What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a 3D printer

While 3D printing has grown in various sectors, including engineering, entertainment, space science, and medicine, there are still several pros and cons of this technology that needs to be considered. We analyze all advantages and disadvantages of 3D technology according to researchers, experts, and developer’s input. This article will assist you in determining whether or not 3D printing is an excellent solution to your manufacturing needs.

What are the Pros of 3D Printing?
This production process offers a range of advantages compared to traditional manufacturing methods. These advantages include those related to design, time and cost, amongst others.

Flexible Design
3D printing allows for the design and print of more complex designs than traditional manufacturing processes. More traditional processes have design restrictions which no longer apply with the use of 3D printing.

It Is Affordable
3D printers are more affordable than ever. One of the most popular models, the Creality Ender 3 V2 is available for less than $300.

Official Creality Ender 3 V2 Upgraded 3D Printer with Silent Motherboard Meanwell Power Supply Carborundum Glass Platform and Resume Printing 220x220x250mm

3D printing is a single-step manufacturing process, so it not only saves you the costs linked to using different manufacturing processes and machines but also valuable time.

3D printers do not need constant supervision as they can perform specific tasks once they are set; thus, you do not need to be around at all times. For example, they can be left running at night without employing an expensive nightshift to look over them.

Additionally, 3D printing saves you the total cost of materials as it only makes use of the necessary material to produce a particular part with no or little wastage.

Print on Demand
Print on demand is another advantage as it doesn’t need a lot of space to stock inventory, unlike traditional manufacturing processes. This saves space and costs as there is no need to print in bulk unless required.

The 3D design files are all stored in a virtual library as they are printed using a 3D model as either a CAD or STL file, this means they can be located and printed when needed. Edits to designs can be made at very low costs by editing individual files without wastage of out of date inventory and investing in tools.

Strong and Lightweight Parts
The main 3D printing material used is plastic, although some metals can also be used for 3D printing. However, plastics offer advantages as they are lighter than their metal equivalents. This is particularly important in industries such as automotive and aerospace where light-weighting is an issue and can deliver greater fuel efficiency.

Also, parts can be created from tailored materials to provide specific properties such as heat resistance, higher strength or water repellency.

Fast Design and Production
Depending on a part’s design and complexity, 3D printing can print objects within hours, which is much faster than moulded or machined parts. It is not only the manufacture of the part that can offer time savings through 3D printing but also the design process can be very quick by creating STL or CAD files ready to be printed.

Minimising Waste
The production of parts only requires the materials needed for the part itself, with little or no wastage as compared to alternative methods which are cut from large chunks of non-recyclable materials. Not only does the process save on resources but it also reduces the cost of the materials being used.

Ease of Access
3D printers are becoming more and more accessible with more local service providers offering outsourcing services for manufacturing work. This saves time and doesn’t require expensive transport costs compared to more traditional manufacturing processes produced abroad in countries such as China.

What are the Cons of 3D Printing?
Like with almost any other process there are also drawbacks of 3D printing technology which should be considered before opting to use this process.

Limited Materials
While 3D Printing can create items in a selection of plastics and metals the available selection of raw materials is not exhaustive. This is due to the fact that not all metals or plastics can be temperature controlled enough to allow 3D printing. In addition, many of these printable materials cannot be recycled and very few are food safe.

Restricted Build Size
The chamber size integrated into 3D printers is usually relatively small, thereby restricting the part sizes that you can print. Therefore, any larger item needs to be printed separately and later assembled after its production.

Consequently, this increases the time required to print because the 3D printer needs to print more parts before you can go ahead and manually join the parts.

Where to site these splits has to be decided by the designer, taking care that they don’t induce weakness or spoil the finish of the final part.

Lesser strength in comparison to conventional manufacture
Many 3D printed parts are quite fragile as opposed to the conventional manufacturing approaches, apart from the ones created from metal which have effective mechanical characteristics. This is largely owing to the parts being constructed layer-by-layer, which highly minimizes its strength.

Elevated cost at high volume
Generally carrying out large production operations is more costly through 3D printing owing to less impact from economies of scale. As per estimates, when a direct comparison is made between similar parts, 3D printing is deduced to be less cost-effective in comparison with the parts being developed using conventional manufacturing approaches.

Limitations in accuracy
The precision of a printed part relies on the kind of machine and/or procedure adopted. A few desktop printers have lesser tolerances in comparison to other printers, implying that the final parts can be different in comparison to the designs. Although this can be mended through post-processing, it has to be ensured that 3D printed parts might not be precise every time.

Post-processing requirements
Most of the 3D printed parts need a certain kind of post-processing. This can be smoothing for developing a required finish or getting heat treatment for achieving particular material properties as well as final machining.

WKproto is a professional rapid prototyping and low-volume production manufacture specializing in 3D printing, CNC machining, and Vacuum Casting. Our factory and parter factories enable rapid prototyping of designs from our customers and low volume production for market verification.

We have three factories. 3D printing factory meets the demands of most 3D printing services with 100 SLA machines, 10 SLS machines, 10 MJF machines, 10 SLM machines, and 20 FDM machines. CNC machining factories for processing metals, plastic and more materials with more than 200 machines for CNC milling/CNC lathes/EDM / Wire EDM and the Vacuum Casting factory is for low volume production for ABS、PC、PP、PE、PA、POM、PMMA、PVC.