OUR 3D PRINTING JOURNEY MAGNA – THE ‘GREAT’ 3D PRINTER: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE? Leave a comment
According to my Facebook time line, just over 8 years ago we purchased our first 3D printers. Our 3D Printing journey started back in 2005 when we hired a consultant to look into the feasibility of 3D Printing/rapid prototyping to replace our traditional plaster room. Very quickly we were told that we were perhaps ‘too early to the game’. Cost of model printing was coming out at around £60 per model at that time. Sufficed to say we waited a few more years and our first sip into 3D Printing began by outsourcing to a rapid prototyping company who would make parts for the likes of F1 cars.
Fast forward to 2012 we made the significant investment and bought our first printers. Now, it wouldn’t be fair to list our failures along the way as we have had some incredibly low points in our 3D print journey, however for the most part we have continued to improve and develop. Today we have something pretty spectacular, almost too good to be true.
A few years into our 3D Printing journey, no let’s call it an expedition, as it had its highs and lows by the way, we were contacted by a punchy start up firm called Photocentric. They were new to the dental market. The Peterborough based outfit invited us to see their facility sometime around 2014 and showcased some of their latest technology. We explained what our 3D Printing needs were and they arranged to have one of their prototype machines delivered to us to run some trials.
Safe to say we failed and the machine was returned in a worse state than it arrived to us, mainly due to several component failures leading to resin leaks. We carried on with our existing set up for a while and began introducing a lot of Formlab units in hope to keep up with demands. As our business grew our need to produce 3D printed models in volumes and at speed was becoming an issue. We visited the IDS in Cologne in the hope to make a purchase of a machine that could deliver what we needed. It looked promising and we did indeed make a purchase and the future looked rosey, until we began using the technology. Our search started again!
One of our managers had done a lot of research and on the top of his list was Photocentric and their new Magna printer. On paper this unit looked exactly what we needed. But, we had previously failed with an early Photocentric prototype and we could still remember the disappointment.
We decided to give them another chance. We arranged a visit to see the Magna and to speak with their technical and sales team. The unit was so much more polished and not like the protype of previous years. The figures they gave us on the machine cost, print run times and resin cost was incredible! Too good to be true we thought!! Remember, we have been here before with lots of printers and manufacturers!
The Photocentric team were so sure that they could prove their technology would work and fit with our needs that they offered us a deal, again, too good to be true! They gave us the machine for 3 months and we had an agreement that if the machine didn’t deliver what they say it would and we were not 100% happy, they will come and collect the unit and no money will exchange hands. If we were happy with the unit, we simply settle the invoice at the 3 monthcut off date.
Too good to be true, we were still thinking! We went ahead. A couple of days in, we started having problems. Here we go again! We called their tech team and they sent out their top tech. He showed us the simple things that we had failed to do correctly and gave us some great tips. We immediately began successfully running prints. The Magna has a huge build platform and the LCD technology means prints began flying off the machine, often quicker than we could prepare build platforms. Now, this was really becoming too good to be true. It had to fail! Something had to go wrong. We surely cannot have this printing solution at these prices, with this speed and reliability. Better still, the models were coming off crisp, clean and accurate. We agreed an end date for our trial and said if we continue with the successes we will not only pay for this one, we will buy a second unit and we will commit to buying the cure and wash systems from them too.
Sure enough, the date came and we made our purchases. The Magnas have been an incredible introduction and have saved our skin. The initial unit cost is very attractive when compared to others in the dental market and with the build platform size at 510 x 280 (23.6” LCD) it is huge. As for the resin and running costs of the Magnas, again, there is nothing currently available in the dental sector coming close to them.
Shortly after we purchased our units, we discovered that Blueprint Dental had taken on the distribution of the printers. This was great news to me. I know most of the team at Blueprint and I can honestly say that they have a fantastic product to sell. The Magna is nothing shy of ‘Great’ (Latin translation). It did all feel too good to be true, I am so glad we gave them a try. We were so pleased with the set up that we decided to overhaul our whole 3D production room. We have had custom made stainless units and cabinetry made to house the printers, wash and curers to fit with our work flow to give us the best efficiencies. I understand that Blueprint Dental may also be offering the bespoke steel solutions to other dental labs too.
