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3D printer maintenance - the ins and outs
When you’re calculating how much owning and maintaining a 3D printer might cost, it’s important to remember these are complex devices requiring considerable care and attention. This is equally true whether you’re considering entry-level 3D printers or looking at investing in setting up a factory or a manufacturing fleet of industrial 3D printers.
The cleaning advice a manufacturer will provide when you purchase a machine usually just covers keeping moving surfaces that come into contact with each other lubricated and removing debris that might corrupt motion systems. But real 3D printer maintenance is about far more than this.
You also need to carefully consider 3D printing materials, equipment operating costs like energy and electricity bills, investment in skilled operators and labor, post-processing, software, related technology such as scanners and other support you might require.
In this article, we’ll offer valuable advice covering what to consider when calculating what might be your ongoing investment in maintaining your 3D printer, factory, or manufacturing fleet of 3D printers.
Consider the cost of 3D printing materials
Apart from your initial investment in a 3D printer, you’ll need to factor in critical workflow elements such as 3D printing materials.
Depending on the technology you invest in, you can make healthy savings on 3D materials costs. For example, many of HP’s 3D printing materials offer industry-leading reusability. This is because powder not used when a part was formed can be reused for subsequent 3D printing jobs without sacrificing mechanical performance.
As well as the materials used to form 3D printed objects, if you’re using technologies, such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), Digital Light Processing (DLP), or Material Jetting, you will also need to invest in materials to produce the support structures.
The cost of 3D printing materials
The price of 3D print materials varies considerably, from the relatively high ongoing cost of using resins to cheaper powder. When considering the kind of 3D printing technology you wish to invest in, it’s vital to factor in materials costs.
Filaments and powders
The least expensive and most widespread materials used in 3D printing, filaments and powders are thermoplastics that can be reshaped and remolded.
Although their low cost is an advantage, the problem with filaments is that it can take significant time, effort, and expense to produce high-quality 3D models. Some filament materials such as PEEK or TPU offer enhanced mechanical properties, but these are more expensive.
Resins
Resins are used to build anything from tough objects, where the resin is melted and the object produced layer by layer, to transparent or flexible prints. They are usually straightforward to work with but can be expensive.
High-cost materials
Some materials used in 3D printing have exceptional or unique properties that make them particularly valued, such as remarkable toughness. Because they can be relatively rare, they are usually more expensive. They include metals such as aluminum, alloy steel and titanium.
Reducing materials costs with Design for Additive Manufacturing techniques
When you’re looking at ways to minimize the amount of material you use and keep your 3D printing costs and operations and maintenance costs down, it makes sense to consider Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM).
Mastering DfAM offers you many advantages when you’re using 3D printing to power your design and manufacturing. These include freedom of design to create parts not possible to manufacture with conventional methods as well as enhanced part performance. DfAM can also simplify your 3D printing workflow and supply chain with part consolidation techniques and designing to optimize nesting in the build chamber.
HP’s 3D Professional Services include offering you advice on how to adopt and develop DfAM techniques to grow and transform your business. Common DfAM techniques that can help reduce material use and, as a result, ongoing costs include:
Hollowing
Making 3D printed parts hollow to minimize the amount of material used will possibly save cost.
Reducing infill percentage
You can reduce the infill percentage on 3D printed objects that don’t need to be especially durable or strong, such as aesthetic prototypes.
Removing the need for support structures
When you design an overhang angle of more than 45 degrees, you remove the necessity for support structures (that are required for resin-based or material extrusion technologies). An overhang is where the material being extruded hangs over the previous layer to the point where it can’t be supported.
You can also do away with the need for support structures altogether and save material use and costs by splitting your model or by using processes such as Binder Jetting or Powder Bed Fusion technologies like HP Multi Jet Fusion (processes that don’t require support structures).
3D printer consumables to maximize uptime and optimize cost
As we have said, a 3D printer is a sophisticated piece of technology with many moving parts that all need to be maintained for optimal Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
OEE is defined as the combination of equipment availability, performance, and quality—for example, minimizing the number of failed prints. One of the factors that contribute to equipment performance involves paying close attention to repairing, cleaning, and replacing consumables such as nozzles, extruders, hot ends, lamps, printheads, build plates and other essential parts.
Consider the cost of 3D software and scanners
You will need to consider the cost of software licenses for various stages of your production workflow, including design, job preparation, fleet management and production monitoring.
If you are considering 3D printing for the medical and healthcare sectors, there may be potential 3D scanner hardware costs if this is how you will create your printing files or even certified software workflows to meet industry regulations.
3D post-processing costs
Although the cost of post-processing relates more to that of the 3D printed part production cost, you should bear it in mind when considering investing in a printer.
Depending on the 3D printed products you are planning to manufacture and the type of 3D printing process you use, you may well have to use one or more different post-processing procedures. Although post-processing procedures improve quality and performance of 3D printed parts, they also result in additional expenses to factor into your overall workflow costs.
Widely used post-processing techniques include:
Polishing
This involves sanding a 3D printed product to prepare the surface as well as rinsing and polishing for maximum smoothness and can be highly expensive. It is used on high-end 3D printed products such as jewelry.
Electroplating
Electroplating 3D printed products such as antennae with metals like gold, silver, or copper improves their strength and appearance. Electrolysis can be used for decoration. Both processes can be quite expensive.
Epoxy coating
3D printed products are strengthened with resin and a hardener, and any porous parts are sealed in. This is generally a cost-effective process.
Cost of support and other services
Apart from 3D printer operations costs, 3D printing materials, and post-processing, it’s vital to put the right 3D printing services and support contract in place to cover repair and maintenance peace of mind.
Most major manufacturers of 3D printers offer maintenance programs delivered by expert technicians.
Before you consider going “off-maintenance” to cut costs, remember that this will require you to maintain equipment yourself. If you believe you have the resources to do this in-house, going off-maintenance might be tempting. But the complexity of 3D printers and the fact that some manufacturers lock unauthorized personnel out of machines make it highly likely to be problematic.
All of which makes it most likely that you will require a trusted service solution that really does add value.
Expert advice from HP 3D Services cover every aspect of the 3D printing workflow — the technology itself, your choice of materials, and post- processing. It can help you save on maintenance, operating, and other ongoing costs for the future and can be especially valuable in helping to maximize OEE.
HP 3D Solution Services are designed to enable anyone who purchases an industrial 3D printer to realize all the benefits of their investment even before the new purchase is installed. They also maximize efficiency and accelerate the transformation and growth of your business with 3D printing while always offering peace of mind.
When it comes to DfAM or applications development support, you can take advantage of HP 3D Professional Services designed specifically to help you embrace additive manufacturing no matter what stage of the adoption journey you are at. HP 3D Professional Services can help you identify opportunities where additive manufacturing can add value, optimize design, develop applications, and even plan and set up your own additive manufacturing factory.
If working on a "pay-as-you-go" basis and putting the emphasis on your business results is best for you, HP 3D as a Service (HP 3DaaS) could be the answer.
With HP 3DaaS, you avoid up-front investment and pay monthly to align your costs directly with revenue.1 A usage-based price per successful 3D printing build2 gives you certainty around your variable costs. Simplifying supplies ordering and inventory management offers you new operational efficiencies.3
Want to know more about 3D printer costs?
As you’re no doubt realizing, 3D printing offers enormous opportunities. But, as we know, there’s also a lot to consider when you’re looking at investing in 3D printing. That’s why we’ve created this article and others like it.
To find out more about 3D printer costs, read our article "How much does an industrial 3D printer cost."
If you still have questions about industrial 3D printer costs, then our HP 3D printing experts are here to help you—feel free to reach out!
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Footnotes and disclaimers
- HP 3DaaS: defined usage-based price applies for a one-year term.
- A successful build is a printed job that ends with the exit code “job_completed_successfully.”
- HP Supplies and Automatic Replenishment is currently available in the US, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, UK and South Korea. HP 3DaaS Service Only (HP Supplies not included) is available in Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Greece and South Africa (China, Singapore and Taiwan availability in May 2022).