FDM 3D Printer recommendations

Hi guys,
My company is considering getting a 3D Printer and they are asking for recommendations of something around £3K.
At the moment our 3d printing parts are made by a supplier that uses Stratasys Fortus 400mc and the materials used are ABS-M30 or ASA, always black.
@3dtechs do you have any recommendations on the top of your head?

Thank you!

Hi Cristina,

I don’t have any experience with industrial level machines I’m afraid. It will completely depend on the planned use case for the parts, the frequency of use of the machine and the size of the items being printed. Are these mechanical/engineering parts? I think you usually find the industrial machines are designed to a higher tolerance and accuracy than consumer machines. The highest end consumer machine at the moment would probably be be something like the Bambu X1 carbon which can print ABS, polycarbonate and carbon fibre reinforced parts and retail starting at £1,179. I don’t have any experience with this machine but Calin does and might be able to advise further.

Hi Sam,
These are parts mainly used to mount some components to them that will then be static. Some others are joining two plastic conduits etc. Thanks for the Bambu recommendation. @Calin if you have any further advice would be greatly appreciated!

Just avoid Formlabs, the last generation it’s a money pit.

The bed lining it’s literally on a timer, after a while the printer will ask you to replace it even if you didn’t use it

There isn’t an easy way to put the resin back in the tank so it will spoil faster.

They are extremely slow, 5h to print the smaller part and the printing quality it’s not justifying the time.

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Hey, the machine is pretty good and fast, with remote printing/camera, I really liked it. The X1 is enclosed with glass so it can get warm enough internally for ABS and ASA. Bambu lab claims it prints well with those but I didn’t try myself. I’m about to try PC and carbon fibre PC, I can let you know how those go. I think it’s comparable with what the Prusa XL is supposed to offer but that one is still on pre-order stage…

The only issue I have is the filament switching from the AMS module is really slow. If you intend to do dual filament prints then it completely loses it’s speed benefit compared to a printer with 2 separate extruder heads. But for single filament prints the AMS is still really useful. You can choose to remotely start on either plastic. Also there’s an option to load up multiple filaments of the same type and have the printer automatically switch to a new one when the old runs out.

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Hi Calin,
This is super helpful, thank you. We are actually going for it so I might hit you up in the future with more questions!
Thanks @scday94 and @emuboy too! I knew this was the right place to ask :blush:

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No problem at all :smile: and with the change from the £3k you can get your company to make a generous donation to the space :wink: hope it meets your needs!

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