Technical Article


A Comparison of 3D Printing Technologies Used to Make Investment Casting Patterns – Part 2: Operating Cost


by Tom Mueller, Mueller Additive Manufacturing Solutions T


his is the second of three sections of a detailed comparison of the four


leading methods investment casting patterns. to The four


methods are QuickCast, CastForm, Projet Wax, and Voxeljet Any comparison must compare the performance in three separate areas; printer performance, pattern performance and operating cost. In the first section, the printer performance of the four methods was compared. In this section, operating cost will be compared. Each of the manufacturers sells multiple models of printers with different build envelopes and build speeds. To limit the scope of the analysis, we selected


the model most commonly


used to print investment casting pattern. Table 1 shows the printer models used in this study and the materials printed. A printer with great performance that builds patterns that are easily and reliably cast is of little value if the cost of creating patterns makes them economically unfeasible. In this section of the comparison, the purchase price of printers as well as operating cost will be examined. Some of the prices have changed since this information was first presented at the 2016 ICI Fall Technical Conference.


As a result, some of the operating costs have changed.


Printer Price The four printers in this comparison have a wide range of prices, from $100,000 to more than $700,000. Table 2 lists the price of each of the four printers. The price of the Voxeljet printer is based on currency exchange rates at the time of publication. In reality, few buyers of these printers


pay the list price for the machine. Prices are often discounted, sometimes


16 ❘ April 2017 ® heavily. Determining average actual


purchase prices, however, would be extremely difficult.


several pieces of auxiliary equipment in addition to the printer.


the auxiliary equipment is necessary to


the operation of the printer and


some is optional. For simplicity, this analysis uses only the list price of the printer without auxiliary equipment for comparison.


In addition, all of the printers offer Some of


Capacity Cost


Comparing printer simply on the basis of price can be very misleading.


As


shown in the previous article in the series, the four printers have widely varying build rates. Expensive printers build much faster. Might it be better to buy several low cost printers? To answer that question, we need to compare the printers on the bases of equivalent build rates.


We can calculate Capacity cost, which is the cost of one cubic inch per


print


Technology QuickCast CastForm Projet Wax Voxeljet


Printer Model ProX 800 S-Pro 60


3510 CPX VX1000


Table 1: Printer models used for comparison. Material


Accura® CastPro CastForm™ PS


VisiJet® M3 Hi-Cast PMMA/Polypor B


Figure 1: Capacity Cost of the Printers


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