can do something for you some time,
TN
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