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Current pricing of metal 3D printers?

Kiwi 'smith Dean

Cast Iron
Joined
Jan 13, 2011
Location
Tauranga, New Zealand.
Hi guys, i'm just trying to get an idea of where the market is at right now in terms of the cost of purchase and set-up for a decent metal capable 3d printer that will do (at a minimum) stainless and aluminium, or higher end machines that will also do titanium.

Looking at a smaller sized machine that would be able to produce strong, useable parts without the need to have a separate sintering furnace. Small prototypes to small-medium producion of very small (hand-held sized parts) would be the intended use.

Sales guys down here so far have been pretty cagey on pricing for getting a machine set up and running, though i was just hoping to cut through the BS and get some indicative pricing and options from someone on here who might have been down this track already?

Thanks, Dean.
 
My guess is that a machine that is capable of making usuable parts in titanium, like say, an EOS, is going to be in the quarter million USD range.
 
My guess is that a machine that is capable of making usuable parts in titanium, like say, an EOS, is going to be in the quarter million USD range.

Thanks, that's a good starting point. I understand that titanium can be a bit trickier to do, and there are simpler machines like the Fuji pro100 and pro200 that just do Al and stainless in a small foot print size and small working area. The price seems to jump up alot for the Ti capable printing machines.

Any others able to provide indicative pricing? Thanks again.
 
Hi All:
Last time I inquired (about 5 years ago) an EOS machine was around 720,000 Canadian dollars, so I crawled back under my rock and fired up my Minimill again to make my prototypes.
If I recall correctly it was a 400 watt machine.

It was supposed to cost several thousand dollars a month to keep it in milk and cookies if it was going to run full time.
That's not the amortization of the capital cost; that's just power and consumables.

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining
 
When you get some quotes, let us know. One thing that is well hidden is the consumables costs. There seems to be reprocessing costs on the unused powder in many of them as well.
 
I do know the powders can be quite dangerous as well. The local community college has a metal 3d printer. The room is outfitted with do not enter flashing lights while they are doing anything with the powders and the person servicing the machine is outfitted with a upper body covering supplied air respirator. There are flammability issues as well. I know they were well over a million dollars to buy and install the printer.

The other issue at this point from a job shop point of view is colleges, universities and the dealers for the printers are printing parts way under actual costs if one were to try to pay for the machine. The colleges to help cover there expenses while they are learning to use them and teach students. The dealers to try to promote the machines.
 
i would look into cost of consumables to make a part. if 100 million dollar machine was given away for free buts costs over $100 to $1000 per lb to make parts consumables possibly very expensive
.
30 years ago I bought a torch to spray metal on parts. the powered metal was $20 or more per lbs and that was 30 years ago
 
This company says they’re producing a metal printer for 100k - 125k

https://www.technologyreview.com/vi...the-manufacturing-tool-it-was-hyped-up-to-be/
The problem with MarkForged is the hype. Their printer is 100K, but then you need the cleaner and sintering oven, call it 150K. I've tried to get anybody independent of the company to relate some experience as to how their stuff works, but all I hear is crickets. There is another New England company competing directly with MarkForged with about the same process. This is metal filled FMD printing followed by sintering.
 
They list their prices on their website - what a concept!!! It is $120K for the system. I'm not sure they or MarkForged are actually shipping any of these yet.
 
I have a large format 3D printer and am really unimpressed with it and any 3D printers i've seen and worked with. Mostly because of the failed print rate that is scraped, and the extreme long print times as well as the expensive consumable costs that are often overlooked. A CNC mill or lathe can make 10 or more times the parts in the same time for less money and no scrap. The only useful application 3D printers have IMHO is if the part is so abstract that it can't have fixturing made to machine it. I use CNC mills everyday and think that for even the smallest of prototyping needs, a CNC mill or lathe far outweighs the costs in both time and dollars spent to make parts with than a 3D printer. You can buy a nice fairly new 4 or 5 axis mill for $150K or less and have a better quality billet part compared to a 3D printed part for the $500K-$700K that's been mentioned. If you made 10 parts with the cost of the $500K plus 3D printer, they just cost you a unit price of $50K plus each to make. Unless you're prototyping a part that is going to make millions of dollars for some huge contractor, no one is going to pay you to that much to make anything for them. I think the concept of 3D printers is unique, and it does allow people with little or no skill to make things with ease, but I think for the really high end units that print metal, there are better alternatives that are more cost effective such as CNC machining, except in the cases I already mentioned where the part is too abstract to be machined with practical methods.
 
...

I do know the powders can be quite dangerous as well. The local community college has a metal 3d printer. The room is outfitted with do not enter flashing lights while they are doing anything with the powders and the person servicing the machine is outfitted with a upper body covering supplied air respirator. There are flammability issues as well. I know they were well over a million dollars to buy and install the printer.

Jiminy Christmas!
 








 
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