How much filament would I need?

[vcheck]

A local company is looking to donate an Objet Eden 350v printer to my school district. The machine is very high quality, therefore the materials are expensive as well. I am in the process of making sure that we can sustain this machine with our budget. I am running into some problems when trying to determine how much material we would need to order. The machine takes 3.6 kg cartridges and these are the stats that I found for the material I would like to use. (Rigid Opaque Material)

Polymerized density ASTM D792 g/cm3 1.17-1.18

I would like to have the students design wheels for the CO2 cars that they build. Each student would print two wheels. The diameter on the wheels is 1 3/8" & the thickness can be no more than 5/8". http://www.kelvin.com/mm5/merchant.m...ct_Code=990166 <--to get an idea of what they look like.

Is there some sort of calculation that I can used based on the density of the printing material to figure out how much I would need?

Any info is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Davo]

The machine is very high quality, therefore the materials are expensive as well.

I don't believe that one necessitates the other.

[vcheck]

I'm sure you are correct, but the materials for this machine are expensive on a school budget as opposed to materials for a desktop machine such as a MakerBot. That is why I am looking for a materials conversion/calculation.

[RobH2]

Have you written the manufacturer to ask? I bet they can tell you.

http://www.stratasys.com/customer-su...stomer-support

[RobH2]

Here is another way to think about it. Yes, that printer is amazingly accurate. But, 2kg of material costs between $450 and $810. Assuming the volume of material to print one of those wheels is pretty consistent whether you get ABS on a roll like most of us do or in a cartridge for the Objet. I'm not sure that their "cartridge" is nothing more than a roll of filament in a fancy plug and play casing. But, with 2kg of 3mm ABS filament, you could print several hundred of your tires for about $40. If you were to get a kit and help the kids build a reprap printer, that can cost as little at $600. So, for the price of one "cartridge" you can build a printer that will teach the kids a whole lot more about the technology than to have them just learn to push buttons on a magic box. Plus, once you run out of filament a few months down the road or want a new color, you are going to have to throw upwards of $600 at it with the Objet. With a reprap printer you can buy all kinds of colors and types of filament from $25 to $50. You can play with nylon, PLA, ABS, PET, wood-like filaments and flexible filaments. Right there you'd spend $4,200 to get that range for the Objet as opposed to $240.

You might want to take it if it's free but I'd build one first and teach the kids the theory. You can learn and waste inexpensive plastic on it until you get good at it. Then, maybe plug in that fancy Objet and have a go at it. And, when the budget is tight, you always have an economical printer to make tires with that will still make fantastic quality parts.

[curious aardvark]

most slicer programs let you enter cost and density of material and work out the cost and material usage for you :-)

[RobH2]

Do the Slic3r, Repetier, Pronterface, etc., support printers like the Objet? Never looked. I always assumed they has some super proprietary and closed application. I'm sure it has noting even close to Arduino RAMPS and Marlin.