Upon the selection of combination 3d scanner 3d printer, the matching accuracy and printing information have to be selected first. Used in an industrial application, the GOM ATOS Core scanner (0.01mm accuracy) combined with the EOS M 300-4 metal printer (20μm layer thickness) facilitates the closed-loop production of turbine blades (50mm chord length) step for step, shortening the traditional production cycle by half from 120 days to 28 days. However, the total cost of the equipment is more than $2 million, only suitable for large-scale enterprises with an output of more than 50,000 pieces per year. Consumer-level setups such as the Creality CR-Scan Ferret Pro (accuracy 0.1mm) and Ender 3 V3 SE printer (layer thickness 100μm), which have a total budget of $1,500, can be adequate in meeting the prototype needs of small gears (module 0.5). The cost per unit drops by 82%, and the surface roughness (Ra value) at maximum is 25μm, requiring additional polishing.
Return on investment and cost must be dynamically balanced. Illustrations in medical field show Align Technology uses iTero Element 5D scanner (accuracy 0.025mm) and Carbon M2 printer (75cm/h light curing speed), manufacturing cycle of invisible appliance lowered from 2 weeks to 3 days, and profit unit is increased by 40%. Equipment investment payback period is 14 months. Schools picked Shining 3D’s EinScan SE ($3,000) paired with Anycubic Photon Mono X for a total cost of $5,000, and the marginal cost of scanning and printing educational items such as skulls was only $3 per piece. 90% less than outsourcing.
Environmental flexibility has a direct effect on equipment performance. In high temperature workshops (35℃+), Peopoly Forge scanner (temperature drift ±0.02mm/℃) and Peopoly Spectra printer (temperature chamber ±1℃) must be employed to ensure that the deformation error of the automotive turbine (diameter 150mm) is less than 0.05mm. The deviation of size of common equipment is greater than 0.3mm due to thermal expansion under the same conditions. In 2023, a factory south of the country lost 500,000 yuan orders due to temperature control failure, and the yield increased from 75% to 96% after modifying the combination.
Data compatibility reduces process wear. Through Shining 3D’s EXScan Pro software combined with Ultimaker Cura, scan data can be sliced directly, STL file conversion time is shortened from 30 minutes to 2 minutes, and data loss rate is decreased from 8% to 0.5%. In 2022, a technology company boosted its product iteration frequency from 1 per month to 4 times, and its annual revenue expanded by $3 million. With a non-complementary pair, e.g., Artec Eva+Prusa i3, it requires 15% additional expenses of intermediate software, and the format conversion raises the risk of breaking of the support structure by 22%.
Gold portfolios established in the industry are more reliable. TRUMPF 3d scanner 3d printer solution (ATOS Q+TRUMPF TruPrint 3000) achieves “scanning-topological optimization-printing” titanium alloy bracket (weight 200g) closed loop in aerospace, enhancing lightweight design efficiency by 6 times. Fatigue life test pass rate from 70% up to 98%. Although it costs €850,000 for each unit, it saves 50kg of weight per plane, reduces the airplanes by 1.2% of fuel consumption and costs €2.4 million a year in operation. Small and medium enterprises can cite the above reasoning, choose the precision matching degree as ±10%, the budget ratio as ≤30% of the cost-effective combination, for example, EinScan HX (0.04mm) +Formlabs Form 3L (25μm), with a total investment of $80,000 to satisfy 80% of the precision injection mold demand.