Questions to consider before buying a 3D printer

I am helping advise a company in South India on the purchase of a 3D printer. I was involved in this years ago, trying to find a suitable 3D printer for prosthetic eyes. That search went well, until we tried to find a 3D Scanner - back then, we couldn't find what we needed.


What I'm looking for in this forum, is what kind of list of requirements do we need, in order to select an appropriate printer. I think I know some of them, but maybe I'm missing others that are equally important before they actually start looking for "the" best printer for their needs.

I have asked them to give me the size of the largest part they expect to print. (That makes me wonder if printing small parts will be limited by a printer that is "too big".)

I need to find out what kinds of parts they plan to print. I know they are likely to make fairly small prototype parts, and at some point some of those parts might be made in a larger quantity. I see printing speed as being important, but not the "most important". Slower speeds for better quality would be fine. The parts would mostly be connected to medical parts related to eye surgery and care.

Quality is very important. I have seen some parts they want to make prototypes of that are about an inch in length. I can post a photo of one of these, if it would help. I think the quality of the part is near the top of the list in importance.

One of the decisions that is needed is how many extruders to get. Having watched the Stratasys videos, and their use of "support material" to allow printing parts including unsupported areas, to me that seems like a must-have. Is this true?

They have told me they would like a mechanism to verify that the printing "table" is level, before printing starts. Is this something common?

Finally, there is a question of what materials to use for printing. They have told me they would prefer a printer that accepts a wide variety of printing material. I know very little about this, other than it is unlikely that they will need to print metal.






There is also a question of cost, and the budget. My own preference would be to start with the requirements, and only then consider the cost, and if the cost is too high, decide which requirements might be needed to bring down the cost. This can happen later.

They also want to purchase a 3D Scanner. I'll leave that to a separate discussion.

They plan to use their existing 3D software for designing the parts.


If I were to make a "check list" for selecting a printer, are there things I have left off the notes above, that they need to think about before selecting a suitable printer?

This is a list of "requirements" I have put together so far.

• Size 150 x 150 x 150 mm capacity (around 6” cube)
• Roughness rating 0.5 micron. (Maybe still need post processing??)
• Preferably capable of using these materials:
  
  • ABS Plastic (PLA)
  • Nylon
  • PP Rubber and Silicon
  • If possible, metal
  
  
• Automatic calibration for base flatness
• Cost limit approximately $15,000
• Should use a wide variety of consumables
• Filament size 1.75 to 1.85
• Capability to make “body parts”
• Time frame approx 6 months
• Need appropriate scanner as well

Also:
1.machine should be capable of printing functional protos.
2.multijet/polyjet machine
3.sla/sls process

Here is a top and bottom view of one part that needs to be scanned and printed. I have entered a separate thread to ask how to scan "transparent" parts.

(http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...644#post105644

The printer needs to be able to print parts like this...

Attachment 10275

Attachment 10276

You'll probably need a resin printer for parts like that, since the detail is more than a FDM-type printer could deliver. The Form2 could do it, and it has a transparent resin available. But aside from the part volume and "sla process" it doesn't meet your other requirements; it works with a limited number of resin-based materials, none of which are food-safe as far as I know, much less being suitable for "body parts". But with your budget, you might be able to get one of those and another machine for other materials like rubber - you might ask Davo at Hyrel about that.

As for scanning a transparent part; either use a non-optical scanner, like a touchprobe, or paint the thing white before scanning it. You'll still have to do some reverse-engineering, to construct things like the interior volume which won't show up in the scan, but the scan would get you started. The other thing you could do is just model it from measurements.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

Thank you 'awerby'. I had suspicions that a 3D printer designed for small parts an inch or so in length would be printed better on a small machine. While the request was to find a single printer that does anything, my previous impressions of "all in one" devices has been that it doesn't do anything "the best", as it makes compromises to do so many other things.

"Body parts" was intended to mean parts such as a prosthetic eye, which "looks" like an eye, but is placed inside a person's head. There is a "socket" behind the eye, and we currently make a mold of that socket, and eventually end up with a part that would go into the socket perfectly. That's where the idea came to scan the mold, to get the information for making a part that would fit.

I need to read up on a "resin printer". I think extreme accuracy is one of the essential requirements, but I'll need to get help from people at the company/hospital to define what I mean by "extreme accuracy". The part in the photo was given to me as a sample of what they need to be able to print.

Regarding scanning the transparent part, I was wondering if the part could simply be covered in "Dykem" die, hopefully allowing the scanner to see it properly. I don't know if Dykem will work with "plastic" though.

(Another question - why were the posts I type here using my MacBook Pro showing up so narrow before? How can I get them to fill the screen, so they look normal? It's working now, but I don't know what I "fixed"...)

The resin parts might be used as masters for molding; then you can cast them in a material that's approved for body implantation. I don't think these photo-reactive resins qualify. Dykem is blue, so it might help with a blue-light scanner, but usually white is preferred. If you get rid of the "sponsors" pane on the right side of the screen, the posts will have more width.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

I still have my original goals about finding a 3D printer, but you've given me what I think might be my answer to my problem two years ago.

When a person loses an eye completely, all that is left is the "socket" that used to support the eye. The hospital makes a series of molds, and eventually ends up with a replacement eye that looks realistic. So, if they were to make a mold of the socket (first step they do right now), and use.a scanner such as the one you suggested to scan that mold, they would get an engineering design showing that part of the replacement eye, and they could add on additional features as needed. With the resin printer, they could print this out very accurately, in resin, and from that part they could make a mold and cast the actual part later, using the appropriate materials that can be used inside a body.

I will be back at the hospital in April, and take detailed photos of how this is done. I'm not sure what their budget is for this, but it sounds a lot more plausible right now than two years ago. Maybe they need to purchase two 3D printers, one of which will be a resin printer.

Thanks..... to be continued...

Feedback from the hospital added to my notes and questions..... My text is in black, and Rajasekar's feedback is in red....


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What parts will we scan? Most likely “machine tool” type parts, no larger than 6 inches in any dimension, and I would expect not much smaller than an inch or so. I can picture machining a prototype part, and once it’s finished, scanning it to allow us to make more parts the same way.

Metal and plastic parts (opaque transperant,translucent)(medical devices), 6 inches in any dimension ok- less than or slightly more than one inch also needed.
Inner profile and shape also to be scanned. What 3d modelling/cad software needed to join different surfaces of a part after scanning.(stiching), what will be the prerequisites of the technical staff to do this job?


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How much accuracy and resolution do we need... I will try to get figures that relate to our needs. For accuracy, I’m pretty sure 50 microns will not be good enough and 5 microns is more than we need. I will ask Rajasekar, along with a question about the required resolution.
5 microns may be ok

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How fast do we need it to scan? I don’t see that as a main concern. We are only going to be scanning “static objects”. If scanning more slowly gives us better results in a longer time, I think that will be acceptable.
yes

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Data storage: After the scanning is completed, I assume the data will be stored on our computer system, possibly for use in re-creating the object in a 3D printer, possibly with modifications. I already know of parts such as a mobile phone “case” that we may scan, so that we can print more of them.

Sometimes scanned data copied to 3d modelling software like solidworks/pro-e, do the required changes if required and converted to a file format suitable for 3d printing

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I assume the scanner will be set up in an “office” environment, or a separate room kept more or less like a laboratory. Not knowing more about scanners, I’m not sure what else we might have to do, other than cover it when not in use. I’m assuming normal office lighting won’t interfere with the scanner. If it did, we would change the lighting to something more appropriate.

Normal office environment

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I assume the above answers will allow us to calculate the cost range for the scanner. I don’t see us trying to make something fit into a budget, but I do see us trying to keep the cost reasonable by not including features or capability that we don’t expect to need.

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We have an engineering department. As a group, I assume they will learn how to use the scanner. As with anything else, learning how to use the scanner effectively will take time, but I don’t understand enough to say much more. I assumed we would put a part in front of the scanner, start the scan, and after a certain amount of time, the scan would complete. As with a camera, there are probably a lot of settings to adjust before the scan – but I don’t know anything about these, let alone how difficult they are to learn.
Yes

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Well, that's the best I've been able to come up with to suggest what we think are our requirements. I have a feeling that we may need to re-evaluate some of these requirements, as I think the cost of what I've described is going to be more than will be approved. I read that an accuracy of 5 microns would be very costly. Other than that, everything seems reasonable to me, which is scary as I don't know enough yet to say that. Maybe I should say it sounds in line with what I've been reading over the past few weeks.

There will be one other requirement - I should have listed it long ago. The printer is going to be use in South India, and it would be best if we were to purchase it from a company that provides support in that part of the world. I guess that can come later on - the first step is to find which 3D printers can do these things. Thanks!!!!!!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mike@aravind.org

Feedback from the hospital added to my notes and questions..... My text is in black, and Rajasekar's feedback is in red....

[AW: My responses are added in square brackets.]


==================================

What parts will we scan? Most likely “machine tool” type parts, no larger than 6 inches in any dimension, and I would expect not much smaller than an inch or so. I can picture machining a prototype part, and once it’s finished, scanning it to allow us to make more parts the same way.

[If you've machined it with a CNC machine, you've probably had to create a 3D model to base the toolpaths on. This model would be more accurate than any scan you made from the finished part.]

Metal and plastic parts (opaque transperant,translucent)(medical devices), 6 inches in any dimension ok- less than or slightly more than one inch also needed.
Inner profile and shape also to be scanned. What 3d modelling/cad software needed to join different surfaces of a part after scanning.(stiching), what will be the prerequisites of the technical staff to do this job?

[If there are interior volumes that need to be scanned, no optical scanner will do that. If your hospital has access to a CAT scanner, that might work. Otherwise, you'd need to fill the volume with something, remove the outside (by dissolving it in acid?), scan the resulting form, and subtract it from the scan of the exterior. Scanners are often sold with software that is used for integrating the various sub-scans that they make into a solid printable object, but if not, one good one is Wrap, from Geomagic (3DS). The staffers assigned to this part of the job would have to learn how to use it.]


==================================

How much accuracy and resolution do we need... I will try to get figures that relate to our needs. For accuracy, I’m pretty sure 50 microns will not be good enough and 5 microns is more than we need. I will ask Rajasekar, along with a question about the required resolution.
5 microns may be ok

[The Capture Mini can resolve details down to .034 mm (34 microns). There may be scanners that can do better, but they will be correspondingly more expensive. It may be that you're expecting more from a scanner than is reasonable; if you need extreme accuracy in your prints (or toolpaths), you won't be printing directly off your scan data; you'll need to go through a reverse engineering step, using a program that constructs clean CAD data from the scans.]

==================================

How fast do we need it to scan? I don’t see that as a main concern. We are only going to be scanning “static objects”. If scanning more slowly gives us better results in a longer time, I think that will be acceptable.
yes

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Data storage: After the scanning is completed, I assume the data will be stored on our computer system, possibly for use in re-creating the object in a 3D printer, possibly with modifications. I already know of parts such as a mobile phone “case” that we may scan, so that we can print more of them.


Sometimes scanned data copied to 3d modelling software like solidworks/pro-e, do the required changes if required and converted to a file format suitable for 3d printing


[Things like that work better if you go through the reverse-engineering step I talked about above; generally scanners produce "point clouds" which normal CAD programs aren't equipped to deal with.]

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I assume the scanner will be set up in an “office” environment, or a separate room kept more or less like a laboratory. Not knowing more about scanners, I’m not sure what else we might have to do, other than cover it when not in use. I’m assuming normal office lighting won’t interfere with the scanner. If it did, we would change the lighting to something more appropriate.

Normal office environment

[That shouldn't be a problem; scanning is a fairly clean process.]

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I assume the above answers will allow us to calculate the cost range for the scanner. I don’t see us trying to make something fit into a budget, but I do see us trying to keep the cost reasonable by not including features or capability that we don’t expect to need.

[Look seriously at the tolerances you're calling out - if you really need to hold 5 microns, be prepared to pay for them.]

==================================

We have an engineering department. As a group, I assume they will learn how to use the scanner. As with anything else, learning how to use the scanner effectively will take time, but I don’t understand enough to say much more. I assumed we would put a part in front of the scanner, start the scan, and after a certain amount of time, the scan would complete. As with a camera, there are probably a lot of settings to adjust before the scan – but I don’t know anything about these, let alone how difficult they are to learn.
Yes

[Scanners often come with a turntable that semi-automates the scanning process, but anything not in the line of sight will manifest itself as a hole in the scan mesh. If you want more or less whole objects, you'll generally have to scan at least twice with the turntable, and then register, align and merge the two sets of scans to make a solid object.]

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Well, that's the best I've been able to come up with to suggest what we think are our requirements. I have a feeling that we may need to re-evaluate some of these requirements, as I think the cost of what I've described is going to be more than will be approved. I read that an accuracy of 5 microns would be very costly. Other than that, everything seems reasonable to me, which is scary as I don't know enough yet to say that. Maybe I should say it sounds in line with what I've been reading over the past few weeks.

There will be one other requirement - I should have listed it long ago. The printer is going to be use in South India, and it would be best if we were to purchase it from a company that provides support in that part of the world. I guess that can come later on - the first step is to find which 3D printers can do these things. Thanks!!!!!!!!!

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[I think you're doing the right thing by asking questions and getting information on the process before spending your hospital's money. The 3D printer is just one piece of a rather complex puzzle you're trying to solve, but it sounds like one that's worth solving. Have you investigated how other health-care institutions are dealing with these issues?]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

Thanks for all the new information - the more you write, the more I learn. I had never thought of "holes" in the part being scanned, because that part of the object couldn't be seen, an the need to take multiple scans, and combine them electronically. My first thought was "yikes!!".

I'm going to try to get the people involved in this at the hospital to read both thread, printer and scanner, and then ask them what I could do next to help them. Before I posted here, I thought I was trying to find a list of requirements so I could find appropriate hardware to buy. Now it's gotten much more complicated, but in a good way. The more we understand this, the more likely it will be that we'll buy the appropriate equipment, and get the necessary training. I want them to have all this worked out in advance, before buying anything.

couple of things:
1) you absolutely need to know what your budget is. Metal printers start at around the $50,000 mark.

2) sla and fdm are probably not going to be much use to you, other than for 'rough' prototyping. For final use you'll most likely need a nylon powder based sls system - starting at around the $10,000 mark.
A polyjet system might also be suitable as they tend to have more available materials.

3) for small parts like the nozzle thing you posted the picture of - scanning is not the way to go. Simply design from scratch. Looking at that part, it would take about an hour for me to replicate with a set of digital calipers and my cad software. It would take much much longer to try and get an accurate scan and convert it into a model. And even then it would be nowhere near as accurate as the designed from scratch model.

4) there is software that can convert mri/cat scans into printable 3d models. For things like eye sockets - that's currently your best option. Or as awerby suggests possibly use a soft silicon to make a mould.

Industrial quality scanners start at around the $20,000 mark.
For most 'things' it is quicker and more accurate to design from scratch.

But you need to get a definite top end of your budget before you can even begin to start considering equipment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

.......4) there is software that can convert mri/cat scans into printable 3d models. For things like eye sockets - that's currently your best option. .......

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Again, a lot of useful advice. I really need the people back at the hospital in India to consider what you just written.

Regarding the one sentence I quoted above, after doing a search, I found this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-...-a-3D-printab/

This may or may not solve my initial thought, 3D printing a prosthetic eye to fit a patient's eye socket, but even if we continued with a manual process as we do now, this would give us a realistic scale replica of the patient's eye socket, so the prosthetic eye can be worked on with less inconvenience to the patient. ....but it seems to me that once this scan was converted to data, we could potentially print an eye that would fit correctly into this socket.

(This has nothing to do with the questions I'm involved in regarding scanning and printing, but it does show what is possible:
https://www.fastcompany.com/3023276/...-a-3-d-printer
.....which would make me think something like the Stratasys Mojo, or something similar, might be capable of this kind of result.)

(To visualize what I'm working with, this YouTube video shows the structure into which the prosthetic eye will need to fit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKEA4p5k66U
I am not sure how much of this structure needs to be used to properly support a prosthetic eye. I will ask.)

I guess I'm late to the game here. Please PM me if you'd like to talk about Hyrel capabilities, or see some of these short videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3onGdmW1c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uACoqtNbXE0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGriCCrfkuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwrhV74NjCQ

-Davo

Don't worry about being late to the party. This is still very early. We are looking into which printers seem appropriate, an trying to identify the types of parts we need to print. I've asked the team to take photos of the parts, and put a photo, a description, and the requirement, along with a sample part, into a plastic baggie, so the people we will be talking to will get a better feel for what we need.

Two updates, first, the Stratasys Mojo only prints one type of material. We would like the capability of printing several types of material. If we go with Stratays, this means a more capable, and more expensive printer. Second, according to a sales rep at Stratasys, the "Mojo" printer is not able to use the materials that are safe for "internal body use". That seems to cross it off the list for what printer to buy.

Nothing has been decided yet. Still trying to gather information on the parts that we want to be able to print. That needs to be agreed on before we seriously consider any printer. I'll update this thread as soon as I have the additional information.

At Hyrel, we don't supply material, so you can use any material which performs as needed.

For internal biomedical applications, we've printed with HA, PLGA, PCL, PEEK, and others.

See also: http://hyrel3d.net/pdfs/UML-testimonial-2015.pdf

I have a coworker that has a prosthetic eye. We are in the process of scanning his prosthetic eye to make a new one. What we are going to do is scan the eye with our scanner we put putty on the front of the part to the scanner table after coating the part with the polishing compound it will make it dull making it able to be scanned. Then flip it over and repeat. Take both the scans and merge them to make a complete model. Then we are going to machine it on one side. Next we are going to print a clam shell fixture to hold it for machining of the last side. It will be out of titanium. Last we will polish. We have Zeiss Comet L3D an use Cometplus 9.52 software with the scanner. We use Geomagic Design X and Geomagic Verify for post processing.

It sounds like you've got the right equipment and software to do a good job of this, Printmaster. If you'd like to share some pictures of the work in progress, I'm sure many of us would love to see them.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

I don't mind this is for a coworker so it is a low priority right now we are waiting on the eye doctor to give us the compound he uses to polish. I will say we will scan it hopefully this month.

Yep, just trying to get information. No, I haven't checked other health care institutions, as the printer is going to be used for a lot more than just the eye care products. One good change as I see it, is that the people in India buying the printer are now thinking of getting a smaller 3D printer and learn 3D printing. After using it for a while they willl start to buy the additional equipment to eventually get what they need. I am in favor of that. It's a smaller investment now, and they can learn first hand the things you all have been telling me about.

Someone at a university told about the "Fusion3 F400" printer (https://www.fusion3design.com). This printer has only been available for a year, which is why I can't find reviews. My own first impression of the Fusion is that for nearly the same cost, they would be better off with a table top printer from Stratasys or 3Dsystems. The F400 can print larger parts, but so far I can't find a way to compare the quality of the parts with what the Stratasys Mojo is capable of.

I also can't find any indication that the F400 is supported in India. Without customer support and parts availability, that sounds like a potential problem to me.

The smaller printers I have been thinking of:
3Dsystems Cube series, and
Stratasys Mojo

I would suggest if you are going to buy one just to learn and it will be a desktop basically throw away after learning I would consider a Lulzbot mini they are cheap and have a good reputation. If you want a resin I'd go with he Form 2 I have researched that one a bit and have fun it to b a vey good printer for the money. I am sure there are others hat are as turn key as these.

lulzbot minis are very expensive for what is basically a small volume single extruder standard printer.
Your best bet to start with would be a replicator pro clone. Either flashforge or qidi.
Has enclosed print volume and dual extruders. So can print with nylons and other material that need heated print volume, plus you can use soluble support materials. And they cost from $600-900
Lulzbot mini is an open frame single extruder with smaller print volume for around $1500.

On the hyrel - davo didn't mention it but it can be used with up to 4 extruders at once. Not sure if you could use 4 materials for one print - but davo will know. Can't think of any reason why not.
And you can use a syringe type head to print silicone as well.

I'm not sure what the purpose will be - it was suggested we buy a 3D printer to learn 3D printing, but the company involved is still thinking of buying a printer that will meet their needs (but I haven't yet been able to completely list those needs).

I suggested they buy a dual head printer, so they can use "support material". Unless I've been completely mis-led, that seems to me to be a requirement. Watching the Stratasys Mojo video review sold me on this idea. If not needed, it just sits there, but it allows printing more complex parts.

I passed on this information, and they wrote back with advice from someone else:


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There are a few things about dual extruder machines that are enough that I would shy away from them as a first system, unless it has a retractable second nozzle.

Z-axis calibration between the two nozzles - if the nozzles are off at all in the Z axis two things will happen, one of the heads will always be printing a bit above what ideal is, causing more chance of delamination of the part. The second thing is that material can accidentally extrude from the part and bump onto another part of the piece where it is unwanted. An ooze tower and wipe and prime shield will take care of this, but it will also greatly increase your print time.



The direct drive system of this will increase the ease of printing with low durometer materials, but the increased mass on the gantry makes acceleration and movements of the printer slower. Each of the NEMA 17 sized stepper motors that you put on the gantry adds ~220g to the printhead and severly reduces the top speed of printing able to be achieved by a machine.
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I'm new at this, but if the above is true for all multi-head printers, that sounds like a big concern. As I see it, for using "support material", it no longer applies. I can see how the machine might be slightly slower because of the additional mass, but without it, there are lots of parts I can think of that can't be printed at all.


What I am still trying to get from them is:

1. budget (so far, I think this is no more than $5,000)
2. type of parts to print. (small machine parts and possibly prosthetic eye parts)
3. size of parts to print. (small, I don't think there is anything even close to 10")
4. Required print material(s). (ABS, Nylon, Rubber, "etc.")
5. accuracy for each material
6. print prosthetic eye parts?
7. print parts with unsupported areas?
8. print “assemblies” with parts that move?
9. Technical support
10. software
11. Fit printing speed required?

Some sample part photos:

Attachment 10338Attachment 10339Attachment 10340Attachment 10341Attachment 10342

If I understand things correctly, many of these parts could not be printed without support material.

Soluble support material is something that industrial machines like the Stratasys Dimension have offered for some time now, but that the cheaper "pro-sumer" machines are still struggling with. One can support overhangs with the same material that's being printed, but this leaves a surface that needs to be cleaned up afterwards by hand, using tools like clippers and grinders. There are also various combinations of materials such as PVA and PLA or ABS and HIPS where the supports are supposed to dissolve, but these often have problems with adhesion, registration or waste disposal, as well as some of the headaches due to improperly implemented dual heads noted in your post. Some manufacturers claim to have solved these problems, but you'd be well-advised to require some proof of this before purchasing. Unfortunately, your stated budget is not enough to get you an industrial printer; the annual maintenance cost and supplies for one of those Dimensions would come pretty close to consuming the whole amount you've allotted.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

'awerby', I think my quest is just as impossible as finding a "perfect camera" for under a thousand dollars.

In my mind, it now comes down to finding the best compromise. The Mojo isn't too far beyond the budget, and has nothing but excellent reviews every place I have looked, but it only prints one type of proprietary material. The 3Dsystems "CubePro" is within the budget, prints most of the materials we need, again with proprietary material, and can print support material, but the people I'm working with heard that it may not be accurate enough.

In the case of a camera, I would already have given up. There is no such thing as a "perfect camera". It all depends on what is needed, and one size does not fit all. Maybe what I'm asking for help with here is not possible, as you seem to be suggesting.

The people I'm working with are considering the "Fusion3 F400", but it's too new for me to get any useful user feedback, and with only one head it cannot print support material. It does print lots of different material. It also means buying something from the USA with no support in India, while Stratasys has good support, and 3Dsystems seems to as well.

If I could find the right printer, I think the budget can be adjusted.

After a few emails, I've found out the people I'm working with have found a volunteer from the USA who will assist them with this project. He already uses a "Fusion3 F400" printer (https://www.fusion3design.com/f400-enclosed-3d-printer/). He suggests they buy the same printer, so he will be able to help them set it up and use it. In the future, they may buy additional printer(s) as needed.

Base on what I've posted so far, and the advice I've gotten here, is this likely to be a good choice?

Attachment 10350

Your volunteer, like many of us here, may not have experience with many different machines; the best we can usually say is that the particular machine we bought worked for us (or didn't) on the particular projects we attempted. I've never seen a "Fusion3 F400" printer, let alone used one. You might show him some of the parts you want to make, explain the tolerances you expect to hold, and ask him if he thinks it will work. At least it will get you started with printing, so you can get a more realistic idea of what can - and can't - be expected from a consumer-level single-head FDM 3D printer.

Hmm, maybe I'm going about this all wrong.

Since the F400 seems to be the type of 3D printer that they would like to get now, both to learn on, and to print some of their parts, maybe I should simply search for the better "Consumer-level single-head FDM 3D printer". A printer made for consumers is probably not as complicated as a "production" printer. PC Magazine did a comparison test: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2470038,00.asp

One of my friends at the hospital suggested instead of buying "another iPhone", I buy myself a 3D printer, and learn the technology. If I had more space and time, that's not a bad idea. I leave for India in a bit over 4 weeks, and return two months later. I'll do some more thinking about this.

In the meantime, does anyone else reading this know of the F400? Any comments?

Update to this thread.

The company I am working with purchased the F400 as described earlier. The F400 cannot print the sample parts I was given for use in selecting a printer (posted early in this thread). Also, it does not have the ability to use "support material". When I watched them setting up the printer, the finished parts looked "crude" to me on the bottom, as there were "support" posts that had to be broken off. I expected parts that looked as smooth and shiny as from the Stratasys Mojo, and in that sense I was not that satisfied. The lower part of those parts needed to be smoothed out with hand tools.

I think the parts that I needed for my own project came out well. I expected smooth, shiny surfaces, and this was close enough. The F400 seemed to be better at printing large parts, not tiny parts. One sample part was a small boat an inch long, and to me it just looked "crude". On the positive side, the F400 could print many different types of materials. I was concerned with service in India, but when I asked, I was told nothing was likely to go wrong.


The part shown below is designed to house a Raspberry Pi computer. This version has indicator lights and push buttons on the "front". The other end has an opening that fits over an eyepiece in the microscope in an Operating Theater, and it can/will record video of surgery. It's rugged, and by using the three components assembled in the photo, it's easy to service. The nuts that the screws go into to hold the assembly together are embedded into the plastic. A future version will have a small LCD screen instead the pushbuttons.


Thanks again to all of you for your help. I still have lots of other projects to work on, and this was a good start. I'll be back at the company in three weeks, and will find out more about how their printer is doing.

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