Top 5 3D Printing Videos: Food 3D Printing with Natural Machines

Hello everybody, and welcome to our top 5 3D printing videos of the week! Spring is in the air, and in our content too. This week, we have an exciting selection ranging from technical comparisons of different techniques, to practical applications of 3D printing to create smart products with the hope of improving the life of the user – in this case, a 3D printed smart insole. We also have a 3Dnatives original video, a #3dinterview on the topic of food 3D printing with Natural Machines. We hope you enjoy.

Top 1: Natural Machines on Food 3D Printing

As well as selecting the best videos on the market each week, we are proud to bring you original content from our own studio. This week we interviewed Lynette Kucsma of Natural Machines, a firm which makes 3D printing a reality for the health and wellness industry. She told us all about the potential of food 3D printing for localized production of products; indeed, what could be more local than your own home? The firm’s printer, allowing people to take this step, is named ‘Foodini’. She emphasized the similarity between 3D printed and traditional food, and told us about her belief that the technology holds the potential to become the new normal method to make products, instead of a manufacturing line.

Top 2: Cost Comparison of FDM vs SLA vs SLS

Our second video of the week is for the technical enthusiasts – a cost comparison of 3 different printing techniques for plastics, FDM, SLA, and SLS. This video gives you a run through of the variables which can affect the cost. Firstly, they look at equipment ownership, meaning the fixed cost of the printer, the service contracts, installation, and maintenance, and then give an approximate costing of each option. Secondly, there is the cost of materials and consumables. Finally, there are labor costs such as those associated with set-up, maintenance, and post-processing. Overall – FDM will be cheapest for simple prototypes in low numbers, whereas SLS is the most cost-effective for medium to large volumes of higher quality parts.