Grow Your 3D Printing Capabilities: Form 3 Discount for FDM Owners!

Formlabs News
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Many businesses use both FDM and SLA machines alongside one another. This opens access to a wider range of applications supported by low-cost rapid prototyping, high quality, functional parts, and comprehensive material formulations. As an FDM user, we’re giving you up to $400 off the Form 3 to expand your fleet.

Why FDM?
FDM machines can print with thicker layers and generally use a lower infill which results in fast 3D prints. FDM also has fewer post-processing steps for simple parts. Depending on the project, this means that prints are ready to use soon after they have finished. This is ideal for applications like rapid prototyping, where it allows users to quickly evaluate success and move on to another print or project.

Why SLA?
SLA is a great option for highly detailed prototypes requiring tight tolerances and smooth surfaces, such as molds, patterns, and functional parts. SLA is widely used in a range of industries from engineering and product design to manufacturing, dentistry, jewelry, model making, and education and is known for its fine features, smooth surface finish, ultimate part precision, and accuracy.

How can I take advantage of this offer?
Great question! To get $400 off your Form 3 purchase, simply go to this page, and navigate to the bottom where it says "Verify FDM Machine."

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As an FDM user as well as a SLA user, I find this… “interesting”.

First and foremost, I’m looking at the FDM printed pieces, and it looks like someone made a deliberate attempt to find the worst looking, most poorly printed examples and placed them next the the same piece printed in resin. While the FDM will never approach the fine detail and quality of the resin printer, it can certainly create parts that look DRAMATICALLY better than the garbage prints shown here.

Secondly, and I think this is probably the most important thing, is that FDM printer can use materials that are superior to resins when it comes to durability and strength. Simply put, an FDM printer can make functional parts that an SLA printer like the Form 2 or 3 can’t compete with, regardless of which materials were used.

ABS plastic alone is stronger than anything currently available from FormLabs, and nylon is on a different scale altogether. Perhaps when the Fuse 1 comes along, that will chnage, but that’s a different technology.

Then there’s the print volume. MOst FDM printers have a larger volume than the Form 2 or Form 3, and large print volume (12" x 12" x 12" or larger) printers are available for the consumers market for as little as $400, while professional printers sell for around $2,000. Compare that to the $10,000 Form 3L

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that if you’re going to make a comparison between FDM and SLA, and you’re trying to attract FDM users to SLA, you should make a comparison that’s fair and accurate. Veteran FDM users probably know more about the in and outs of their printers than SLA users do, and are not easily swayed. If anything this type of comparison, especially with unflattering images like the ones you did in an attempt to make the FDM look bad, is going to alienate them.

Do a fair comparison, with properly printed FDM prints, then show close up images of both SLA and FDM, and discuss the strength of both, the usage models of both, and maybe you’ll be able get some to come to FormLabs and SLA technology.

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Couldn’t immediately find the answers to my questions but:

  • Is this offer available outside the US?
  • Is this offer retroactively available to those who’ve already purchased a Form³ in, let’s say, the form of store credit?
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@DKirch: I second @Dudemeister here. Don’t be silly, posting pictures of FDM parts where you obviously modified the printing parameters to make them look as bad as possible. That’s not only dishonest, but also plain stupid, as nobody with any experience in FDM printing to speak of will be fooled by this.

If you instead focused on what real advantages there are to SLA parts (machineability, much higher detail level in fine structures etc.) and on how it can complement FDM printing, then you may gain some customers…

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@DKirch This seriously undermines your credibility guys. At a time when many of us are considering cancelling our pre-orders because you have failed to deliver the anticipated quality for the F3, and can’t support all your own resins, you make a really amateurish dig at FDM using pictures of failed prints?

I have had a (highly modified) original Ultimaker for years, and it produces damn near the quality of an F2.

Perhaps we should post pictures of some of the current F3 prints here from some of the many quality threads as a real comparison?

You are better than this!

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I agree wholeheartedly with Dudemeister, P3D & Andrew_Miller…the FormLabs post is, at the least deceptive and surely misleading and quite frankly, dishonest.

Your company should be ashamed of this.

We have been loyal Form customers since the inception of the Form 1, we currently run 3 Form 2s and have a Form 3 on order (was due for delivery Sept 2019…still waiting).

We have a Raise 3D Pro plus that has preformed more than admirably with little to no problems. (the same can not be said for our Form printers). My “go to” printer is the Raise, I am nudging my boss to get another Raise 3D. Yes they are slower and SLA can produce finer details (when they are working correctly) but for our purposes the FDM is more than adequate for the majority of our printing jobs. I also agree that the materials available for FDM printing are far superior for real world application than those available for the Form printers.

I do not want to see our Form printers go away but your post has surely lowered my opinion of Form Labs status in the printing world.

Do you dare show comparable prints from a quality FDM printed with the proper settings vs a print from a FormLbas printer…Go ahead, I dare you ! If you are that much better than FDM printers you would not have to put forth such a deceptive post. As Greta would say, “how dare you ?!”

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Hey Everyone,

Thank you very much for the feedback regarding this promotion. Our intention was absolutely not to denigrate FDM printing in favor of SLA. We recognize that FDM and SLA both have an invaluable spot in many of our users’ workflows, and clearly we could have done a better job highlighting that fact here. As the title says, we want to help everyone grow their 3D printing capabilities by facilitating the expansion of our customers’ 3D printer fleets, whatever the technology may be.

We of course welcome any FDM/SLA comparison pictures, or comparison pictures of any kind that anyone would like to post on this forum, and we really do take this kind of feedback seriously. Please keep it coming.

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I see the photos have been removed.

I think that you should leave them in place, so as to give context to these posts. If you choose to add new photos of properly printed FDM parts along with their equivalent SLA, please do, but removing the photos will just confuse new readers of this thread.

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Nevermind.

I see the link to the thread has been removed, The people who have already posted or have a direct link can see it, but for the rest of the population it’s gone.

Hmm… I suppose that’s one way to deal with it.