Will foreign 3D printers be able to compete with Russian in crisis?

In the current economic situation in our field, the question of direct competition between domestic and foreign brands has become acute: the sales of Russian 3D printers are growing and we decided to find out if this is only due to a sharp increase in prices for imported equipment.

About Us
We have been selling and servicing 3D printers and 3D scanners for about two years, and are true fans of 3D technologies. Dozens of different devices passed through us: from DIY assembly kits to professional machines. We personally test each equipment, and in addition to the functional test, we always check the machines for compliance with the marketing information and therefore we know the pros and cons of every popular 3D printer on the market.

In order to answer the question of competition, we compare the most famous personal 3D printers in our market using FDM technology. Immediately, we want to note that we are considering serial 3D printers that are available to a wide range of consumers, working out of the box without any improvement or doping:
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Makerbot Replicator 5 GEN

Ultimaker 2

Witbox bq

Makerbot Replicator 2X

3D Systems Cube Pro

Picaso 3D Designer

Picaso 3D Designer Pro 250

PrintBox 3D One

We have prepared a visual comparative table, and we propose to elaborate on the following characteristics in more detail:



Print Area [cm] :



Unfortunately, not always the declared characteristics of the print area by manufacturers of 3D printers correspond to the real possibility of the printer to print a huge model. It is worth noting that of the two most popular materials for 3D printing - PLA and ABS plastic, the second one behaves unstably when printing large models.

The Russian Printbox 3D One 3D printer has the smallest print area in our list, and the Cube Pro from 3D Systems has the largest print area.

We looked at printers not only with regard to dry numbers, but from the point of view of real indicators that affect the printing of large objects and the possibility of printing from less stable ABS plastic , and this is what happened to them:

MakerBot Replicator 5 GEN [25 x 19 x 15]
Replicator 5GEN has a good working field width of 25 cm, but average values ​​in length and height. The printer does not have a closed camera and a heated table, prints only PLA , which makes it easier to print large objects.

Ultimaker 2 [23 x 22 x 20]
Good performance on all axes, the presence of a heated table and a closed chamber allows you to print equally well as PLA and ABS plastic.

Witbox [29 x 21 x 20]
The width of the working field is excellent - 29 cm, but, like the Replicator, the table is not heated, which does not allow to print ABS .

MakerBot Replicator 2X [25 x 16 x 15]
Good indicators for ABS plastic printing: the printer has a heated table and a closed camera, but due to the lack of cooling material is not intended for PLA printing.

Cube Pro [27 x 27 x 24]
The highest declared parameters are from the list, but based on our experience, the printer is simply unable to print such large models, so despite the proud Pro prefix, we did not place it in this category.

Picaso 3D Designer / Designer PRO 250 (new) [20 x 20 x 20]
Both printers have the same print area, which we identified as optimal for ourselves. Models behave stably, the presence of a heated table and a closed chamber allows for good printing with both ABS and PLA plastic at the same quality level.

PrintBox 3D One [18 x 16 x 15]
The smallest print area is complemented by the absence of a closed chamber, which leads to the distortion of ABS models to the full size of the working chamber.

The leaders in the useful printing area are the foreign 3D printer Ultimaker 2 and the Russian Picaso 3D Designer / Designer PRO 250 .

The outsiders are Russian PrintBox 3D One and foreign Cube Pro , which can not cope with the printing of large objects with ABS plastic.

Print quality [micron] :



The print quality of desktop 3D printers is determined by the minimum layer thickness along the Z axis and the accuracy of printing on X, Y. These figures are related to the mechanics of the printer and the design of its extruder.

We present real indicators along the Z axis, since it is this information that is most often cited as an indicator of quality by manufacturers.

MakerBot Replicator 5GEN [100]
About 2 years ago, we considered the MakerBot Replicator 2 as the benchmark for the quality of desktop FDM printing , but 5 GEN still loses to its predecessor, which was discontinued, so we rate the quality of real printing as 150 microns.

Ultimaker 2 [20]
One of the leaders of 3D-printers in this list in print quality, but the manufacturer is clearly disingenuous in pointing to quality characteristics up to 20 microns. This quality becomes available on printers working on other technologies, including SLA. “Honest” print quality on this printer we would call 50 microns.

Witbox [100]
The print quality of the Witbox is comparable to the print quality of the Makerbot Replicator 5 GEN, but doesn’t fall far short of the Replicator 2, so we take 150 microns as real quality.

Makerbot Replicator 2X [100]
Declared 100 microns are true, which is very good for ABS plastic.

3D Systems Cube Pro [70]
With the release of this model, we hoped to see a change for the better in comparison with CubeX, where the print quality was simply awful.

Unfortunately, no major changes have occurred, and only 200 microns can be called real print quality.

Picaso 3D Designer / Designer PRO 250 [50]
These 3D printers correspond to the stated indicators. When installing HD 0.15 mm nozzles, the layers are almost indistinguishable and comparable to the quality of Ultimaker 2, and most importantly, the same quality is observed when printing with ABS plastic , which usually looks worse than PLA on other universal FDM machines.

PrintBox 3D One [50]
Excellent print quality PLA, with the ability to print extreme criminals without support corresponds to a marketing 50 microns. But the ABS print quality is not the most ideal.

In 2015, FDM 3D printers are able to produce 50 “honest” microns in both PLA and ABS plastic printing, but not all of them can actually do it.

As a result, the leaders were again the foreign 3D printer Ultimaker 2 and the Russian Picaso 3D Designer / Designer PRO 250 .

Number of extruders :



We believe that the main advantage of having several extruders is the ability to combine various materials, including the use of soluble material for printing supports: PLA-PVA and ABS-HIPS.

In our list, only three printers have multiple extruders. Let's look at them in more detail:

MakerBot Replicator 2X
A trendsetter using multiple extruders in desktop 3D printing . We often used this model for printing two-color models, sometimes there were problems with the appearance of "blotches" of one color on another, which was later corrected programmatically and the two-color printing became much cleaner.

With the combination of materials it was more difficult: the water-soluble PVA plastic simply did not stick to the material of the main model - ABS and only with the spread of HIPS, such printing became possible.

Cube pro
This model with a choice of as many as three extruders. However, the policy of 3D Systems for consumables (plastic coils are sealed in special cartridges) makes it impossible to experiment with soluble plastics.

The system for changing the plastic supply between extruders is so poorly implemented that this option only has a marketing advantage.

Picaso Designer Pro 250
Domestic novelty from Picaso has not yet gone on sale, but the photos we received from the manufacturer are impressive.



In addition to printing in several colors, the machine has the ability to combine materials. Also, a very interesting unique system for changing the work of Jet Switch nozzles, which allows you to create high-quality objects by completely turning off the supply of the second material, without reducing the working temperature.

Learn more about the features of the novelty here .

According to the manufacturer, this system is 25 times faster than the Cube Pro and MakerBot Replicator 2x extruder changing systems, which we still have to check.

In our opinion, if you choose a 3D printer with several extruders, it is more likely to be able to combine materials and print soluble supports, rather than to print two- or three-color models.

Therefore, in this nomination we prefer Picaso 3D Designer Pro 250 , based on our experience with Picaso 3D Designer and impressive photos of the manufacturer.

Job stability

Despite the general distrust of domestic assembly, based on our experience, we cannot say that Russian 3D printers are less stable than foreign ones.

As a rule, immediately after the release of absolutely all new items have some drawbacks, which are eliminated over time. For example, Replicator 2 and 2x had problems with the supply of plastic, a new generation of MakerBot Replicator 5GEN became famous for problems with a “smart” extruder, the Ultimaker 2 3D printer did not have a reliable plastic supply system, and the Cube Pro 3D printer remains completely unstable. However, the availability of spare parts, annual warranty and full technical support in the Russian Federation make Russian 3D printers more attractive.

Software

In this list there are models with inconvenient open source software, such as the Russian PrintBox 3D One, and also quite decent open source designs, like the Cura software on the Ultimaker 2 3D printer.

Perhaps we would single out only one leader - MakerBot with the most intuitive and user-friendly MakerBot Desktop software for users.

This software is an ecosystem with an integrated ready-made free database of models for printing (thingiverse), community, built-in slicer and a store of high-quality 3d-models. Makerbot software can be compared to Apple products. For more information on MakerBot products, see our review here .

In the software rating we give preference to this foreign manufacturer.

Conclusion

Comparing the real technical and marketing indicators of the most popular desktop FDM 3D-printers, we chose two leaders of this class - the 3D printer Ultimaker 2 3D printers Picaso 3D Designer / Designer PRO 250 .

Russian 3D printers, of course, are not without drawbacks: the build quality is still far from Europe and the USA, there is often no Mac-compatible software, there are no modern features such as: Wi-Fi printing and a camera to monitor the print, “auto pause "At the end of consumables, etc., but such characteristics as:
- print quality
- software convenience
- price
- warranty
- full technical support in the Russian Federation

make these devices very attractive to our customers.

Consider the financial side of the issue: in Russia, the 3D Ultimaker 2 printer costs approximately 2,710 Euros, at the time of writing this is 202,350 rubles, while the cost of the Picaso 3D Designer remains constant - 115,000 rubles and the Picaso 3D Designer 250-140,000 rubles.

Therefore, answering the question “Will foreign 3D printers be able to compete with Russian in a crisis?” We proved that the Picaso family of domestic 3D printers bypasses many competitors in a number of characteristics discussed above, and in the context of the current value of the euro, it remains completely out of competition .

PS Anticipating some questions, we want to inform you that we did not consider two worthy candidates, namely MakerBot Replicator 2 - due to discontinuation, and MakerBot Replicator Z18 - due to its recognition as a professional machine, beyond this article.

In the near future, we will publish similar material on desktop SLA machines, and detailed reviews of some new products. Follow us and stay tuned!