Question about Eden 500

I have a question about the Eden 500: Do you print the parts with High Speed or High Quality setting ?

The 3d printers have at least one plane that gives a better (smoother) surface quality. How do you select the part orientation before printing ?

Thank you for the answer !

Hi there!

I see you have been doing your homework and that you are quite the expert on 3D printing techniques

Indeed you are right about the two printing settings on the Objet Eden500V. High Quality (HQ) means that the printer builds the models with a layer thickness of 16 microns. High Speed (HS) means that the layer thickness almost doubles to 30 microns.

We have chosen to print the models in High Speed mode for several reasons.
1) By choosing High Speed the time to print a tray full of models almost halves which means the cost per model is also reduced by quite a bit. The result is that we can offer the designs as attractive as possible.
2) Like mentioned in 1) the time is reduced by half meaning we can produce more efficient on our machines.
3) The 30 microns (0,030mm!!!) layer thickness at HS mode is still quite smooth compared to the other 3D printing techniques meaning that even in HS mode the models are still very smooth.
4) Depending on the level of detail in the designs the difference between HS and HQ is hardly noticeable.

The orientation of the model is determined when filling the qeue. This means that the orientation in with the design was made does not have any influence on the orientation in the 3D printer. For us there are a couple of criteria to determine the model orientation during production.
1) printing time. We want the printer to finish as quick as possible meaning that the models have to be as low as possible. For instance a pen would be printed horizontal instead of vertical.
2) material consumption. We want the printer to consume as little material as possible. Especially support material consumption can be saved by choosing the right orientation.
3) There is always a grey area. Choosing a part at its lowest orientation doesn't automatically mean you also use as little support material as possible. For instance a vace. Printing a vase vertical means it is (usually) higher and so takes longer to print. When choosing a horizontal orientation the vase (again usually) is lower but now the entire inside volume of the model has to be filled with support material. This means the material consumtion and time to clean the part increase a lot. So it is allways a little puzzle :confused
4) Finally depending on the technique used to print the model the strength of the part also determines it orientation. This is not applicable for Objet parts. When printing parts with FDM we have to take this in consideration.

I hope this answers your question!

Grtz,
Rob Maris

Wow ! That's a very complete and precise answer ! Thank you.

And if I want to get a part done in HQ mode? Resolution and accuracy are the most important aspects to me and yes, that difference is noticeable. It's still better than anyone else, but it is noticeable.

I go with Edens specifically because of their Z-axis resolution. I make very detailed models and need that resolution. If I had to do a post-process smoothing to get rid of the stepping, it would be an absolute nightmare. This is pretty much a deal-breaker issue for me.

I've also had tall (for my parts), narrow pieces snap easily. My experience has been that yes, orientation is important, even for Edens. When you're talking 1mm wall thicknesses, you gotta go with strength.