“Would it be cheaper, faster, and more efficient to 3D print my parts instead CNC machining or injection molding them?”
This is one of the most common questions in the 3D printing industry, and, unfortunately, it doesn’t have a simple answer. With some parts, it is, without a doubt, better to 3D print them. With others, a cost and speed comparison might reveal no significant advantage.
3D printer maker EOS North America and its consulting wing, Additive Minds, grapple with this question all the time, advising customers on whether or not moving to additive manufacturing (the industrial name for 3D printing) makes sense. It’s such an essential question that today, the company launched a web tool that can help you decide.
EOS launched an online tool to help you make the initial analysis about whether 3D printing is a good option for your parts (Source: EOS)
Aptly named “Can I 3D Print This?”, the new online analysis tool enables organizations that are exploring additive manufacturing to input information about their part and generate a report about its 3D printability.
Designed for both metal and plastic 3D printing, the tool provides a cost estimate, predicted production time, recommended printing technology, and recommended material. The analysis also includes multiple comparisons of cost-per-part (CPP), production timeline, and material usage when manufacturing with 3D printing rather than current traditional processes. At first, “Can I 3D Print This?” will only be available in North America.
“Despite its proven advantages and widespread adoption, many companies still deem AM an emerging technology and are hesitant to augment their traditional manufacturing processes,” says David Krzeminski, EOS North America senior Additive Minds consultant. “Our new Can I 3D Print This tool helps with initial decision-making by empowering potential users to explore and gather information about the promise of AM within their organization.”
It also helps that the tool is free. Expert consulting with Additive Minds is not, but if the tool recommends 3D printing, you can move to professional help with more confidence and actual data than starting from scratch. You’re limited to the analysis of five parts, but a larger batch analysis of applications or assemblies can be completed through a collaboration with Additive Minds’ engineering team.
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Part Analyzing Software
Behind the “Can I 3D Print This?” tool is software by start-up developer Castor, which has partnered with other 3D printer makers and service providers, such as Ultimaker, 3D Systems, Stratasys, and Materialise, to bring its part analysis tool to manufacturing.
Caster CEO Omer Blaier says his company’s software is a decision support system for using industrial 3D printing for end-use parts. “Most manufacturers struggle with identifying exactly if, when, and where to apply additive manufacturing,” he says.
The EOS adoption of Castor software limits you to solutions that EOS printers can deliver, which makes sense, but the full version of Castor is a much more powerful tool. It can not only crawl your entire part database searching for eligible parts to 3D print, but it also suggests design changes that an engineer could follow so that your parts could benefit even more from additive manufacturing. Castor can identify adjacent parts that make sense to combine together into a single part, highlight weight reduction opportunities, and calculate the amount of CO2 emissions that can potentially be saved by using additive manufacturing instead of traditional manufacturing.
