The 3D Printing Reliability Barrier

By on April 25th, 2013 in Ideas

Tags:

We’re reading a very short post on Zheng 3 where they attempted to print a Magic: The Gathering Beast Token. As you can see above, there were some very slight problems in successfully completing this operation. 
 
And that’s the problem – 3D printers are simply not sufficiently reliable. We’ve used many different 3D printers from many manufacturers and while they all have very different characteristics, one thing most 3D printers have in common are print failures. 
 
It might happen immediately, partially, or tragically just as the print nears completion. Filaments seize or run out, objects unexpectedly unstick from the print bed, belts slip or calibration errors are unfortunately revealed. We’ve all been victims of these phenomena, even on the most expensive 3D printers. The odds of a successful print are not one hundred percent; they are lower than one hundred, sometimes a lot and sometimes not so much. But never one hundred. 
 
If personal 3D printers are ever to succeed, the successful print ratio must be higher. 
 

By Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!