Need reccomendations, have fairly large budget

First I am new to 3d printing, and after countless hours reading reviews and taking salesmens word for how good their printers are, I decided to join a forum of like minded people. Here is my situation. I work for a very large packaging company that makes labels for consumer products, from single serve drink bottles, to multi use large laundry detergent containers. I have been tasked with finding a printer that can print large objects 300x300x400 would be max build size (i know large) and I need the printer to be fast. the idea presented to me is, we want to bring in a customer, print their container design and add a label to it so they can take back with them a complete mockup same day. I have looked at countless printers and have not had a lot of luck getting reasonable responses out of some sales men. Can I get some reccomendations on 3d printers that can build a large model "fast"? I have a budget of around $50,000.

oohh $50,000.

we need to think about this.
How clean and shiny do the printed containers need to be ?

Reason being for that money you can get an sls printer so you'd get super smooth prints, maybe not that large a build volume and fast they're not.

For hollow and fast and that kind of size - realistically your best bet is probably going to be fdm.
Have a chat with the 3dp platform folks. https://3dplatform.com/
Huge printers, well within your price range and thoroughly great people to deal with.

The other people to have a chat with are Hyrel . The hydra 645 would be large enough. Not sure how they match up on print speed, versaitlity definitely. Hyrels can print with just about anything, not just filament :-)
Hmm, webiste claims around 50mm/s which is nowhere fast enough. shame. Still worth a chat.

From what you've said I'd probably go for the 300 series workbench with hfe300 and hfe900 extruders.
Yes this'll run you up to around the $40,000 mark.

Another approach would be to go for a large delta: wasp is probably the best around for the larger beasts: http://www.wasp3d.net/products/delta-4070/
http://www.aniwaa.com/product/3d-pri...ltawasp-40-70/
That model would be well under $10,000

One thing to consider is whether these containers need to be water tight - unless you print slow and careful - they won't be.

How fast would you consider to be fast ?

And something else you should consider is a decent desktop scanner setup. This can save you hours of designing, assuming you don't get supplied with 3d printer ready cad files, which you most likely won't.
Had a decent hands on play with 'scan in a box' recently. Very impressive, good detail and can scan large or small items: https://www.scaninabox.com/
https://www.scaninabox.com/product-details/scan-in-a-box-fx.html
Price is very reasonable, under $3000 and quite frankly there's nothing else on the market that can touch this setup for less than around $20,000.

The wasp and scanner would bring you in around the $10,000 mark plus tax, postage etc.
The scanner and 3dp 300 would be nearer the top end of the budget. Did I mention the 3dp build volume is 1x1x0.5 Metres ! :-)

There are a lot of other machines around that would meet the build volume - but most likely not print speed.

Personally I'd go for the scanner and wasp. It's a setup that will more than do the job, affordable and you get kudos for not blowing the whole budget and still delivering on spec :-)

First off, thank you for the response, I have been trying to pull some things together to make a half way educated presentation on my reccomendations. Our average build would be something like a 20oz softdrink bottle (think coke pepsi) it wold be hollow and since it will be covered up with a shrink sleeve label, so it doesnt have to be totally smooth, but of course the smoother the better. and clean is important because we dont want any imperfections behind the label we will be applying. Water tight isn't important, as long as the printed models can withstand steam at 90c with an approximate 5second dwell time to shrink on the label. As far as what I call fast... I don't know, maybe a couple hours to print a "Coke" bottle (don't laugh, I'm new) Maybe 6 hours to print a hollow half gallon milk jug. Also white material is a must, but If I had a wish clear would be awesome, as many of the containers we supply labels for are clear PET.

clear you will struggle with.

You can print with pet-g (or pet - but pet-g is better for printing with). You do get clear filament - but it tends to look like this when printed at speed:
http://3dprintboard.com/attachment.p...3&d=1508429592

The best way to get a clear print would be and sla machine and clear resin, they can print working optical lenses. But not fast or big.

to give you some idea - the above spool is 150mm diameter and 50mm high and uses 26grams of clear pla. I can run one off in just over an hour. Yes it's rough as a cob, but 100% functional, the wasp should be able to print it in half the time.
White pla or pet-g can be easily sanded to be smooth so that's not a big issue. Clear is an issue.
You can buy resin to smooth the outside layers which apparently makes it very clear - but I suspect you'd also need to paint the inside of the container as well to make it really clear.

I've never bothered, so can't tell you if it works well or not.

The slower you print clear filament, generally the clearer it is.
But I would say that's going to be your biggest issue.

The rest is not an issue and the right pla will print ridiculously fast.

Lots of coke bottles on thingiverse, I'll slice one and see how quick it prints :-)

Okay I can print a pretty decent 6 inch tall coke bottle in about an hour and a quarter.
I'll run one off later so you can see just how rough it looks, kind of curious myself - currently working on parts for my own giant delta :-)

Steam shot is fine. That's not long enough to melt anything you're liable to print.

So short of being really clear fdm would work well for you.

No reason you should just have the one printer, so contact these people: http://wave3dpro.com/
Pretty big volume for an sla machine.
A reason for having both fdm and sla printers is simple.
Fdm plastic is currently 10% the cost of sla resins.

But that would give you really clear prints. - ah, $60,000 - maybe not.
https://www.tctmagazine.com/3d-print...la-3d-printer/

Wow, lots of good information. I have been doing a lot of video watching and some reading on the 3DP you suggested, and I am impressed. I worry though about how rough the models will be with the 300 and especially the 900 extruders. I love the idea of how fast they print but with things comparable to a coke bottle I believe the finish would be too rough? They suggest filling with heavy automotive primers, but how long does that take to cure? and how good will it look. Clear fillament is not a must but would be nice, maybe we would buy small SLA like the DWS XFAB for smaller containers that need to to be clear.

So maybe I need to go to a show and look 1st hand at some printers, I'm in Kentucky (US) are there any shows coming up that would be beneficial?

Not a clue, unfortunately you missed one of the worlds largest, tct in the uk - but it was last month :-(

3dp will send you print samples, and a couple minutes sanding will smooth most prints.

bear in mind that post processing is a fairly big part of pretty much all current 3d printing technologies. I tend to use foam sanding blocks, small files and large files.
White pla is really amenable to post processing.
So that's not a real big issue.
And you'd probably be surprised how good the high end printers can do fast prints.

Kentucky wise try these guys: http://fortune.com/2015/07/13/3d-printing-louisville/

Oh yeah and it's: 'Additive manufacturing' when talking about it commercially :-)
3d printing is just for us desktop wallahs ;-)

The dws looks pretty reasonable. They do a clear resin.

Sorry about the rookie 3d printer comment. I also run a Digital Offest press, and I want to smack people when they call it a printer, So I get it.

lol The Industry Calls it 'additive manufacturing'.
I call it 3d printing :-)