Info EDUARD
Synced!
Request for consent to store optional information

We do not need to store any information (cookies, etc.) for the basic functioning of the website. However, we would like to ask for your consent to store optional information:

Anonymous Unique ID

Thanks to it, next time we will know that it is the same device and we will be able to more accurately evaluate the traffic. This identifier is completely anonymous.

Aa

Aa

Aa

Aa

Aa

 

 

 

 

aA

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 interview intrigued me and brought to my mind thoughts that I could not shake over the next several days. Mr. Prusa had interesting thoughts, considerations and claims in the interview, and since we at Eduard use 3D printers extensively, 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 something to say on the topic.

The interview devoted a lot of space to Chinese 3D printer manufacturers and their unfair practices. It discussed spying on customers, state subsidies and cheap loans, copying Western 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 patriotically, 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 selection, 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 correspondingly 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 window went that company and their printers. Given the scope of our requirements, I am sure that they were not in any way dependent on being 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 Australian units. We also eliminated those of the aforementioned Mr. Prusa, who’s printers were not suitable for our production needs. The Australians 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 comfortable, 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 bought at that time still had their original projectors 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 projectors. Apparently the fault was on our side. OK, we bought them, but the problems keep on recurring, even though we adjusted the operating conditions according to the printer manufacturer'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 technological 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 differently 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 printing 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 printers, but somehow it didn't work out. They're not talking much about the higher K numbers anymore, to say nothing of 16K. On the contrary, in Asia, China and Taiwan, development has picked up a frantic pace. Printers are evolving in innovation steps measured by months, while the lifespan of printers, especially the key elements like the LCD display, is longer than the innovation cycle. So new, better quality and cheaper machines are coming to the market so quickly that it's not worth repairing the old ones. And the notion of more Australian machines is not even worth the discussion. Refurbishing an Australian projector costs twice as much as a new Chinese printer. Meanwhile, the Australians still have 4K resolution, while a new LCD printer of the most expensive Chinese class already achieve 16K. Additionally, Chinese printers have up to twice the build area. An Australian printer today has got to be one tough sell. Under current conditions, even the Great Horst Fuchs would probably not sell an Australian printer.

This is the situation that has put us on the edge of a dilemma, so to speak. Okay, the Chinese are said to copy and steal. But the Taiwanese also produce very similar and probably equally high-quality printers in the same price range. They are also Chinese, but democratic and honest, respecting the rules. The descendants of Chiang Kai-shek do not copy and steal, only the descendants of Mao Zedong and Chou En-lai do that, when you really think about it. Of course, we can buy a Czech printer, because Mr. Prusa neither copies nor steals, but unfortunately he does not have printers on the level of the Australians or the Chinese, regardless of their geographical origin. Pragmatically, we have no choice but to buy Taiwanese. They are in the same league in every way, no?

And if you really delve into this a little deeper, doubt begins to creep in regarding those Chinese vices. Who are they copying from when they manage to outperform their competitors at a better price? Maybe they have a time machine, but the question is who they copied that from. To tell the truth, I also have a problem with the spying. I'm not an IT guy and I don't brag that I understand everything, but I think that in order for someone to spy on me on the net, I have to have the offending tools that enable it on my own devices. Australian and American printers are connected to the net. But it's different with the Chinese, their printers are not connected, the data is transferred to them via a flash drive. Honestly, it's a bummer, transferring data over a network is better, and personally I would risk the snooping. There is a proven way to spy around the internet, most of them are based in Ireland and speak ‘American’, and if some Chinese James Bond is looking at our 1/48 scale bombs and rockets, I'm completely stumped. So there's still the possibility that the Chinese are snooping even without being connected to the internet. God knows, their technological progress is really fast, maybe they have gotten that capability by now.

To sum it up, my final impression of Mr. Prusa after listening to his interview twice and thinking about his thoughts for a week is that I would recommend that he stop whining about Chinese competition, get off his ass and come up with something, or copy something from the Chinese, so that he doesn't have to switch his new American factory from producing printers to popping out toasters (pun intended). Because those Chinese printers will be better and cheaper than his, even if the world's top customs officer, President T., imposed a 100% tariff on them. He would still have a few dozen percent of margin left. Mr. Prusa doesn't produce many printers of our type, I think he only has one type. His domain is line printers. But as it turns out, the situation in this market segment is similar to that of projector and LCD printers. The Chinese also dominate line printers, with BambuLab having the largest market share, over 40%, and Prusa having 3%. I'm not familiar with filament printers, we don't use them, but if you browse the internet, look at prices and compare products, it looks like Prusa’s flagship unit costs twice as much as the flagship of his Chinese competitor. And that’s gotta be a kick in the nads….

We are currently testing how Chinese printers handle different materials. We also have material from Prusa. We hope that Mr. Prusa’s resin material works well. If it is cheaper and better than the Chinese equivalents, we will be happy to buy from him, and the quantities will not be small.

So, what’s our takeaway from all this? My opinion is that most of what is said about the Chinese and their industry is already ten to fifteen years outdated. Today, the situation is completely different. The Chinese no longer have anyone to copy from in most fields, they are a steamship ahead of the competition in many of them. This ultimately applies to our field as well. Who can they copy from, when at least three quarters of all molds for newly released plastic models are custom-made in China? It's time to stop lying to ourselves about our European and American technological superiority, stop whining about Chinese injustices and instead work our asses off to catch up with their technological lead. And it's not just about 3D printers.

03/2025
Info EDUARD 03/2025

INFO Eduard is a monthly scale model-historical magazine published in Czech and English by Eduard Model Accessories since 2010. The magazine is available for free on the Triobo platform and can be downloaded in PDF format. Eduard is a manufacturer of plastic models and accessories with over 30 years of tradition. Throughout its history in the plastic modeling industry, Eduard has become one of the world's leaders. Further details about the company and its product range can be found at www.eduard.com. You can subscribe to the INFO magazine and receive product information for free at: https://www.eduard.com/cs/info-eduard/

 

Read

Don't miss out

Editorial

Editorial

03/2025

Flying Knights in Australia

Flying Knights in Australia

03/2025

Aerial War in Ukraine

Aerial War in Ukraine

03/2025

TEC - Don't whimper and print!

TEC - Don't whimper and print!

03/2025

Editorial

Editorial

Dear Friends, I just returned from Nuremberg. I left there in a rather gloomy mood, knowing that it was most likely my last time. I have always defended the Nuremberg Fair as a useful and beneficial event. But alas, its significance to our industry has steadily declined over the years, while the costs associated with participation in it have continuously done the opposite. Still, it has always brought us some benefit, despite of the expense involved.

02/2025

P-40E Warhawk

P-40E Warhawk

The Curtiss P-40 line of fighter aircraft stood out among American fighter types for having remained in front-line operations from the summer of 1941, before the U.S. entered World War II, through the end of the conflict four years later. Only Grumman’s versatile F4F Wildcat naval fighter could match that record.

02/2025

The MW 50 System as an Alternative to the GM-1

The MW 50 System as an Alternative to the GM-1

This technical discussion supplements the article describing the GM-1 system in the Messerschmitt Bf 109 in the November, 2024 newsletter. Even before World War II, Dr. Otto Lutz (1906-1974) came up with the idea of injecting nitrous oxide into an engine to increase performance. He later published (as late as 1942) a scientific paper on the subject "Über Leistungssteigerung von Flugmotoren durch Zugabe von Sauerstoffträgern", or roughly translated, ‘On increasing the performance of aircraft engines through the addition of oxygen compounds’.

02/2025

Aerial War in Ukraine - A Russian missile shot down a civilian aircraft. Again...

Aerial War in Ukraine - A Russian missile shot down a civilian aircraft. Again...

The battles over Ukraine often involve friendly fire incidents. Russian air defense has already destroyed numerous Russian aircraft and helicopters. Similar incidents have occurred on the Ukrainian side. Several civilian aircraft have also been hit in Russia, though without fatal consequences—until now.

02/2025

Check out other issues

© 2025 Eduard – Model Accessories, s.r.o.

Mírová 170

435 21 Obrnice

Czech Republic

https://www.eduard.com

support@eduard.com

+420 777 055 500

Article TEC - Don't whimper and print! waiting for thumbnails …

Sending statistics … done (2631 ms)

Rendering TEC - Don't whimper and print! (397572): (1/1) (0 ms)

No sync content to local

Viewport set: width=device-width, user-scalable=0; scale = 1

No sync content to local

Screen: easyReading

--==[ RUN ]==--

Info EDUARD: theme set to 8895

Device info: input=mouse, webkitPrefix=no, screen=1264x0(1)

Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)

 r85/appLogo-123.png

 r85/pubLogoa-156-cz.png

 i10299/item1240375-small.jpg

 p156/vth507965-1.jpg

 r85/appLogoa-123.png

 r85/vth508074-0.jpg

 r85/vth508075-0.jpg

 r85/vth508083-0.jpg

 r85/vth508104-0.jpg

 r85/vth500159-0.jpg[p1]

 r85/vth500096-0.jpg[p1]

 r85/vth500149-0.jpg[p1]

 r85/vth500152-0.jpg[p1]

 r85/vth499986-0.jpg[p1]

 p156/vth499953-1.jpg[p1]

 i10299/vth508104-1.jpg

 i10299/vth508105-1.jpg