Afinia announced a new 3D printer, the QD330.
If you’re not familiar with Afinia, know that they have been around for quite a few years selling 3D printers in the education market. Their claim to fame is to provide not only the equipment, but services and educational assets along with the 3D printers.
For a time, they were perhaps the only option for schools to obtain lesson material with 3D printers. However, that’s changed and now there are a number of players competing in the education market, with the biggest likely being UltiMaker’s MakerBot brand.
Afina does not, as far as I know, build their own equipment. Typically in the past they’ve sold re-branded 3D printers obtained from third party manufacturers. But let’s leave that for the moment.
The QD330 is a fully enclosed device, which is far more suitable for use in schools where curious fingers can get into places they should not be.
The QD330 has a number of features that we would now expect to be standard on a desktop 3D printer, including:
- 220 x 220 x 220 mm build volume
- Maximum hot end temperature of 280C
- Power loss recovery
- Double-sided spring steel magnetic print plate
- Filament-out detection and handling
- Automatic power-down if idle
- WiFi networking
- Webcam for real time monitoring
- Silent stepper motors
- Dual cooling vents
- All metal frame
- Print speeds up to 600mm/s
- Accelerations up to 20,000mm/s/s
- Vibration compensation firmware
- Automated leveling calibration
- HEPA 13Filter system to remove VOCs and nanoparticles
- Easy-change hot end
- Multiple optional nozzle diameters
- CoreXY motion system
That’s a very competent list of features, and clearly a very powerful device.
But let’s get back to the reselling concept I mentioned above.
Afina doesn’t build their own machines, but instead relabels machines made by other companies. After some poking around, I noticed this in an image of the new QD330:
Yes, that says “Flashforge”, the well-known Asian manufacturer of powerful 3D printers.
I took a look at Flashforge’s current product line up, and came upon the Flashforge AD5MP 3D printer. The specifications are basically identical and the visual appearance of the two is the same aside from the branding label.
As of this writing, Flashforge sells this model for US$625, which is very slightly less than the US$649 quoted by Afinia for the QD330. So why buy from Afinia?
The answer is because Afinia provides a ton of other services and assets for the education market that come along with the machine. You don’t get those if you just buy the machine from Flashforge.
The bottom line here is that if you’re in the education business, consider the Afinia QD330. If not, then consider the Flashforge option.
Via Afina
