TEC - Don't whimper and print!
Last week, I came across an interview with
the famous Czech 3D printer manufacturer
Mr. Prusa on the Seznam news server. The in-
terview intrigued me and brought to my mind
thoughts that I could not shake over the next se-
veral days. Mr. Prusa had interesting thoughts,
considerations and claims in the interview, and
since we at Eduard use 3D printers extensive-
ly, know something about them and 3D printing
as a whole, partially founding our business on
them, my thoughts began to turn into some
uncertainties. The truth is that we only have
nine printers, but if we disregard for a moment
quantity and deal instead with our experiences,
setbacks, successes and plans for the future,
we can safely conclude that we also have so-
mething to say on the topic.
The interview devoted a lot of space to Chi-
nese 3D printer manufacturers and their unfair
practices. It discussed spying on customers,
state subsidies and cheap loans, copying Wes-
tern products and technologies, and pointed
out things that generally are known about the
Chinese. Until recently, we had no experience
with Chinese 3D printers. Bravely and patrio-
tically, we equipped ourselves with American
and Australian printers, first printing masters
for casting resin sets on them, and then mass
production of 3D printed parts proper. This step
eliminated American printers from our selecti-
on, because the business conditions dictated by
the manufacturer were so demanding that we
ruled out equipping our print shop with them.
What bothered us most was that the supplier
forced us to use only their printing resin, with
each batch of material being accompanied by
a chip slayed to the printer and only then could
printing be done. No chip, no printing. You might
argue that this was a fair business practice, but
to us, it was a piss-poor one that, naturally, also
carried with it a high price tag of production.
It was exceptionally expensive, and we had
some doubts about it also being correspondin-
gly good in terms of quality. Cheaper material
seemed to yield equal and even better results,
and the comparisons did not bode well for the
American conditions dictated. So, out the win-
dow went that company and their printers.
Given the scope of our requirements, I am sure
that they were not in any way dependent on be-
ing our supplier, but I am equally sure that we
weren’t the only ones to tell them where they
can stick their printers, resin, practices and
customer appreciation.
We also eliminated Chinese and Taiwanese
printers because at that time their print quality
was not at the level of the American and Aus-
tralian units. We also eliminated those of the
aforementioned Mr. Prusa, who’s printers were
not suitable for our production needs. The Aus-
tralians stayed in contention, and at the time of
purchase, they were at the top of their class.
We bought them, successfully introduced 3D
mass production on them and we were com-
fortable, happy and satisfied. Unfortunately,
the projectors of the printers we bought later
started to fail after about two thousand hours.
Considering that the first two printers we bou-
ght at that time still had their original projec-
tors with a mileage more than double that of
the new broken machines, we were surprised.
Replacing the projectors was not cheap, yet the
manufacturer refused to admit the mistake and
insisted that we had to buy replacement pro-
jectors. Apparently the fault was on our side.
OK, we bought them, but the problems keep on
recurring, even though we adjusted the opera-
ting conditions according to the printer manu-
facturer's recommendations.
That’s not the worst of it. The current state
of technological development is interesting. At
the time of purchase, we expected rapid techno-
logical development and the arrival of printers
with higher resolution. This happened, but to our
surprise, not with our Australian investment,
but with the Chinese. They approach things di-
fferently than the Australians and Americans,
their printers do not have a projector, but an LCD
display. They also do not have pressure sensors,
they print more slowly and have trouble prin-
ting high-quality materials with a higher density.
On the other hand, they are cheap, and for the
price of one Australian printer you can buy on
average about eighteen Chinese or Taiwanese
printers. In the upper range of higher-quality
and more powerful printers, you can even get
as many as fifty cheaper Chinese machines. You
will print slower on those Chinese printers, but
you will make up for it in quantity, given the
number of printers in the production process.
But most importantly, your, prints will not be
worse off for it. The Australians still have 4K
printers, while the Chinese are already at 16K.
The Australians promised 8K and later 12K prin-
ters, but somehow it didn't work out. They're
DON'T WHIMPER AND PRINT!
INFO Eduard100
March 2025