What is the difference between a desktop 3D printer and an industrial 3D printer?

There are six main aspects
1) Printing accuracy
Since desktop computers currently only have two technologies, FDM and SLA, from the data point of view, there is little difference between industrial computers and desktop computers. The minimum resolution of FDM is determined by the size of the printing extrusion port, which is basically between 0.3-0.6MM. The thickness is determined by the Z axis. Because desktop computers use stepper motors, industrial 3D printers use servo motors, which avoids problems such as out-of-step and distortion of accuracy in the actual printing process.
2) Printing speed
Printing speed is another important difference between industrial machines and desktop machines. Due to the cost constraints of desktop machines, 16-bit and 32-bit chips are often used as the main control chip. The data processing speed is difficult to compare with 64-bit CPUs. In FDM Due to accuracy reasons, the difference is not big, but in SLA technology, the scanning speed of the former is up to 1m/sec, while the latter can reach 7m-15m/sec.
3) Design and removal quality of print support
The design of the printing support and the separable parameter printing of the printing entity is the most important sign that distinguishes the industrial machine from the desktop machine. Why? Because industrial machines are used in the actual production field, they must have high controllability requirements for the final printing effect. Friends who have used desktop machines know that whether it is FDM or SLA equipment, because the support and entity are in the printing process Indistinguishable, the peeling of the support after printing is a very uncontrollable factor, which will often lead to peeling failure and destroy the entity in the end.
Industrial machines solve this problem fundamentally. For example, Xitong RIVERBASE 500 uses software algorithms to print entities and supports at different speeds and laser energy, so that the supports and entities are cured into different materials, so as to achieve the purpose of easy peeling. In addition, the inkjet industrial printer being developed by Xitong has designed the support and the entity into two different resin materials, in which the support material is melted in a specific solution to achieve the purpose of de-supporting and traceless.
4) Print size is an important indicator to distinguish desktop and industrial printers
Generally speaking, the larger the supported print size, the more expensive the printer. If you need a 3D printer that can print the size of a microwave oven. Most desktop 3D printers on the market now can only print relatively small things. Even if you want to print an object the size of the bottom of an iPad, I am afraid that many printers will not be able to do it. But if you only need to print objects the size of a teacup, almost all printers on the market can do it.
Industrial printers generally have a large printing volume to suit large-scale production. However, correspondingly, the large volume causes the system complexity to increase exponentially, the material cost increases, and the testing, installation, transportation, and maintenance costs are high; especially on the premise of maintaining reliability, the indicators of basically every component are more demanding , In order to ensure the printing accuracy and stability of the whole machine. These factors will increase the printer cost exponentially. In addition, industrial printers are not as simple as home printers. There are generally various compliance designs to meet the requirements of different industries. These will also increase the cost to a large extent. Aurora A8 is like this.
5) Printing reliability
Printing reliability, in layman's terms, is the printing success rate. The printing success rate is the indicator that really tests the skill of the design team, and it is also an important indicator to distinguish between desktop and industrial-grade 3D printers. After all, industrial-grade printers are used for mass production. The printing process is usually very long, usually at least a few hours, and as long as there is a detail that is not handled properly, the printing will fail. At this time, how about other details, no matter how high the printing precision is? After all, the entire material was wasted. Even though it is known as the most stable desktop 3D printer in the industry, the printing success rate is only a little over 70%. This also means that after printing a hundred times, at least 30 of the materials used are wasted due to various reasons. These materials cannot be recycled by users and can only be thrown away. Therefore, every time a printing fails, it is a time-consuming, costly, and troublesome thing. For users, reliability is not an objective indicator after all, and it is difficult to quantify itself. The printing success rate of industrial machines can be almost 100%, which greatly improves production efficiency and reduces comprehensive costs including manpower and time.
6) Self-checking function of printing process
Due to cost and size reasons, desktop computers have almost no automatic correction and detection functions for the printing process, and this design is the standard configuration of industrial computers
7) Application field
Industrial machines are widely used in aviation, aerospace, automobile manufacturing, medical treatment, molds, jewelry making and other industries. Buyers are mostly concentrated in large enterprises and manufacturing subcontractors, while the desktop market is more concentrated in education, makers and Simple model making, customers are mainly universities, middle schools and elementary schools, MAKER and creative individuals.
8) Price
Industrial machines are the real Baifumei in the 3d printing industry, with high technical content and patents and other competition thresholds that exclude most of them. Currently, they belong to the seller’s market. In addition to Zhuhai Xitong and Shenzhen Jiguang Erwo, domestic providers also include Xi’an Hengtong. After years of competition in China, desktop computers have plunged into the Red Sea. Sales mainly rely on bidding and retail markets such as Taobao and JD.com.