With the arrival of low-priced consumer targeted 3D printers, some users of this technology ask why it needs to cost so much and when will the higher-priced versions go on sale? A look at the inner workings of these printers answers these … [Read more...] about A closer look at extrusion-based 3D printers
3D Printing Basics
Tips on selecting 3D printers
This feature is part of a series of features for the 2011 Make Parts Fast Handbook. A 3D printer can be used to analyze form, fit, feel, function, or some combination of these features. But it can do more. Today’s printers also function as … [Read more...] about Tips on selecting 3D printers
Fused Deposition Modeling and Material Advances
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology was developed by S. Scott Crump in the late 1980s and was commercialized in 1990. The build material is usually a filament or wire of thermoplastic material but can also be plastic pellets fed from a hopper. … [Read more...] about Fused Deposition Modeling and Material Advances
Selective Laser Sintering
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology can truly be called an additive manufacturing technology. Long used to build prototype parts early in the design cycle, increasingly it is used in limited-run manufacturing to produce end-use parts. It was … [Read more...] about Selective Laser Sintering
