this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
18 points (100.0% liked)

3DPrinting

15278 readers
117 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: [email protected] or [email protected]

There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]

Rules

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Sure its good for "rapid" prototyping but the cost and time advantage dont scale. If I need exactly 1 of something FDM will almost always cost less and take less time. If I need 100-1000-10,000 of something FDM will cost far more upfront for printers than the cost of molds and doing a large injection run.

So it really comes down to what you need and want. For testing, and developing something FDM is fantastic, but once you need to scale, traditional manufacturing will win every single time by a mile!