Best 3D printer: review, description, specifications, manufacturers and reviews. Household 3D printers: description

3D-printer is a device that allows layer-by-layer manufacturing of various physical objects, taking as a basis its 3D model. Despite the fact that such devices have recently become widespread, in fact, the first such devices began to appear in the 80's of the last century. Of course, it was far from the best 3D-printer, however, there were interesting makings in it. In the process of technology development , 3D printing has moved far ahead, resulting in a huge number of new devices, each of which differs in the mass of its advantages and features.

Next, we'll look at what the best 3D printer can be today and what the features of each device are.

SLS (manufacturer of sPro)

The technology of laser selective sintering. Small particles of the material are sintered by the action of a high power laser. In this case, as a material, powders of various metals, glass, nylon or ceramics can be used. This structure is extremely accurate and there is no need to use any supporting structures, but its implementation is quite expensive. Requires the use of heat treatment of the product immediately after printing.

SLM (manufacturer of sPro)

The technology of laser selective melting. It is quite similar to the previous type of devices, however, only a variety of powdered metals can be used as material here, and the lasers themselves are even more powerful. This is the best 3D printer in comparison with the previous one for the reason that it does not require thermal processing of the finished product.

EBM (manufacturer of Arcam)

Technology of electron beam melting. Using a sufficiently powerful electron beam, in a vacuum, the product is melted layer by layer from a metallic powder. Again, the best 3D printer compared to SLS for the reason that there is no need for heat treatment after printing.

LOM (manufacturer of Solido, MCor)

The technology of layer-by-layer bonding of specialized film materials, such as laminated paper or a polymer film, in order to subsequently form a complete laser model.

SLA (manufacturer of FormLabs Form)

Another name for this technology is stereolithography. By curing the liquid photopolymer, which is exposed to ultraviolet radiation to the desired areas, the product is formed. The technology is quite accurate, but at the same time it makes it necessary to use supporting technologies. Among other things, one can not help saying that expensive photopolymers are used in this case, and finished products differ in insignificant accuracy.

FDM (producers: MarketBot, CubeX)

Simulation is carried out exclusively on the technology of fusing. With the help of the dispensing head, thermoplastic droplets are carefully squeezed onto the surface of the cooled platform, which is in the heated state. Due to a sufficiently fast congealing and sticking together, such droplets form the layers of the formed object, that is, even here the printing is carried out by layers.

Reviews: We took this for 20,000 rubles. In principle, they took it for fun, so he copes with all his duties for 100. You download the drawings on the Internet, you program, you wait, you get the result - everything is simple.

Which to choose?

Immediately worth noting is the fact that household 3D printers are FDM, and only they are available to the average user. The point here is not even in the features of this technology, but that the device itself can be purchased at a price of 20,000 rubles, while the cost of other equipment starts from several million, and they themselves are supplied only on request.

That's why if you need a home 3D printer, you need to understand how to choose the most optimal device among the options with FDM technology.

What is it for you?

The main thing before buying this device is to decide on what, in general, in principle, you need this device. For example, if you just want to have fun, then in this case the standard copy will work for you at the minimum cost. If you need to figure out which 3D printer is better for production or a particular business that is directly related to this printing, you should choose the most reliable model. One has only to imagine what can happen if the printer completely breaks down while printing the next order, and you can not fix it in a short time.

Thus, if the work on this device is for you direct earnings, then you should take a responsible approach to choosing which of the 3D printers is better, better and more reliable, otherwise you should pay attention to the cheapest models in order to Would understand how such equipment works.

Where are they produced?

Necessarily, choosing a printer, you need to pay attention to the country of production. For today the market is conditionally divided into three segments:

• west;
• Chinese;
• domestic.

Each of the above segments is different in its features, so you can not immediately conduct, reviewing, comparing the best 3D printers of each type.

Western models are imported to Russia and CIS countries in small batches, while manufacturers have no official representatives in our countries. In particular, this ultimately results in such problems as high equipment costs, lack of direct access to spare parts, and normal maintenance and support. Thus, if there are even minor problems during the operation of your printer, there can be very serious problems in order to bring it back to working condition. But a review of the best home 3D printers showed that in fact such devices are reliable enough and do not break in the process of their work.

Again, the same situation is present with Chinese printers, but in this case there is also an extremely low quality of this equipment. In particular, it is worth noting the quality of the main components and components, which lags far behind in comparison with the solutions proposed by Western companies.

Of course, it can not be said that only imported printers are relevant. It is likely that you will be able to find the best 3D printers in the world among our manufacturers. To do this, you can use the characteristics presented below.

Speed and accuracy

Accuracy provides for the height of the layer during printing, that is, the smaller the height, the greater the accuracy (at the moment the highest accuracy of printers is 50 microns), and the rotation speed is represented in cm ³ / hour.

These parameters interact with each other in the most direct way. If there is high accuracy, the speed of printing is significantly reduced, and vice versa. For example, if a certain product is printed at the above accuracy of 50 μm, the build time will be approximately twice as long as compared to how long it will take to manufacture this product with an accuracy of 125 μm. In the majority of cases, manufacturers initially indicate which their accuracy and speed are provided by their device.

You need to pay attention to the range of these characteristics in order that you understand how different models can be produced. For example, to print a large layout you may need a sufficiently high speed, and at the same time a thick layer of application, while for the printing of gears it will already be necessary to switch to a small speed for the sake of increasing accuracy. It is worth noting that for the home the ideal option is printers with an accuracy of 150 microns, which are not very suitable for printing various industrial objects or modern business.

Units and materials

Choosing the best 3D printer for your conditions, you should definitely pay attention to the correspondence of all kinds of nodes and materials. Often it happens that the manufacturers declare extremely high accuracy of printing (for comparison, each pixel in the iPhone is more than 50 microns), while the printer body is actually assembled from a standard plywood that does not allow achieving a rigid construction and corresponding accuracy. Through the Internet, these parameters are difficult to track, except for certain photos, as well as reviews of the devices themselves. The best option is to contact the seller directly and ask him any relevant questions.

Types of plastic

It is necessary to understand what kind of plastic for a 3D printer is better to use in this or that case. The most common in our time can be called PLA and ABS. A certain number of printers can use both types of such plastic, while other devices provide only one of them. However, in fact, in addition to the above, other variants of threads can be used, differing in different physicochemical characteristics, such as glow in the dark, flexibility, water solubility, increased strength, and many others.

The possibility of printing with a certain plastic is determined by whether or not the platform is heated or not present in the device, which is provided by the operating temperature range of the extruder and which design of the stamping chamber is used. If you are not initially sure that the printer you selected supports a certain type of plastic, you need to specify these parameters as much as possible, and compare them with those that are recommended for each specific plastic.

It is likely that some plastics options may not be necessary for you at all, but you will never know this in advance. It is for this reason, if you prefer to experiment or do not know exactly what devices and what will be printed by you, you should choose such a 3D printer, in which the maximum possible number of supported plastic threads will be present. Even if such a multi-faceted work of your device in the end you will not need for the basic work, who knows where else such a universal device can be useful, because there are a variety of critical situations.