Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Speed
Hewlett Packard's CEO Meg Whitman has compared the speed of 3D printing to “Watching
ice melt”. Truth is, that slow speed is the main obstacle for 3D printing's chances to grab a
large piece of the mass production market. While the production cycle of an object might be
counted in seconds or minutes in traditional manufacturing, it is counted in hours and days
in 3D printing.
Different 3D printing processing technologies do not have the same speed. New technology
improvements appear all the time, and the leading technologies keep changing. Fused De-
position Modeling (FDM) is rated as the slowest of the 3D printing technologies. The low-
cost Ultimaker is one of the fastest FDM printers. The Ultimaker 2 had a print speed of up
to 300 mm/second, another low cost printer: D3D One Evo had a print speed of 400 mm/
second, whereas 3D Systems Cube (regardless of model) only had a print speed of 15 mm/
second. In comparison the low-cost Stereolithography (SLA) printer Pegasus Touch's lasers
printer that was launched on Kickstarter in the fall of 2014 claimed to have a build speed of
127 mm per hour
Traditionally, Binder Jetting has been the fastest 3D printing technology. One example is 3D
System's Projet X 60 which jets water on a plaster material. The build speed of the Projet X
60 was up to 28 mm per hour
(that is an object that is 28 mm high in one hour).
3D Systems' SLA printer ProX 950 was launched after Projet X 60 in the fall of 2013 and
was at that time claimed to be the fastest commercial printer of them all. The promise from
[xxxiv]
the company was that it could print a car dashboard in two days
(does not sound super-
fast, does it?).
Polyjet or Multijet Printing (Material Jetting) are also considered fairly fast technologies,
faster than SLS which in its turn is faster than the jumbo: FDM.
