As an owner of several different Stratasys FDM printers over the years (Dimension, now F370-CR), I used to boast that we could bring in a part file, hit the print button, and await our part. Meanwhile, the landscape started to fill with "Brand X" FDM printers that required way more patience to set-up, tweak settings, diagnose failures, etc. Companies like Bambu are leveling the playing-field, and we've lost a lot of service business as these printers become easier to run and reliably print parts at a much lower cost-of-ownership. The next few years are going to be, uh, interesting.
Yes, this is very serious side effect of Bambu Lab and many other cheap 3D printers. When dominated by poor quality Enders 3, those 3D printers were no threat to AM service providers. But after 2022, Bambu Lab and its followers, for many smaller companies they were a death sentence.
I experienced a little bit of that with one of my companies - GREENFILL3D, where we had to exit AM service business due to diminishing number of customers (who started printing parts by themselves).
As an owner of several different Stratasys FDM printers over the years (Dimension, now F370-CR), I used to boast that we could bring in a part file, hit the print button, and await our part. Meanwhile, the landscape started to fill with "Brand X" FDM printers that required way more patience to set-up, tweak settings, diagnose failures, etc. Companies like Bambu are leveling the playing-field, and we've lost a lot of service business as these printers become easier to run and reliably print parts at a much lower cost-of-ownership. The next few years are going to be, uh, interesting.
Yes, this is very serious side effect of Bambu Lab and many other cheap 3D printers. When dominated by poor quality Enders 3, those 3D printers were no threat to AM service providers. But after 2022, Bambu Lab and its followers, for many smaller companies they were a death sentence.
I experienced a little bit of that with one of my companies - GREENFILL3D, where we had to exit AM service business due to diminishing number of customers (who started printing parts by themselves).