Hello,
It's been a while since I posted here.
Because the second print wasn't all that good we received a third model of the Mercedes pickup truck.
This third car had again a different look and feel.
This time the wheels are bended, so the car appears very over weighted. The rest of the model is not so warped, and the support material was removed quite nicely. However the surface quality is again not as smooth as the first print. The surface quality is rippled, just like FUD is.
Based on the three prints in B-HDA and a comparison in FUD we come to the
revised conclusions:
1. Potentially B-HDA has a very smooth surface quality that matches the surface quality of injection moulded parts. However the other print shows almost as much sharp edges as FUD. Appearently the printing proces shows a lot of deviations. So, it should be a plus. But not always! The inconsistiancy in print quality is a big concern;
2. We mentioned that B-HDA does not require elaborate cleaning. The second print however was sticky. Not sure whether this model can be painted properly;
3. For painting purposes a brighter colour (white, bright gray) would be welcomed;
4. The dimensional quality of FUD is better. All B-HDA parts were warped, in different ways. Warpages seem to be a B-HDA feature. Not my cup of tea.
5. B-HDA does require the removal of support material with knives. This removal is not only labour (cost) but adds inconsistency and damaging of the B-HDA parts. This manual removal is seen as the biggest concern;
6. In general FUD shows a slightly higher degree of detailing than B-HDA.
B-HDA sometimes show a smoother (less wrippled) surface than FUD, which may be nice for objects with larger smooth (organic shaped) surfaces. For instance figurines. B-HDA seems not suitable for open structures such as chassis, lattice poles, truss bridges, etc., These designs are prone to warpage and more importantly damaging due to the manual removal of support material. B-HDA seems also not suitable for parts that require tight tolerances such as scale models and other products that are composed of multiple parts or should have proper dimensions.
The supposed pricing strategy of SW forces designers the wrong way. Typically adding sprues is something that should be avoided with B-HDA. Adding $5 per single part however will make most miniatures far too expensive.
If customers were given the choice to manually remove the material supports will solve both the high pricing, as well as the potential damaging by SW.
As mentioned before: multimaterial models (B-HDA and FUD) could be a very nice compromise in some cases. -
Ans SW really should look into their printing processes. The print quality simply is still not consistent enough. Based on the first print, we would consider the second print faulty (again).
Kind regards,
Maurice & Joris
RAILNSCALE