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founder of Slant Concepts in Nampa, Idaho. His mechanical design and engineering firm had spun off a second venture in October 2016, called Slant 3D, devoted to custom 3D printing in small to medium volumes. He claims it can produce parts that are less expensive than injection molding in volumes under 10,000 parts and reasonably competitive in price at up to 20,000 parts (see accompanying chart). "We are working to make 3D printing a large-scale manu- facturing option," says Bentz. "We are doing this by developing hardware, software, and techniques to allow 3D-printing devices to produce parts in volume." HOME-MADE PRINTERS WITH AUTOMATION Slant 3D (slant3d.com) operates a production printer "farm" with close to 100 printers, a number expected to grow to 500 in the next year or two. Bentz claims capacity to produce 5000 to 10,000 parts a week. His printers are self-manufactured to the firm's own design. They utilize an FDM-type of process in which extruded thermo- plastic filaments are deposited in thin layers. Called the SlantBox, these "commoditized" printers are mounted in racks and all connected to the cloud for maximum productivity. They have a build volume of 10 × 8 × 9 in. and precision of 100 to 300 microns. They are designed to run continuously with much greater reliability than standard 3D printers. "We design them to be assembled and implemented quickly, but also rigid and tough enough to produce 95% good parts," Bentz says. By addressing typical 3D manufac- turing defects stemming from bed inconsistency or nonuniform extrusion rates, Bentz claims his production is more consis- tent from part to part and throughout an individual part than is commonly found in the market. A growing number of injection molders have adopted 3D printing for prototyping or making conceptual models to present to clients. Some are even making 3D-printed parts for internal use, such as jigs, fixtures, or robot grip- pers. But few have pursued this technology as a means of commercial production of custom parts. For the most part, injection molders have left that field open to companies specializing in low-volume, high-value parts for aerospace and medical uses. There are growing signs that injection molders need to watch their backs. Innovative start-up companies are emerging with large "farms" of 3D printers organized to compete with injection molding for orders of 10,000, 20,000, or even 100,000 parts. We reported in a September 2017 Close-Up on one example of this new type of competition, Voodoo Manufacturing in Brooklyn, N.Y. That article brought a response from a similar new venture, clear across the country. We were contacted by Gabe Bentz, president and By Matt Naitove Executive Editor Comparison of injection molding and 3D printing costs. It is assumed that the injection mold costs $5000 and the cost per part, exclusive of mold-amortization, is 20¢. Total cost per molded part, including mold amortization declines with volume, while 3D-printed part cost is constant at an assumed 70¢. 3D Printing Start-Up Competes with Injection Molding A year-old company is devoted to large-scale custom 3D printing at prices competitive with injection molding to 20,000 parts. "We are working to make 3D printing a large-scale manufacturing option." Gabe Bentz, president and founder of Slant 3D with some of his dozens of custom-designed and built 3D printers that can produce 5000 to 10,000 parts a week. $10,000 $1000 $100 $10.00 $1.00 $0.10 Injection Molding vs. 3D Printing Unit Cost Unit Cost Number of Units 0 2K 4K 6K 8K 10K 12K 14K 16K 3D Printing Injection Molding 20 JANUARY 2018 Plastics Technology PTonline.com 3 D P R I N T I N G Close -Up On Technolog y