How to choose your sand 3D printer?

How to  choose a suitable and good sand 3D printer? CHN Leading as a sand 3D printer manufacturer in many years for many users to produce and install the printer provide the following suggestions:

First, Confirm the appropriate equipment specifications:

The specification of the sand 3D printer is very important, choosing too big will waste resources, choosing too small may lead to  insufficient use.

(1) Please evaluate and count the types and sizes of your  products to find  out the identify representative products, and measure the size of the sand moulds based on their castings. By analysing the data and searching for moulds, you will find the appropriate printer specifications, i.e., the maximum size (mould size) that can satisfy the printing of sand moulds in the working sand box.

(2) Consider the  strategic development of the your company over the next 3-5 years and evaluate the product mix that may be introduced. Based on the types and sizes of future products, measure the geometric dimensions of the casting sand moulds to find suitable printer specifications.

(3) If there is a demand for individual large format sand patterns, please consider cutting them into blocks and assembling them in combinations for printing.

After analysing and counting all the relevant information, the specifications for purchasing a 3D sand printer can be formulated. The common sand 3D printer sizes in the market are  1200*1000*600, 1800*1000*700, 2000*1200*800, 2500*1500*1000 etc.，but  you can also customise one  according to your  requirements.

Second, After determining the size of the sand 3D printer , and then determine the equipment installed in the workshop.

(1) Because the sand 3D printer production line size is relatively large, you need to check the size of the installation of the workshop, do a good job of layout.

(2) Some printers normally need to be used  in a constant temperature environment, so the availability of air conditioning and other temperature control equipment must be taken into account.

CHN Leading independent research and development of sand 3D printer host is equipped with  air conditioning, it can adapt to all kinds of external environment, do not need to install air conditioning system for the workshop to increase additional costs.

(3) Check the power supply, air compressor, floor and environmental protection facilities required for the workshop. Some large printers also need to be equipped with gravity loading and unloading equipment to the transport sand molds.

Third, Compare the printing efficiency.

Printing efficiency is another important consideration when choosing a sand 3D printer. Print speed determines the efficiency, and efficiency determines  yield. High yield can reduce manufacturing costs, while faster printing efficiency can save electricity, speed up production delivery schedule, and improve capital turnover. Therefore, throughput brings benefits, and the printer's print speed, moulding efficiency and operational stability are key indicators. When choosing a sand 3D printer, you should compare each manufacture's the print parameters , including print speed per layer, print efficiency per hour, and full box print time.

Print speed per layer (sec/layer) is an important metric for evaluating sand 3D printers, taking into account the average print speed per layer in a full box. The printer still runs consistently  and stably when the average speed is faster. Full box print time (hours/box) is another metric to evaluate, taking into account the difference in the time it takes to print a full box with the same thickness of printed layers. The shorter the full-box printing time, the less standby time in the middle, the higher the efficiency and the better the operational stability.

CHN Leading adopts a unique printing technology with a patented invention, the printing speed of 13 seconds per layer, and the fastest full-box printing time of 4.3 hours (1.2 m sand box), which is a leading advantage in the industry.

Fourth, The need for printing accuracy

You need to set clear printing accuracy requirements according to your products. 

As a partner of aerospace and some military companies, CHN Leading produces sand 3D printers with linear motor design and high printing accuracy. And the structure and operation of the printing trolley also adopts new patented technology to ensure the high accuracy of motion printing.

Fifth, Detailed calculation of consumable usage costs

The cost of printing consumables directly affects the your production costs, which largely determines  your competitiveness.

(1) Whether the sand 3D printer is designed to be compatible with different types of consumables. From the point of view of the cost of consumables, in order to reduce the cost of use, the printer can use localised consumables that are compatible with different grades of sand. This is an inevitable trend. Printing sand is basically divided into two kinds: one is natural silica sand, which can meet the quality requirements of low- and medium-grade castings; the other is man-made sand, such as ceramic sand, Baobab sand, etc., which is suitable for printing high-grade and complex products. Under the premise of ensuring the quality of castings, the choice of lower-cost sand is very important for reducing production costs.

(2) Whether the sand 3D printer can easily to switch between different sand materials. If it is easy to switch between different printing materials, it means that the cost of use is lower and more economical.

(3) Whether the sand 3D printer has the function of saving consumables. The ability of the printer to save consumables is also valuable to you. For example, whether the printer has the following functions: automatic collection of sand in the process of sand, online recycling (saving catalyst), recycling and reuse of old sand, sand before printing to lay the thickness of the bottom of the small (small amount of sand to prepare for the job), the local area printing function (large machine for small use) and so on. If there is a function design similar to the above mentioned consumables saving, it can well solve the reuse of sand and catalyst, which greatly reduces the cost of use. 

The sand 3D printer independently developed by CHN Leading is rich in functions, which can realise fully automatic collection of sand surplus sand and online recycling; old sand recycling and reuse through sieving and sorting.

Sixth. Maintenance cost

Sand 3D printer maintenance costs directly affect the your cost of use, cost is one of the core competitiveness of enterprises, therefore, the choice of sand 3D printer, the assessment of the use of maintenance costs is quite important, but also relates to the cost of the enterprise, and even in the assessment stage affects the enterprise whether to dare to use sand 3D printer.

(1) sand 3D printer printheads currently used in piezoelectric printheads, printhead integration can obtain a wider spray area, although it can improve the printing efficiency, but the number of printhead configurations, the use of the printhead maintenance costs are high, simply increase the number of groups of printheads is not a good ideal approach. You should consider both the printing efficiency when selecting, but also to reduce the use of maintenance costs as much as possible. Therefore, the printer manufacturer to improve the technical level of the design, not only to ensure that the printing efficiency, but also to be able to reduce the use of maintenance costs, to give users a win-win choice. This requires users to look at the evaluation, the same specifications of the printer, the same number of printheads, to see whose printing speed is faster.

(2) sand 3D printer is the largest use of the maintenance costs of the printhead, due to the current industry printing adhesive to furan resin-based, furan resin on the compatibility of the printhead under the current technical conditions is not very strong, the life of the printhead is still a problem. Therefore, the service life of the printhead is a very important indicator, and we should focus on who has a longer service life of the printhead.

CHN Leading's sand 3D printer with the same type specification printhead number consumption is less, using self-developed nitrogen-free furan, less corrosive to the nozzle, more prolonged service life of the printhead. And the use of anti-fracture 3D printing patented technology, so that the printhead, even in the case of local blockage, do not need to replace the printhead, but also to ensure that the completion of product printing with high quality.

(3) Also assess whether the sand 3D printer is easy to maintain, low failure rate. This depends on the specific design structure, to understand the common basic maintenance is easy to maintain, but also to see whether the specific design structure is not easy to fail in the design and so on.

CHN Leading sand 3D printer using digital modular intelligent production line design, not only to facilitate the composition and upgrade the intelligent production line, but also to achieve remote operation and maintenance, failure to issue a variety of alarm information prompts, greatly protect the smooth progress of production.

Seventh, Sand 3D printer operation

Sand 3D printer operation  should be considered one of the elements of equipment purchaseing. If ordinary workers can be on duty with a little training, so that the cost of labour is low, but also to solve the problem of difficult operation; from the sand 3D printer operation settings level, to achieve rapid selection and switching of printing parameters, the convenience of its operation is good. According to the requirements of different castings, fast switching printing parameters for non-manufacturing professional and technical personnel is more difficult, debugging is also a waste of time and supplies.

CHN Leading intelligent self-developed print control software is easy to operate, and printing process parameters recipe function, the user can easily and quickly call a variety of modules, for foundry technicians to operate and use has brought great convenience.The training time for workers is reduced ,their operational difficulty is lower ,and the mold printing quality is ensured.

Eighth, Sand mold  yield

Some users purchase sand 3D printer as production equipment, the need for large-scale production, the combination of multiple printers into a production line operation. Some customers's sand 3D printer is only used for research and development, and for small batch or single piece production, then only a single machine operation is enough.

CHN Leading intelligent production line design can fully meet the user's requirements at different times, whether it is the current single machine operation, or later multi-machine combination, can be quickly and flexibly match, greatly saving space and user's capital investment.

Learn more details about our printer ,please contact us  :market@3dcnlead.com; market@3dcnleading.com