Design and seamlessly export your creations to an FDM or FFF 3D printer, empowering you to prototype and refine your ideas with ease, precision, and cost-efficiency. See plans and pricing Try Fusion for free What is FFF and FDM 3D printing, and how do they work?
The most common 3D printer design, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), is similar to an inkjet printer. The FDM printhead moves side to side, depositing material on a moving platform. While an inkjet printer sprays drops of ink on paper, a 3D printer extrudes hot plastic onto a glass or me...
The computer file that tells the 3D printer what to do must convert the data into many slices. This is because the printer creates things layer by layer or slice by slice. A 3D printer can take minutes to hours or even days to complete something. How long it takes depends on how compli...
do all the time. One of the most promising developments is multi-material printing, where an entire structure can be made in a single process with different materials in situ. Think of the wall of a building coming from a 3D printer with HVAC conduits and electrical wiring already built in...
You can even print with real stainless steel metal on any desktop 3D printer for as low as $129 per 1kg spool, which in the world of metal manufacturing is an incredible rate that is much more efficient than traditional metal machining methods. More advanced materials can be a little steeper...
When the printing is complete, the operator removes the part or assembly from the 3D printer for post-processing. Post-processing is an essential step in most 3D printing processes. Post-processing operations, which often differ between 3D printing technologies, may be necessary and functional or ...
Using Color Kit, anyone can mix their own Color Resin and create uniformly colored 3D prints with the high resolution and smooth surface finish SLA technology is known for. If an engineer or designer needs a gradient, pattern, or some other color surface effect, SLA prints also take paint we...
The dimensional accuracy that a metal 3D printer can achieve is approximately ± 0.1 mm. Metal printers can be used for small batch manufacturing, but the capabilities of metal 3D printing systems resemble more the batch manufacturing capabilities of FDM or SLA machines than that of SLS printers....
To operate an FDM machine, you first load a spool of this thermoplastic filament into the printer. Once the nozzle hits the desired temperature, the printer feeds the filament through an extrusion head and nozzle. This extrusion head is attached to a three-axis system that allows it to move...
What Is an FDM 3D Printer? FDM stands for fused deposition modeling, and this is the most commonly used technology for 3D printing at home. If your 3D printer uses spools of filament, rather than resin, the odds are that it is an FDM printer. Printers like this lay melted plastic out ...