Dimensional Accuracy - 3D Printers

The blend of low cost and ease-of-use has fueled rapid growth for 3D printers. Designers, engineers and educators have adopted this technology in record numbers, making it the fastest growing segment of the rapid prototyping industry.

3D printers are often used in the earliest stages of design. The models that they produce are the tools for review, evaluation, iteration and innovation. Although the life span of these design tools can be measured in minutes or hours, users still want reasonable accuracy that will satisfy the needs of their applications. The goal of this benchmark is to analyze and quantify the dimensional accuracy available from the Dimension® SST, InVision™ SR and ZPrinter® 310.

To compare accuracy, end users of each of the three systems built four prototypes. These parts were inspected with quality control tools. Instead of a CMM (coordinate measuring machine), this benchmark used laser scanning and CAI (computer-aided inspection) to analyze the quality of the prototypes. With CAI, the analysis used 200,000 data points per part. The large sample produces a truer representation of the prototypes’ accuracy.

The results reveal some surprising information, and, in some cases, the data is contradictory to general perceptions.

Download the Report

To download your copy of the accuracy benchmark, please visit the Report Download page.

Contact information:
Todd Grimm
T. A. Grimm & Associates, Inc.
3028 Beth Court, Edgewood, Kentucky 41017
Phone: (859) 331-5340      Fax: (859) 514-9721
tgrimm@tagrimm.com      www.tagrimm.com

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