HOW MUCH DOES A 3D PRINTER COST

Fusion3 EDGE Professional 3D Printer

Here’s a quick guide for 3D printer costs; what prices you should expect to pay and what kind of features will accompany each:

GUIDE TO 3D PRINTER PRICING:

Hobbyist 3D Printers ($200-$1500):

Printers in this category are often surprisingly capable, but typically have 1-2 fatal flaws that undermine their value. These printers are usually not enclosed, limiting their material capability to a small number of low-temperature materials.  Print volume is typically 6″ to 8″ on a side.  These days hobbyist printer’s print quality and reliability are often acceptable for many “arts and crafts” type applications.  One thing to watch out for is many of these printers require a connection to cloud services to operate correctly.  These services, operated by the printer manufacturer, exfiltrate unknown data and potentially expose it to outside parties.  For hobbyists, this doesn’t matter much.  But for a business that needs to protect its IP, these limitations, along with the material limitations, make these printers a poor choice for business applications.  Examples of printers in this class would be the Bambu A series.

Enthusiast 3D Printers ($1,000-$4,000):

The enthusiast category is exploding and delivering solid printers that are great for certain applications. Printers in this category can deliver good sized prints; often as large as 8″ to 12″ in each dimension. Printers in this category have reasonable speed and decent print quality. In this category, you’ll have greater selection in materials that can print, although some enthusiast printers require you to use the manufacturer’s standard materials which limit your options. Some of these printers may be enclosed; this can help with medium-temperature materials such as ABS, ASA, etc. However in our experience these printers do not reach the temperatures required for excellent prints in these materials.  As with hobbyist printers, most printers in this price class use cloud services operated by the manufacturer; which comes with data security, intellectual property, and network security concerns.  Examples of printers in this class are the Bambu P series, X series, and the Prusa Core1.

Professional 3D Printers / Performance 3D Printers ($4,000-$20,000):

The performance category holds the promise of the greatest amount of value in 3D printing today and are poised to significantly disrupt the sales of printers in the industrial segment. Some 3D printers in this category have large, enclosed build areas (10″ – 12″+ in each dimension) and often can print pretty good quality parts out of higher temperature materials like ABS, Nylons, Carbon Fiber reinforced and Polycarbonate. Most printers in this category can print a wide range of materials, although to print them well, the manufacturer should provide print ‘profiles’ optimized to each material for their slicer software.

When shopping for a performance printer, there are 3 key features to look for:

First, the best performance printers have the ability to print parts both quickly while maintaining superior print resolution. Don’t only rely on published specifications; you need to look at a physical sample print and evaluate the settings the print was done at along with the actual time to print.

Second, does the printer help maintain control over your IP, help keep your network secure, and/or does it require cloud services to operate?

Third, when making the sizable investment required by this price class, you want to evaluate the durability of the printer and required maintenance as this will still vary greatly.

Printers in this class are perfectly suitable in Education (middle schools, high schools, universities and robotics clubs) as well as in a wide range of commercial environments (small business to large enterprises).

One thing to watch out for in this segment are Enthusiast printers being upsold into this market, without the requisite performance.  Two key indicators are the maximum temperatures of the beds and chambers, and the materials the printer is rated for.

Fusion3 offers Performance-grade 3D printers that are some of the most affordable you’ll find on the market, with all of the capabilities you look for in a Professional / Performance 3D Printer.

Enterprise (Industrial) 3D Printers ($20,000 – $100,000):

The printers in the Enterprise class differ from the Performance class in a few ways. These printers can print in high quality at good speeds, however you pay a significant premium for this privilege. They frequently are capable of printing very high temperature materials such as PEEK and Ultem.  These printers have very slick interfaces and durable construction and metal fabricated exteriors. Enterprise manufacturers charge a high price for the base printer, but also charge annual maintenance contracts as well as require you to purchase proprietary materials at a premium to those available on the open market. Also, the selection of materials in this space are surprisingly limited and expensive, often priced at three to five times what the material would cost on the open market. While these printers are durable and reliable, their price makes them only appropriate for large enterprises who can afford their large price tag. This price tag makes this class of printers prohibitively expensive for most universities. The irony of these machines is that due to the high operating costs, one can argue there is a disincentive for encouraging their use by employees & students. Because of this, the Performance class of 3D printers becomes an attractive alternative to Enterprise printers for a wide variety of businesses.