3D printing is a class of rapidly emerging technologies that translate a 3-dimensional computer model of an object into a physical representation of that model. The key difference from CNC machining is that 3D printers are additive rather than subtractive. That is, they “build up” a model from a base material like plastic powder or melted plastic wire, rather than “remove” material from a work piece the way a lathe or milling machine does.
3D printers use many different methods to create an object. The most common printers used by hobbyists work like a “robot glue-gun” to deposit small amounts of melted plastic onto a stand or platen, using a computer-controlled carriage that can move precisely in X, Y, and Z to create a volume. Other printers use a photo-reactive resin that is exposed in thin “slices” using a laser or a video projection system, and the portions of the resin that are illuminated react by hardening. Still others work by fusing a bed of powdered material like nylon with a laser.
The printers I use are a filament printer, the Ultimaker S5, and a laser-based photo-reactive resin printer, the FormLabs Form 2. These are solid examples of each type of 3D printing, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
The S5 is equipped with a Material Station that holds up to six spools of filament that you can select from automatically. The nice thing about the Material Station is that, if you run out of a particular filament during a long print job, if another spool of the same filament is available on the same extruder, it will automatically swap over and continue the print.
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