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Hello guys,

So we have things like CLIP (Carbon3D Unveils Breakthrough CLIP 3D Printing Technology, 25-100X Faster - 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing) for SLA making it super fast with improved tensile properties and surface quality.

FDM also has its innovations: Still in the prototype phase. Project Escher seems very promising (https://vimeo.com/157523884), printing large objects using multiple print heads.

Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) used to 3D-print car bodies uses an extrusion screw to deposit very thick layers of thermoplastic (Cincinnati Incorporated).

So the question is, where do you guys think FDM will move forward to next? What do you expect to see or what do you wish to see?

Here are a few we’ve collected:

Multi-color FDM - The Palette https://www.mosaicmanufacturing.com

Multi-color FDM - Diamond Hotend http://reprap.org/wiki/Diamond\_Hotend

Automatic Part Removal - http://nvbots.com

Semi-automatic Part Removal - 3ders.org - Automate the removal and 3D printing of multiple objects with the ECHOdrive add-on | 3D Printer News & 3D Printing News

Regards,

James

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Better retraction technology, resulting in better multi color prints and better dis-solvable support handling.

Larger printers.

Better resolution with fdm. (smaller layer height) which will probably be solved with better layer adhesion technology.

I don’t know if the price point on existing technology can be pushed down much further. We seem to have hit a plateau on that.

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While CLIP is definitely an improvement to SLA, it is in no way a consumer printer. That is solely a commercial technology for the time being (next 20 years actually, unless someone finds a way around the patent); the Carbon machine is $40k/year to lease, so that really puts it solely in the price range of commerical operations. You have to be careful differentiating between commerical and consumer technology. A MakerBot is a consumer technology, whereas the Fortus is a commercial machine. Most innovations in the 3D printing industry will be there to benefit the commercial market; a consumer simply won’t pay $5k+ (most will balk at more than $1000) for a printer and that’s not going to change any time soon. Other than that, I’d say material selection and reliability are what are most likely to improve. The filament market has exploded over the last year or so, and as our material knowledge grows, so will the selection of available thermoplastic.

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Hey @Perry_1,

I think the price of printers is going down steadily. Now you still have the good quality printers at around 2000 USD but at the same time the print quality of sub 1000 USD printers is constantly improving.

Dissolvable support handling is certainly a great option! Hopefully one day multi-extrusion systems will be a norm. Thanks for your input!

Regards,

James

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Hello @Enza3D,

Great points about differentiating consumer and commercial technology. Seems like the day where everyone will have an awesome 3D-printer at home is still some years away.

Yes we are seeing some cool filaments out there, few days ago I tried one that changes colour in seconds when exposed to UV light! Thanks for your input, you’ve covered some imporatant points.

Regards,
James

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@3DMuse,

It’s no problem!

There are so many filament options, and some of the craziest are from Kai Parthy (check him out if you have time). I really look forward to the developments that will be made over the next couple of years.