How much would you pay for a 3D printer? True, this can be bypassed-but not unless you’re a techie who knows what he’s doing. If not yours, you go pro. We are disappointed in this [All3DP] Prices aren’t included in the post, but we did notice a trend: if you have a staircase in your 3D printer, this is probably a big purchase. According to the tag line of the post, the printers answer 500,000.
Expensive printers usually have unique technology, superior automation, large capacity or some combination thereof and a few other factors. At least two of the printers mentioned had ladders to reach the top of the machine. And Black Buffalo – a cement printer – uses a gantry that looks like it’s part of a light show at a concert. It is measurable, but apparently can be up to three stories long!
Size is not always the biggest factor, but it helps. The ExOne S-Max Pro has a build volume of 1,260 liters (watch the video below). Optomec LENS 860, on the other hand, looks bigger, but not as big. It does, however, make large titanium parts, so there it is. For the wow factor, the SLM solution NXG XII 600 has a total of 12 lasers. Each laser carries 1,000 watts.
We have given some videos below. Check out the high-resolution print head in black buffalo. Funnily enough, for us printers are almost as big as holes in that thing.
We’ve seen some pretty big printers before. Of course, some printers don’t have to be large enough to print really large.