All friends who know about 3D printers know that the consumables used in general FDM 3D printers are linear materials. The average price is about 40 to 50 rolls. Then, what happens when the consumables used by 3D printers are no longer linear materials, but can directly use standard thermoplastic granular materials?

At present, the wires used by the existing fdm3d printers, such as ABS, PLA or PETG, are all made of granular raw materials, and the particles are converted into wires by wire drawing equipment. This step determines that the formed wire is much more expensive than the raw material. Once the 3D printer can directly print with granular raw materials as consumables, it will undoubtedly greatly reduce the material cost required for printing.

Of course, the advantages of the particle 3D printer are not only reflected in the cost of consumables. As long as the thermoplastic plastic materials, even carbon brazing, composite metals, composite ceramics, etc. can be extruded through the hot melt nozzle, the particle 3D printer can be used for printing, which greatly expands the range of available materials and the application range of equipment. At the same time, due to the different design of the extrusion nozzle, the efficiency of printing and molding is also much higher than that of fdm3d printer. At present, the domestic brands that can independently research and develop pellet 3D printers include Piocreat.

So, what objects can such a 3D printer make or what fields can it be applied to? Let's put it simply here. According to the materials used, the application fields of granular 3D printers include: prototype mold industry, furniture design industry, auto parts manufacturing industry, rehearsal building mold industry, portrait sculpture industry, medical support industry, visual art industry, etc.

It can be seen that in the future, as the technology of granular 3D printer becomes more mature, the precision becomes higher and the industry becomes more and more widely used, the granular 3D printer will replace the traditional fdm3d printer and will be mainly used in various industrial manufacturing industries.