SPONSORED CONTENT
I took a tour through PCBWay’s online quoting service for 3D prints.
The company is well-known for its PCB making service, but has in the past couple of years added services to make parts with other making processes, including CNC milling, sheet metal fabrication, injection molding, and, of course, 3D printing. I was curious to see how they go about providing a quote for 3D printing.
After selecting “3D Printing”, you’re presented with the options for that technology. Each making process has slightly different parameters, as you might suspect.
PCBWay requires that you upload your 3D model, which makes sense. However, they do accept five different input formats, including STL, OBJ, and STEP. However, you can only upload up to 12 files at a time. If your project requires more than 12 parts, it seems that you have to do multiple orders.
You must specify the measurement unit because some of the file formats don’t allow units, like STL.
PCBWay provides quite a range of materials for 3D printing, including:
- Resin
- Nylon
- PLA
- ABS
- PETG
- TPU
- PC
- ASA
- PEEK
- Aluminum
- Stainless steel
- Titanium
- Tool steel
Evidently, they operate many different types of 3D printers to provide this range of materials. You might notice that the “resin” selection seems a bit vague, as there are many resins. Here, PCBWay provides a submenu selection with 15 different resin options.
Depending on the material selected, PCBWay offers relevant finishing options, which could include detail sanding, vacuum plating, dyeing, and spray painting. I’m quite interested in the vacuum plating option, which can put a very thin color coating on the part surfaces.
There are quite a few more options. You can tap threads if required or have parts inserted into the prints. However, you will have to upload a technical drawing to enable PCBWay to understand exactly what is to be done.
There are options to mark the parts, either with silkscreen or laser engraving.
Finally, the part can even be assembled, again with the help of a technical drawing.
At this point, you head back up to the top and specify the quantity of parts required, and PCBWay automatically provides a price. But interestingly, they also provide volume price discounts at different quantity tiers. That might cause you to buy more than you expected if the price is right.
PCBWay’s 3D print quoting service is quite interesting and very comprehensive. It takes you through a flowchart of questions that covers all the bases to arrive at a price.
If you’re in need of a manufacturing service to print some parts, particularly with complex post-processing, you might consider checking out PCBWay’s 3D print service.
Via PCBWay
