Top 7 Large 3D Printers for Industrial-Scale Projects

Kirstein Business Library & Innovation Center’s 3D printer must only be used legally and in compliance with library policies.

Patrons are solely responsible for any intellectual content created with it and must follow copyright regulations when making copies of it.

digitally sculpt your own designs or download models from repositories and marketplaces with open licenses or in the public domain.

Kirstein Business Library & Innovation Center 3D printer is available to patrons who make reservations.

Before printing anything, patrons should read and adhere to all instructions provided.

This production-grade printer uses an automated system to control its 16,000 individual nozzles that print objects.

This system allows real-time adjustments of resin deposit by each nozzle for greater precision.

Printing Materials

Large 3d printers utilize various printing materials. The filament is often the material of choice and fed into the print head via its filament drive gear for use as material that will eventually reach melting temperature and be extruded onto the build surface of the machine in layers.

Each layer is then printed one at a time using a slicer program which sets parameters that determine what steps the printer must follow to produce its final product.

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, commonly referred to as ABS for short, is an extremely durable thermoplastic plastic with excellent strength and water resistance; making it suitable for outdoor applications.

Another popular thermoplastic option is ASA; similar to ABS but offering better weather resistance.

PEKK and PEEK, two high-performance polymers used for FDM 3D printing, possess unique properties.

They are sterilizable, chemically resistant, have high strength-to-weight ratios, as well as being flameproof.

Other 3D printing materials available for 3D printing include composites. These materials, which contain fiber reinforcements to increase strength and stiffness, tend to be mixed with thermoplastics for printing purposes and may cost more than traditional materials like plastic.

Speed

The speed of printing objects on a large 3D printer is of crucial importance for those seeking timely delivery of objects.

While some large models take considerable time to print due to being complex or needing lots of support structures, there are ways to optimize this process and speed up print times by minimizing overhangs or supports or splitting into multiple pieces before starting printing.

Slicer software plays an essential part in 3D printing. By taking into account your model and printer settings, it generates instructions (called G-code) for your printer to follow as it builds your object layer by layer.

Furthermore, it enables you to adjust various print settings such as layer height, infill pattern, and support structure based on user preference.

The ideal slicer software is tailored to be compatible with a range of printers and offer features to make the printing process more efficient and effective, such as multiple object printing simultaneously to cut printing time down; however, too many objects printed simultaneously could compromise stability leading to failures and instability in your process.

In addition, some programs provide advanced features that enhance print quality for an enhanced final print product.

Durability

At present, 3D printers may not yet be readily available at BestBuy and always work as advertised, but machines continue to get better over time.

While not infallible – all will eventually clog at some point and require tweaks or replacement parts – their quality continues to increase over time.

However, MIT’s new printer utilizes an automated system to quickly and continuously adjust the amount of material deposited by each of its 16,000 nozzles – effectively giving it eyes and brains to watch what it prints before deciding if any adjustments need to be made.

Controlling the amount of material deposited by each nozzle allows 3D printers to use materials with slower curing times than traditional acrylics commonly used for 3D printing, preventing cracking as quickly, being temperature stable, and not degrading when exposed to sunlight.

Kirstein Business Library & Innovation Center features several 3D printers and associated equipment that patrons may use to produce legal, lawful content by library policies.

Patrons are solely responsible for any illegal content they produce and must ensure it does not violate any laws, privacy rights, or property rights.

Materials

Not only can 3D printers print in plastic, but they can also utilize other materials.

When selecting the material to use for an object’s use case – for instance, PLA will melt under heat exposure while PETG and ABS offer more durability; some specialized printers even specialize in metal 3D printing!

Before beginning printing, a digital model of an object must first be created with computer-aided design (CAD) software.

Once complete, this model must then be “sliced,” or divided into layers, before it is converted to toolpaths which tell your printer where and how much material should be deposited in each layer using its nozzles.

Researchers have used this system to create complex robotic devices using both soft and rigid materials, with printed tendons making it possible to fabricate a fully functioning robotic hand controlled by 19 independently actuating tendons.

PEEK thermoplastic provides exceptional mechanical strength, chemical resistance and sterilizability – as well as flameproof protection – making it the ideal material for aerospace and automotive applications. The printer features two PEEK ink cartridges.

Design

3D printers are computer-controlled machines that create objects by depositing thin layers of liquid material that is later UV cured, creating solid objects.

While 3D printers can fabricate structures from various materials, selecting one that matches your project and its size requirements is key as some 3D printers only offer limited build volumes.

Online repositories such as Thingiverse offer user-created, open-source digital design files that can be quickly and easily downloaded for fabrication on a 3D printer.

These files make 3D printing accessible for anyone using 3D technology – these files make fabrication fun!

For an object to be printed, the printer uses multiple high-frame-rate cameras to monitor its surface.

A computer vision system then analyzes these images to identify any discrepancies between what’s printed and the CAD model that was being used; and adjusts resin deposits in real time if there’s a discrepancy based on analysis results.

Researchers used this system without interrupting their printing process for creating complex robotic grippers made of both rigid and soft materials 660 times faster than regular printers while printing fine details accurately.