3D printers not getting any better....

[vinnie]

Does anyone else feel the same way as I do? 3D printers in general are not really improving much. We see a bunch of new ones coming out but they are all basically the same. We need to see improvements in speed and resolution on fff printers and we aren't.

[Feign]

Everyone is waiting for their kickstarters to complete... Much of the improvements we saw in the last year or so have been promised improvements for future products, and now it seems like it has slowed down (in the consumer sector of things) because everyone is holding their breath waiting to see who is able to deliver.

Just wait till late 2015/early 2016, when the companies who are able to deliver will have delivered and actual competition in a diverse marketplace of actual goods takes the place of competition for investment money in a market of concept renders. Actual competition will start driving innovation again. Real, productive innovation, rather than just a game of imagination with legal betting involved.

You can also look forward to your printer feeling out-of-date and overpriced within a month of buying it no matter when you buy it soon enough... It'll be like buying a computer in the 90s all over again.

[Mjolinor]

Improvements do not happen first. Cost reduction is happening now, once the cost is down then the improvements in resolution and speed will happen along with accuracy and strength of the printed items.

Another impediment is that for the most part they currently do what current owners need them to do, no need for faster or higher resolution at the moment. That will change once cost is low enough to entice more people into buying them, their needs will be different from current users.

[3DPBuser]

Precision might come from the new Core XY printers, which right now I think are only the CraftBot and the F306 printers.

[Mjolinor]

Precision might come from the new Core XY printers, which right now I think are only the CraftBot and the F306 printers.

I had to go and read about this and after sitting looking at it for a while it occurs to me that oyu can easily do XYZ with two steppers and make a frame that can be quite portable and stuck to walls for drawing or printing onto something else where your printed part becomes part of some bigger machine and removing one stepper out of three means a big cost saving.




If the belt from stepper 1 is made continuous around the big red toothed gear and smaller idler pulley then X and Y movement remains the same but with stepper 2 locked and stepper one rotating you can drive a Z movement on the red pulley.

[3dfilemarket]

One worry is whilst these kickstarter companies are frantically trying to fulfil their orders they will be chasing their tail and then missing out of vital time to develop more technically advanced printers. By the time all of their orders have been shipped the printer will probably be out of date and there will be a better one on the market or promised on kickstarter.....

[ChiloquinRuss]

You are still squirting plastic through a heated up nipple! Until the materials upgrade so that you can print through finer nipples, what we got is what we got. Almost all of the machines for the consumer use the same size HOLE for squirting through. Russ

[3D OZ]

Russ is spot-on, we have hit a technical wall, progress from here will be materials driven first, if at all.
Filament printing currently has capability limits that might not be financially feasible to overcome.
All the fancy X,Y,Z drive designs in the world cannot solve the problems of forcing a very viscous fluid through a very small hole with complete control.
Coming up with new materials with fast transition from solid to liquid and back again with greatly decreased viscosity while maintaining stability and strength is a huge ask.

It is easier to turn to an SLA printer for improved resolution than it is to devise a way to make filament printers match that standard.

[Geoff]

Does anyone else feel the same way as I do? 3D printers in general are not really improving much. We see a bunch of new ones coming out but they are all basically the same. We need to see improvements in speed and resolution on fff printers and we aren't.

I have felt this way for a while, it's now pretty much 2 years since I got mine and I look at the new models, they are the same with nicer cases (and seem to have more problems!!!)

What's sadder, Makerbot's new flagship model, the Makerbot Mini, costs twice as much as my machine did, (2 years ago.. now it's nearly 3 x the price) can't print ABS and prints an area about half my print bed, only has a single extruder... etc etc..

Why would I 'upgrade' yes it's small in size, but it's also super small in features (but large in price!) Ok it's sexy black and red, but that's not enough sorry Bre.

Form 1 and resin based printers? still not in the 'consumer' price range. I think something needs to be bewteen $600 and $1000 to be considered a consumer item. Not everyone can design 3D models, if they want to have a 3D printer sitting in everyones house, it won't happen at that price.

I live in a reasonably stable country as far as the economy goes, and I worked in Retail for a decade so I know how flushed with cash the average Joe is in say, Sydney Australia. Your medium to high income earner with 3.5 kids and a mortgage isn't really going to go and spend $3000 on a printer. they might spend that on a 60" LCD TV for the loungeroom, but not a printer, not unless they are into some form of design or engineering, or like me just a big hobby nut. So yes, people will buy them but not the average consumer like they are aiming for.

If they want a printer in everyones house and everyone lapping up their 'makerbot' filament they need to make it more affordable and more accessible.