BASICS of 3D Printing

WHAT is 3D Printing?

3D printing is the process of creating real world objects made of plastics. While 3D printing is the most commonly used term, there are other terms used in industrial engineering, which refer to rapid prototyping or additive manufacturing. Also, there are different processing types too. For now, we will focus on FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) Printers.

The process works by pushing a plastic filament through a heated nozzle in which it gets molten. The molten plastic is then reapplied in layers to the printbed shaping the desired object. The most important parts of a 3D printer are the printhead, which holds the hotend (nozzle and cooler) and the mechanics for transporting the filament (feeder), and the printbed.

WHICH 3D Printers are there?

There are plenty of different types of 3D Printers on the market. They can be organized into three categories: plug and play Printers, DIY Kits and RepRap (self built) Printers. The machines used here can also be sorted in different categories: cartesic Printers and delta Printers. While They do the same, the inner workings on the used coordinate system are different. Cartesic Printers use a rectangular printing bed with cartesic coordinates, while delta Printers usually have a circular bed and with polar coordinates.

HOW can I use a 3D Printer?

Using a 3d printer is only part of the complete process. To give you an overview we compiled together a nice flow diagram for you:

CAN I build my own?

Yes, definetly. Either through a DIY Kit, or by building a reprap printer from scratch. But keep in mind, that building one from scratch can be much more expensive than just buying one. This depends strongly on what you are planning to do with the machine.