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FAQ's

How much does your 3D printing service cost?

The cost of your 3D printed parts depends on factors such as part volume, part complexity, choice of material, which 3D printing technology is used, and if any post processing is required. For more details on these cost factors, see our article on the cost of 3d printing. To check the cost of your 3D printed part, simply upload a CAD (.STL) file and select your material and 3D printing technology to receive a quote within seconds.

How do you guarantee the quality of my prints?

Your parts are made by experienced 3D printing shops within our network. All facilities are regularly audited to ensure they consistently meet the Hubs quality standard. We include a standardized inspection report with every order and offer a First Article Inspection service on orders of 100+ units.

We have partners in our network with the following certifications, available on request: ISO9001, ISO13485 and AS9100.
Follow this link to read more about our quality assurance measures.

How do I select the right 3D printing process for my prints?

You can select the right 3D printing process by examining which materials suit your need and what your use case is.

By material: if you already know which material you would like to use, selecting a 3D printing process is relatively easy, as many materials are technology specific.
By use case: once you know whether you need a functional or visual part, choosing a process is easy.

For more help, read our guide to selecting the right 3D printing process. Find out more about Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) and Stereolithography (SLA).

How can I reduce the cost of my 3D prints?

In order to reduce the cost of your 3D prints you need to understand the impact certain factors have on cost. The main cost influencing factors are the material type, individual part volume, printing technology and post-processing requirements.

Once these have been decided, an easy way to further cut costs is to reduce the amount of material used. This can be done by decreasing the size of your model, hollowing it out, and eliminating the need for support structures.

To learn more, read our full guide on how to reduce the cost of 3D printing.

Where can I learn more about 3D printing?

Our knowledge base is full of in-depth design guidelines, explanations on process and surface finishes, and information on how to create and use CAD files. Our 3D printing content has been written by an expert team of engineers and technicians over the years.

See our complete engineering guide to 3D printing for a full breakdown of the different 3D printing technologies and materials. If you want even more 3D printing, then check out our acclaimed 3D printing handbook here.

We have an extensive range of online resources developed to help engineers improve their capabilities.

Introductory guides

Design guides

Material guides

Applications

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• 50+ metals and plastics & 10 surface finishes


• Tolerances down to ±.0008” (0.020 mm)

• Lead times from 5 business days

See our CNC machining services

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Anyone who spent some time with a desktop 3D printer, familiar with the concept of support . If you are working with a complex model that has overhanging elements, it is often necessary to print supports from the base material. Unfortunately, supports can be difficult to remove and often leave marks on the finished model that need to be removed.

In an effort to improve the situation, Tumblebeer (User from the prusaprinters.org forum) has come up with a very unique approach that we think certainly deserves closer scrutiny. This does not eliminate the need for the support material, but makes it much easier to remove. This method is cheap, relatively easy to implement, and doesn't require multiple extruders or switching multiple filaments, as is the case with something like water-soluble supports.

The trick is to use the permanent marker as a spacer between the top of the support and the print area it actually touches. The marker coating prevents the two surfaces from fusing while providing the physical support needed to prevent the model from sagging or breaking.

To test this concept, the Tumblebeer fitted a Prusa i3 MK3S with a marker holder that hangs from the side of the extruder assembly. The coil is powered by the GPIO pins of a Raspberry Pi running OctoPrint and enabled by a custom command in the G-code file. It keeps the marker out of the way during normal printing and lowers it when it's time to lay down the interface cover.

Tumblebeer says that this method requires a bit of manual coding, and that some automated G-code scripts or custom slicer plugins can make this process much easier. We are very interested in further development of this concept in the community, as it seems to have significant potential. Having a marker tied to the side of the extruder may sound complicated, but it's nothing compared to switching filament on the fly.

Video Demonstration of the method:

Article author: Tom Nardi

Link to the post Tumblebeer on the Peni forum: TITS

Author of the translation: I and Googol

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Metal 3D printing on a home 3D printer. Technologies today and near future

While consumer 3D printing has become simple and inexpensive enough for home use, and the range of consumables is growing by leaps and bounds, there remains one area that has not reached its full potential. It's about metal 3D printing.

Actually, no one can be surprised by metal printed products. Enthusiasts and professionals are aware of the possibilities of technologies such as selective laser sintering or electron beam melting. These methods make it possible to create three-dimensional metal models that are practically indistinguishable from cast or stamped parts, but often surpass their traditional counterparts in lightness and affordability, although somewhat inferior in strength.

Unfortunately, the above technologies require the creation of complex, expensive devices with considerable dimensions. Worse, consumables are scarce and often quite expensive, since sintering and smelting methods require the use of powdered materials produced in relatively small quantities.

What are the prospects for 3D metal printing with the now-familiar extrusion printers?

Let's start with the fact that it was extrusion printers, that is, devices that print by layer-by-layer deposition (FDM), and became the first 3D metal printers. The existing technology allows the use of a mixed material of metal particles and a binder. The finished model may look like a metal product, but will not have the appropriate mechanical characteristics. As an option, it is possible to fire the finished model for sintering metal particles or, more typically, for melting a binder material with simultaneous impregnation with a relatively low-melting metal or alloy, such as bronze. Naturally, the finished product will not differ in the strength of cast analogues, and the process itself requires the use of special pottery kilns, which leads to an increase in the cost of technology.

Metal model example,

In general, this method is well suited for creating models that are not designed for high mechanical loads and do not require high wear resistance - for example, jewelry. The demand for such metal 3D printers is quite high, with several promising metal clay printers currently under development, including the Mini Metal and Newton 3D. A real breakthrough would be the ability to 3D print finished metal products using FDM technology alone. However, the capabilities of existing extrusion devices are quite limited.

Problems are constructive. To begin with, the temperature of the extruder rarely exceeds 300°C, and the extruders themselves are often made of aluminum with a melting point of about 650°C. Of course, this excludes the possibility of printing with steel, titanium or any other refractory metals and alloys. On the other hand, extruders, in turn, can be made of refractory materials in order to increase the operating temperature range. Among enthusiasts, even the possibility of ceramic printheads is being considered.

The second problem is the background temperature. Although, in general, an increased temperature in the build chamber is welcome, the heat radiation near the extruder when trying to print with refractory metals can be high enough to damage plastic parts and wiring in the printer itself.

The third challenge is to ensure that the consumable heats up fast enough to extrude on time.

Finally, the use of metal as a consumable can lead to heavy clogging of the extruder. If cleaning the print head from hardened plastic is a headache, then cleaning from hardened aluminum or steel can be overwhelming.

Until now, attempts to print with homogeneous metal or alloys have been limited to low-melting materials such as solder or pure tin. The results can hardly be called successful. Even such fusible materials quickly clogged the nozzle and also caused increased wear: according to the testers, the diameter of the aluminum nozzle increased from 1 mm to 2 mm after passing 500 grams of solder used during the experiment. Nevertheless, some progress at minimal cost is evident.

An illustration of an amateur tin extrusion experiment. According to the developers, Scott and Zack Vader, their device is capable of extrusion printing with aluminum. Only one simple fact is alarming - the developers did not provide a single sample of printed models, and later admitted that the device does not yet have a suitable extruder. At the same time, the designers make bold statements: the maximum resolution will be 50 microns, and it will be possible to buy a 3D metal printer for “only” $10,000. Well, let's wait and see.