3DPrinting

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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.

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[Discussion] I have heard that 3D printing is good for rapid prototyping, but what about localized manufacturing? What are some advantages/disadvantages of FDM vs injection molded parts? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/3dprinting

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Advantages of FDM vs injection moulding :

Cheap equipment costs
No need to make moulds/adjust the machine for different parts
Very complex structures possible
In some case material usage can be optimized
Comparatively small machinery

Disadvantages of FDM vs injection moulding :

Super slow (a 1x1x1cm dice might take in the order of 1h to print, while the injection moulding machine can spit out a whole lot of them in a minute or so)
Print times scale with the cube of the size. A 20x20x20cm print will take in the order of one week to complete.
Small details are not so pretty
Rough surface
Parts might need some post-processing (e.g. removing supports)
Filament (e.g. PLA, ~€20/kg) is much more expensive than pellets (e.g. PLA, ~€1-5/kg) used for injection molding
Many materials that are available for inejction moulding are not available for FDM
Only very limited foam materials available
FDM parts are much less robust than injection moulded ones, especially along the layer lines
FDM has more issues with exact dimensional accuracy. It's much easier to e.g. make a perfect ABS part with injection moulding than with FDM. In injection moulding you don't have to worry about warping and stuff like that.

TLDR:

FDM is great when you want to make very few pieces, the part is neither too small (<1cm) or too large (>15cm), you don't need perfect mechanical properties and it's fine that the finished part looks kinda rough.

Or if you can only have one device because you have limited space. Then it defaults to the 3D printer due to its versatility.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Thank you