Content area
Full Text
Download this article in .PDF format
This file type includes high resolution graphics and schematics when applicable.
Currently the third most-popular 3D printer in the U.S., the $1,599 H-Series printer from Afinia, a division of Microboards Technology LLC, Chanhassen, Minn., is lauded for its ease of use and overall quality. It prints with fused-deposition modeling (FDM), a technique that generates strong and watertight parts. We recently got an Afinia machine to test and found its software and instruction manual hard to use. Once we discovered a few workarounds, though, the 3D printer performed quite well.
Related Articles
- Beware 3D printing?
- MarkForged: $5,000 3D printer prints carbon-fiber parts
- Gallery: Weird 3D printing machines of the week
First some background. The H-Series is a rebranded version of the Up Plus 2 3D printer manufactured by 3D Printing Systems Ltd., Sunnyhills, New Zealand, in China. The Afinia and Up Plus 2 are nearly identical but the Afinia is sold in the Americas with slightly modified electronics and dedicated technical support. In addition, Stratasys Ltd., Edina, Minn., is currently suing Afinia for patent infringement. By most accounts, Afinia's success in the 3D-printing market has made it a conspicuous target, as sales of the Afinia printer trail only those of printers from Stratasys and 3D Systems Ltd., Rock Hill, S.C.
For our tests, we made a MACHINE DESIGN hangtag and a hollow toy-sized replica of a RoboCop Droid. First, we loaded the Afinia 3D Print software onto a Dell laptop, and connected the Afinia printer to the laptop via a USB cord. Then within the 3D-print software, we honed the hangtag and Droid models, scaled them to suitable trinket sizes, and commanded the Afinia to print them. The quality of parts produced by the Afinia H-Series is excellent. In fact, the machine we tested held tolerances to within 0.005 in. Here's what else we discovered about the Afinia H-Series.
Part tolerance: Within 0.15 mm (0.006 in.) with a layer thickness from 0.15 to 0.4 mm.
Print Dimensions: 5 in.[superscript]3
Speed: Linear print speed is 30 mm/sec. Like most desktop 3D printers, the printing platform also has a heating element to get finished parts to lift off with less prying.
Footprint: The 9.64 x 10.23 x 13.78-in. machine...