4 Reasons to choose a 3D printer which is specific for a type of material
instead of a multi material printer
When you want to eat a good sushi do you go to the pizzeria-restaurant owned by your cousin, who every now and then improvises and prepares raw fish dishes, or do you go to an authentic Japanese restaurant?
When you need to change an auto part, do you go to any mechanic who quotes you a good price, or do you go to the dealer who sold you the car?
It’s a fact: when we want something we always want the best.
We want the product which guarantees the best performance by relying on the best expert in the field, who will always be able to help us.
Perhaps you imagine the expert as an old wise man sitting on a mountain top, who has memorized all the texts about a specific subject and is also a bit far-sighted and, therefore, can always show you the right road to take.
In actual fact, even if they don’t live on a mountain top and don’t have a long white beard, you already know many experts:
The electrician, the cardiologist, the divorce lawyer, the pizza chef, etc.
The expert is none other than the specialist.
The word specialist comes from the word special. Special is everything that is out of the ordinary and which relates to a particular field.
The special tribunal is a tribunal created for specific crimes.
A special language refers to a specific terminology in a sector.
A special 3D printer is a 3D printer which:
- Deals with a specific mechanical use:
- Uses only one material;
- Has been created to give the best performance for that specific material;
And finally it is really special, because in the dark forest of additive manufacturing, finding a 3D printer which is not standard, that is, which has not been designed for nearly all materials, is as rare as coming across a blue bear and surviving the encounter.
If I were to tell you that I have managed to find the blue bear’s cave and not only survived, but have also tamed it to make it work for me, speeding up my production and making me earn more, what would you think?
Perhaps this will make you laugh but it is really like that!
When four years ago I set out in the dark forest of additive manufacturing, I was looking for a better 3D printer, one which would have worked better and faster.
I was looking for a specialist 3D printer.
I found myself at the mercy of standard beasts who were not specialized and therefore could not guarantee a better product to satisfy my needs.
At the beginning I thought it was more economical and convenient to buy a 3D printer for all materials, but then I realized that, in this field, specialists win once again.
That is why I tamed the blue bear, which, going beyond the metaphor, means that I produced a 3D printer specific for steel and optimized just for that material.
Before listing the four reasons which make buying a 3D printer specific for steel beneficial, if you need to manufacture components in steel, I will explain briefly why you should not buy a standard 3D printer.
Here are the 2 most pressing reasons why buying a standard 3d printer would ruin your production (and more)
1) Cleaning a standard 3D printer is like doing the Spring cleaning: you will waste precious time and money!
It takes at least two days to clean a standard printer working at a steady pace.
When you manufacture steel components, especially if it is stainless steel for the food industry, you absolutely cannot mix the various materials.
That is why if you have just printed aluminum components and are ready to print with steel-based powder, you cannot be sloppy in the cleaning of your 3D printer! You must disassemble all the tubes and clean in depth or you will risk serious contamination.
2) Salesmen of standard 3D printers are like your general practitioner: they cannot give you a specialist’s assistance!
Once you have bought your standard 3D printer, you can manufacture components with any material but, if something goes wrong, or if you need help and consultancy from the people who sold you the printer, you cannot be certain that they are the best authority and best experts of the material you need.
Generalists know a bit of everything, they don’t know anything in particular!
There’s a big difference.
Now let’s go on to the reasons why, if you produce steel components and you want a 3D printer, you should hurry to specialize your production by putting yourself into the hands of experts.
4 reasons why you should buy a 3D printer specific for steel if you produce steel components
1) Maximum performances
Each component of the blue bear, that is the name of the 3D printer for steel of 3D4STEEL, has been designed especially to produce steel components.
- The spatula which distributes the powder on the printer plate has been designed especially and only for steel-based powders.
- The retrieval of powders, which helps eliminate any imperfections and recycle OVER 98% of the powder, which would otherwise be lost, has been patented by 3D4STEEL especially for steel.
- The disposal of the filters, always patented by 3D4STEEL, is a process which no other 3D printer in the forest owns.
In order to avoid that your filter, full of powder explodes on contact with air, with the 3D standard printers you are advised to throw water over them.
The water together with the filter full of steel-based powder creates a dangerous mud which has to be disposed of as hazardous waste.
This disposal costs and needs the utmost care to ensure environmental safety and workplace safety, which make you lose a lot of time.
For the first time, by using 3D4STEEL printer you won’t have to be a firefighter and dampen your filter!
The disposal procedure, that I have patented, allows you to throw waste directly into the metal waste containers which companies already have, as you would for any common metal.
The 3D printer is entirely made in stainless steel, to avoid any contamination between steel and other metals. If you have to print components for the food industry, and you want to be sure that your components are not contaminated by other material, you have no other choice but to rely on a 3D printer in stainless steel to erase any doubts.
We have chosen stainless steel because it is a hard metal and non-corrodible: when you clean the tubes between steel alloy and other alloys, you just need to use a compressor, taking about half a day to completely clean the whole printer!
2) Free Gas
While most 3D standard printers use argon, the killer gas and the most expensive in circulation, our blue bear uses only nitrogen!
Why do I say that you won’t have to pay for nitrogen?
Because the air we breathe is made up of 78% nitrogen. Using a generator we can extract the necessary nitrogen from the air in the room, without having to buy heavy and dangerous cylinders.
Nitrogen therefore is free, while for argon you have to pay € 0,90 for a litre.
Nitrogen is also an inert gas and safer than argon.
3) Your operators will work in safety and more comfort.
Argon is an inert gas, flammable and asphyxiating, that is why the operators dealing with this gas have to dress like astronauts to work.
Sometimes not even the safety measures are enough to save the life of your team of technicians, as we have seen in the incident in Arezzo on 20th September 2018.
Two employees of the State Archives of Arezzo were suffocated because of a small leak of argon from the anti-fire system.
Nitrogen is also an inert gas and can cause asphyxiation, but you need a larger quantity of nitrogen to die than argon.
Argon is a heavier gas than nitrogen; this characteristic makes it even more dangerous in enclosed spaces.
As in the Arezzo tragedy, because of its weight, argon tends to stagnate in rooms and, pushing oxygen upwards, it becomes a silent killer, colourless and odourless.
To handle nitrogen your operators need only a simple mask, goggles, gloves and antistatic shoes.
Your operators won’t have to dress like astronauts and won’t have to fear that the killer argon will suffocate them in case their alien-like suit fails them.
4) Technical team specialized in steel
Buying a standard 3D printer does not guarantee the assistance of a team specialized in the material you require.
The 3D4STEEL team, know steel like the back of their hands, since they study with university professors who are experts in this metal, and train continuously to keep up to date in the sector of 3d printers made to produce in steel.
The team I work with is made up of experts in steel-based metals and everything concerning 3D printing in this material.
Any doubt you have on the subject, please know that if you ask me or one of my technicians you won’t get a superficial answer, but all the help possible, as if you were going to your cardiologist to ask him about heart problems.
As well as working with steel and its 3D printer, I also spend my free time studying and keeping up to date on the subject.
Manufacturers of 3D printers for all materials, will never have the time to become an expert in all of them; they will be forced to sacrifice some information, book or technical know-how.
5) Customizing
Having designed a 3D printer just for steel, I have also been able to customize the blue bear to cater for the specific components that you want to produce and for your production needs.
With standard 3D printers, customizing the printer so that it satisfies the individual needs of each customer, is an arduous undertaking.
The 3D printer is generalist, therefore standard, therefore not specific or customized.
With 3D4STEEL you will not only have your 3D printer specific for steel, but it will also be specialized and adaptable to the components you need to produce.
How can I know what your specific production needs are?
Through a specialized analysis, 3D4YOU, will allow you to:
- Be monitored by one of the expert technicians, highly specialized in 3D printing for steel;
- Recognize and analyse the components you would like to print in 3D;
- Optimize and remodel CAD designs for 3D printer for steel, taking into account specific characteristics of the metal-based powder which you will use;
- Have a detailed financial and economic analysis of what it will be like to have a 3D printer for steel suitable for your components;
- Have the steel components you require exactly as they exit the jaws of the blue bear;
Come and meet the experts of 3D printer for steel by clicking on the red button and filling in the form. You will be contacted by one of our technicians who will answer all your questions.
if you want to put yourself into the hands of experts of the sector of 3D printers specialized in steel.
If you don’t do it you will be like the people who go shopping in a Spider.
You could say “there are worse things in life.” But, imagine you have to load a bulky piece of furniture, or you have to take your children on a trip.
What are you going to do? Even folding down the back seats, you will have great difficulty in loading the whole packaging, and in the second case your children will be so uncomfortable, that they will never again consider making a trip in such a small space.
Are there people who don’t thing about choosing the most functional product for their needs. Yes, just as there are people who buy a standard 3D printer to produce in steel instead of buying a specialist printer.
Why is that absurd to go shopping in a spider?
Well you could, but there would be no point, because a two-seater is not a car designed for city driving, or parking in the middle of a crowd of stressed people who are pushing their shopping trolleys and carrying two heavy shopping bags.
A Spider needs to make its engine roar, it needs to burn the asphalt and to whizz on the road. If you use it to go shopping you are not exploiting the maximum of its potential.
It’s like spending money for nothing.
Therefore there is not point in buying a standard 3D printer, hoping that it will give its maximum potential with the specific material you need for your production. You risk throwing away a lot of money on a machine which does not give maximum performance.
There is a lot of sense, however, in choosing a specialist system, which focusses on the material you most require.
Only in this way will you obtain the ideal performance from the “beast” which you have bought.
The blue bear does not bite. I will teach you to tame it!
Ad maiora!
