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> 3D printers have terrible quality. They are for prototyping. You'd be printing out replacement parts every month. You might be confusing appearance and durab
by Artlav 10y ago
> 3D printers have terrible quality. They are for prototyping. You'd be printing out replacement parts every month.
You might be confusing appearance and durability. The appearance of 3D printed parts is usually far from designer's tastes, but they are really durable.
I have 3D printed whole flying drones and structural robot parts many times, and they are sufficiently strong and durable for the task and last a while.
My main 3D printer is mostly made of 3D printed parts that are load-bearing, and none broke over the last 5 years or so.
Only problem i ever had was a reel of bad Chinese plastic that degraded quickly under sunlight. Easy to avoid by not buying on e-bay...
- zokier 10y agoI'm pretty sure that for the same amount of similar material injection molded parts are generally stronger than 3d-printed ones.
- Artlav 10y agoSure, and it's much faster too. But the former is a rigid industrial process needing complex machinery, while the latter is a fully configurable process with machinery you can make out of assorted scrap at home.
- TaylorAlexander 10y agoTrue. Also, aluminum parts are stronger than plastics. And magnesium parts are stronger than aluminum. But we don't make everything out of magnesium. The question is not "could it be stronger?", to which the answer is always yes until you've hit the extreme end with some kind of inconel/titanium/carbon nanotube mix, but "is it strong enough?". Also cost to manufacture, including tooling costs, is an important factor in choosing the best manufacturing method for a given part.