Costs Vary Widely for 3-D Printers

Averageprototype part costs drop 9.2 to 36.9 percent when parts are consolidated into singlebuilds, according to a new benchmark study released by T. A. Grimm & Assoc.Inc. The free 60-page report,available in both North American and European editions, includes more than 100images, charts and tables comparing seven 3-D printers widely used for rapidprototyping .

Thebenchmark measures the performance of Alaris30, Designjet 3D, ProJet SD 3000,SD300 Pro, uPrint, V-Flash and ZPrinter 310 Plus in terms of time, cost andquality.

"Our goal is to put real-world data in thehands of those interested in evaluating 3-D printers so that they can make informeddecisions. In the report, we show which system has an effective material costof $3.57/cubic inch and which has a cost of $25.05/cubic inch. The investigationalso reveals discrepancies in time as large as 17 hours for a single prototype.These are details that are important to prospective users," says Todd Grimm,president, T. A. Grimm & Assoc.

To presentall aspects of dimensional accuracy, 3-D scanning technologies were used tomeasure the 3-D printed parts. High-resolution white light scanners captured upto two and a half million points on each prototype. These dense data sets werethen translated into color maps and statistical charts to visually describepart quality.

The report, which can be downloadedfor free, is available here.