3D printing has flourished since the expiration of the patent for desktop-level 3D printers. In particular, the number of manufacturers of desktop 3D printers has increased year by year. With the increase of R&D and production companies, the price of 3D printers is also declining, which benefits from low material and assembly costs. Let’s discuss the factors that affect the price of 3D printers from several aspects.
1. The structure of the printer: Desktop 3D printers are divided into 3 structures. The first is the delta structure. The 3D printer of this structure is very suitable for printing circular structures. The second type is the cross axis structure. The machine with this structure is relatively stable and suitable for printing structures with right angles. The third type is the i3 structure, which is similar to a cross shaft, but the movement of the machine bottom plate causes the quality of the printed parts to be poor. Under the same print size, the price of the three structure printers is: cross axis>delta>i3.
2. Printer molding size: For 3D printers of the same structure, the larger the molding size, the higher the corresponding price.
3. The materials that the printer can print: The most common 3D printers can only print polylactic acid materials (PLA), even ABS is difficult to print. For some industrial desktop 3D printers, it can 3D print many engineering materials other than PLA, such as ABS, PA, etc.
The above points are the most important factors that determine the desktop 3D printer. Of course, in addition to these, there are other factors such as print head type, base plate type, motherboard type and so on.