I work for a Stratasys dealer, and also run a service bureau that has 20 Stratasys printers covering the entire Stratasys FDM and polyjet portfolios. To speak to your project specifically, you need to consider what mechanical properties will be required by the application. Keeping in mind that all polyjet materials are acrylic-based, there are oftentimes limited uses for the materials as end use parts, while FDM is a different story all together, as FDM uses industrial grade thermoplastics suitable for unlimited end use applications.
That being said, you are going to find that the type of volume that you are looking to get out of the machine is unrealistic from a both a cost and timing perspective. Your most cost- and time efficient path with this will be to have the part injection molded- the part itself looks like a very simple two part mold and you will be able to do your production run at literally a fraction of the cost, fraction of the time, and also with better materials.
It all depends on the size of the part and the material properties you are looking for. The resin from an Object30 does not create the strongest parts and the cured resin can be susceptible to UV. An FDM printer will print a part in a much stronger material like ABS or ABS+.
I would consider something more like a 3d printed tool or an aluminum tool for 10K parts. A 3d printer is good for printing a few hundred pieces, if small (I have done 300 pieces on a Dimensions 1200). A 3d printed tool can bring that number up to around a thousand or so. But after that, I would recommend tooling for that part, its faster and cheaper. Even the best the 3d printers still have some post-processing to deal with and they all go down at some point.
If you are going to invest 10-20k in a new printer, that is pretty much the cost of a small tool for injection molding. The parts will be stronger and the material cost would be lower.
We have an Objet500 Connex3 which uses the same materials as the Objet30 system although in larger cartridges along with the ability to run flexible and colored materials.
I agree with many of the comments offered here – 10,000 pieces is typically a much larger quantity than can be produced economically by 3D printing – unless there are part features which make injection molding impractical. Support removal is really no longer an issue as soluble support is now available across all of the PolyJet platforms.
Whichever Stratasys dealer you are working with should be able to run a sample part for you and provide material cost and run time information. If that does not work out for you and you are willing to send me an STL file I could at least let you know what your material cost would be to produce the part.
I wouldn’t recommend investing a machine to mass produce 3d printed parts. There are better ways to produce large volumes of parts using traditional methods and with superior end results. A 3d printed parts is always going to have its weaknesses. The volume your are looking at you could injection mold the parts and be way ahead of the game. You could even CNC machine parts and do better. Our Objet 30 pro was near 60K all said and done. Materials will cost you $600-$770 per cartridge and have expiration dates. Then you have to factor in maintenance contracts which are basically forced or service on your machine becomes a nightmare around 4K per year. We can help with production for CNC and Molding if you end up choosing an alternate path. Good Luck.
