I'd love to start an open discussion about various printing technologies and their costs.

I'm literally sitting here compiling some pricing for some parts that I will need to be printed soon and rather surprised by some of the numbers. I'm only including the price for one part since the numbers scale fairly linearly for the other parts of the assembly.

This particular part is pretty big for a printed part: 29 cubic inches in volume with overall dimensions of roughly 13.4 x 11.4 x 5.3"

MJF (nylon PA12) : $560

MJF (nylon PA12 glass filled) : $1058

SLS (nylon PA12 glass filled) : $1060

Industrial SLS (accura 25) : $2800

FDM (PETG) : $250

Industrial FDM (ASA) : $950

What sticks out at me the most is just how competitive MJF prints are. For the particular part I am looking at, I would need to go with the glass-filled which almost doubles the price, but if your part geometry was suited to being printed with regular PA12, the price undercuts other "pro" printing methods by quite a bit.

There is no one superior printing method because they all seem to have their positives and negatives. MJF parts have a very different look and feel to them which might or might not suite the end purpose. They almost feel velvety. I have not printed PA12 using SLS so I am wondering what the surface finish of that will be like. I had printed similar parts, but smaller versions of them, about a year ago and the prices were higher back then, so it seems like 3D printing is still getting cheaper.

Curious what you guys think about this, and please add your own experiences and comments.

Slip agents are additives that can be added to polymers to control friction. They are added directly to the polymer during the extrusion process and migrate to the surface as the polymer cools, allowing a solid lubricating layer to form. Fatty acid amides, including primary and secondary amides, are the most common slip agent additives. Like other lubricant additives, these materials migrate to the polymer surface and reduce the friction coefficient of the polymer surface by creating a microcrystalline layer

Hello,

I have a question obout the simulation of the process of electron beam melting (additive manufacturing) , any one know how to model this process to determine the effect of the process parameters on the final quality of the part? and which simulation software can be used ?

thank you in advance .

Anyone knows if there is a possibility to upgrade the cam , cause the video quality sucks. I suppose it has to be something special to withstand the high temperatures. Some recommendations ?

Curious if anyone here is going to AMUG 2020 or Rapid and what people are looking for.

If you are not going, what is influencing your decisions?

I was doing an electrochemical test (LPR) and Titanium Grade 5 produced by AM respassivated oxide layer faster than produced with traditional methods. I am wondering if this can be explained with 'porosity' and being exposed to more 'surface area' as a result?

Is the porosity of an AM sample, air tight? Only then would my guess here be wrong. I am assuming that the layers below get exposed to oxygen as well which is why I saw what I saw.

How would it affect the result if 3d printing is done in the kind of chamber that some divers use, but with more dense gases, like pure argon, xenon or sulfur hexafluoride?

I tried looking into this on my own but there isn't nearly as much resources for metal printing compared to fdm printing, is there any consistent reliable printers that can get within +-0.0005" in metal that produce useably strong parts, for some background it needs to be able to be more efficient then useing EDM to produce part, EDMs are very slow (it can take up to 50 hours to produce a part but they are very accurate and the parts that you can make with them can have basically any level of strangthe or hardness but are limited to steels)

Would be interesting to know which kind of materials are sold in which quantities. I've searched for something like this but couldn't find it. Anyone else has a good source?