this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
25 points (96.3% liked)

3D Printing

4358 readers
1 users here now

For everyhting 3D printing related.

Please be excellent to each other :)

Icon by Freepik, Banner photo by Thiago Medeiros Araujo

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
3dnudel@lemmy.ml
25
Quality of 3D printing versus injection molding (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by citytree@lemmy.ml to c/3dprinting@lemmy.ml
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Are consumer level 3D printers able to print plastic objects of similar quality to ones produced using injection molding? Or is 3D printing useful mostly for the prototyping stage before a design is finalized and a steel mold is produced for injection molding?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

They can be, it largely depends on how well calibrated the printer and the print settings are. 3D printing definitely is vastly superior for low quantity production or prototyping (due to the costs of getting molds) but it generally speaking isn't the best for mass manufacturing.