When choosing a 3D printer, you need to consider how much you want to invest in the printer and what specifically you will use it for. You can get the cheapest 3D printers in just a few thousand, but it is important to keep in mind that the print quality is not very high and you need to assemble and calibrate the printer correctly. Assembled and calibrated printers are a bit more expensive. How you can get the best help from the 3d printing powder supplier is also clear here.
If you already have a printer, you can print basic parts and purchase special parts online. Price of parts depends on quality and particular brand. Most plastic parts are available as RepRap and are freely available for free.
You can get a cheap Chinese printer, a copy of Prusa starting at $ 3,000. If you want better printing of models it is better to invest at least 10 000 $ or more. Professional printers are available from about 100000 $.
RepRap
RepRap is an open source 3D printer project. This allows everyone to print their 3D printer. You can print all plastic components and the remaining hardware on Amazon or other selling sites. The RepRap community is large, and so many printer bugs and drawbacks have been resolved. The community keeps coming up with new updates so you can upgrade your printer for better performance, design, etc. You can buy a kit or an already assembled printer if you are not as technically skilled. There are many vendors on the Internet that are based on the original RepRap version.
HIPS
- Universal solid material with high heat resistance suitable especially for printing mechanical parts.
- Nozzle temperature: 220 ° C
- Mat temperature: 100 ° C. It can vary between 80 – 110 ° C depending on the
- Size of the object. The higher the higher the temperature
- Washer: Make sure the surface is clean.
PP
Polypropylene is a flexible and durable material that allows you to print precision models for which you want flexibility, strength and toughness.
- Nozzle temperature: 254 ° C
- Mat temperature: 100 ° C.
- Washer: Classic packing tape works best to prepare PP printing use a wide, transparent adhesive tape that is applied directly to the printing surface.
Nylon (Taulman Bridge)
Nylon is a very tough material applicable to mechanical parts.
- Nozzle temperature: 240 ° C
- Washer temperature: 80 – 90 ° C.
- Washer: Use one layer of adhesive.
Flex
Flex is a very strong and highly flexible material. It is especially suitable for printing flexible
Important: Before you print from Flex, clean the nozzle from the previous material by inserting the PLA into the pre-heated print head to eject any previous material. When inserting the Flex, loosen the clamping screws on the print head as much as possible. Note that the correct filament change function is not guaranteed when printing from Flex.
- Nozzle temperature: 230 ° C
- Mat temperature: 50 ° C. It can move up to 65 ° C depending on the size of the object. The higher the higher the temperature
Washer: Make sure the surface is clean. Note that some very soft materials may bond too strongly to the backing and require the use of adhesive as a separator to avoid damaging the PEI film.
