Comparing MJF vs SLS vs SLA for our product
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
- I talk to a lot of people who don't really know what MJF is, or what the difference between MJF and SLS 3D printing is.
Before the development of our Camera Assisted XY Calibration tool (CXC), we also didn't have any tangible parts or products on hand to compare between SLS and MJF even though we understood the technological difference.
So here's hoping that this video will help someone else out on their project or product development journey.
Note that since making this video, JLC PCB now has a resin called "Imagine Black" which is actually black and not grey.
You can learn more about our CXC tool here: www.emberprototypes.com/produ...
Get up to a $60 off coupon at JLCPCB here (non-affiliate): jlc3dp.com/?from=EmberPrototypes
0:00 Intro
1:30 JLCPCB unboxing
2:07 Closeup of MJF
2:50 Closeup of SLS
3:15 Closeup of SLA
4:08 Closeup of all three together
4:17 Decision for our product
5:40 Final thoughts
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#3dprinting #engineering #productdesign #formlabs #jlcpcb - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I also did the same comparison for my casing and MJF won. It just has very good details and a nice finish. One problem is that they are not always the exact same size. Sometimes the screw holes are tight sometimes the screw just bearly grips. Maybe keep that in mind with fittings
Good to know! I have a friend who runs a bigger service bureau than us who also warned us of similar things, especially as MJF part size increases. They said for parts like ours, it hits the perfect sweet spot of MJF!
@@emberprototypes ah thanks for the info. My part is about 170% of your part and my casing has two half shells. It's interesting that it's related to the size of the part.
My solution for screw holes is to go down. To 2.5mm diameter for a M3 hole. Then you have the option of drilling it.
@@savejeff15 yeah he mentioned that he sees more warp on MJF parts because of the way the technology works (lower temp + binder). And typically the larger the parts, the more warp you get.
I've actually gotten back some small parts that warped from JLC PCB, but they fixed that issue quickly for me and resent new ones.
@@emberprototypes okay that's weird. I have not seen warping like you would expect with resin parts. There I had significantly warped surfaces. With MJF its like an irregular shrinkage or it's dependent on the orientation it was printed.
With JLCPCB I had some reprints due to scratch like imperfections, but they reprinted them before sending them to me.
I hope they improve MJF printing Process further as I think it's the best method for production parts. The level of detail is just so good
@@savejeff15 yeah that's what my friend told me about large MJF parts vs SLS, but I don't have first hand experience. Either way I love that we have options for making production parts without having to commit to injection molding nowadays 🙂
Why not go full injection molding? Seems like the parts are rather small and without much overhangs and intricate details, and could easily be made, with a decent benchtop IM such as Morgan press(can also put together an equally capable machine at fraction of the cost!). Also the mold can be made locally in Aluminum with little investment on a small CNC mill. Just some 💭
Yeah good questions! There are several reasons why we didn't IM these.
1) When we first launched the product we didn't know what the demand would be so in-house SLA then MJF was a great way to scale gradually without a lot of up front investment required
2) We don't make enough of these to justify making a mold. Even though these parts are small, it's probably still at least $5K USD to make the molds. Especially when the cost of small MJF parts is pretty low, I think it would take maybe 2-3 years to pay off the mold cost at the quantities we are producing.
3) We want to avoid having to manufacture the enclosures in-house. We did this for the first batch using in-house SLA, which was fantastic to get us started, but the labor involved isn't desirable for a small company like us. I'd rather outsource that and spend time on further R&D, etc.
@@emberprototypes I do agree with most of the concerns. But since you already have the sla capability, should seriously look at making high temp sla molds for prototyping and low volume production. Look at past videos of buster beagle channel, mk3 IM machine, it should be a fairly small investment. Also with a small cnc milling machine, you could make aluminum molds with decent quality inhouse. It is not a bad idea, compared to making one time 5-10k mold that is usable just for one product. Again, if you have a decent IM setup, you could expect a throughput of 5 mins or less per part, with hardly any postprocessing. It has more materials to use(can even use peek!), apart from significantly less per part cost equal to quantity of pellets or recycled plastic.
Again, its application specific, and in this case it is more appropriate. In the end, will have new skill and capability, that could be of significant benefit, for the business long term.
@@aware2action I think "more appropriate" is subjective. What you're talking about is not an inconsequential amount of time and equipment to do well. Either way, there are multiple ways to skin a cat and this is what we decided! I don't think doing it any other way really has such significant benefits that we would change anything right now, but in future, you never know!
@@emberprototypes I do understand, its just something to keep in mind for future🙂. If you get the kitted parts, you could put together the MK3 in a days work, with some planning in advance. Can't get a 3in3/50gm capacity machine at that rediculous price!. But there are some mods needed to improve clamping force. I am not selling anything, myself being an ordinary mk3 user😊.