Form 3 3D Printer Review: Expensive, But Excellent

Our Verdict

The Course iii produces high-quality 3D prints in a multifariousness of materials without fuss, just information technology is expensive. Artists, designers and professionals who rely on 3D printing will observe this price acceptable for the time it saves, but enthusiasts may seek out cheaper options like SLA printers from Peopoly that can produce similar quality results with tweaking.

For

Excellent print quality
Support for range of Formlabs supplied materials
Supports multiple users and printers

Against

Expensive
Use of third-party resin voids warranty
No major speed increase from older Formlabs models

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Grade three produces high-quality 3D prints in a variety of materials without fuss, but it is expensive. Artists, designers and professionals who rely on 3D press volition observe this cost acceptable for the time it saves, but enthusiasts may seek out cheaper options like SLA printers from Peopoly that can produce similar quality results with tweaking.

Pros

+
Fantabulous print quality
+
Support for range of Formlabs supplied materials
+
Supports multiple users and printers

Cons

-
Expensive
-
Use of 3rd-party resin voids warranty
-
No major speed increase from older Formlabs models

The Course 3 from Formlabs is a high-terminate Stereolithographic (SLA) printer that uses a laser to zap liquid resin into solid form. It's a sophisticated printer that can produce excellent quality prints with piddling maintenance or tweaking, making it a great pick for those who want to do a lot of printing without hassle.

These quality prints don't come up cheaply, though — the Grade 3 starts at $iii,499. That may exist a difficult cost to swallow, especially as rival 3D printer makers developer cheaper SLA models, such as the Peopoly Moai. But budget SLA printers often require a lot of experimentation and maintenance to produce quality prints. The Form 3 requires little of either: Information technology just works. And that'due south why we include the Form 3 on our list of the best 3D printers you can go right at present.

For this review, we tested the $four,999 complete kit that includes the Class 3 printer and the Course Wash and Class Cure devices used for cleaning and finishing prints.

Form three 3D printer review: Price and availability

Your best bet to buy a Form 3 3D printer is to head directly to FormLabs. There, you'll find the printer bachelor for $3,499 these days, with service plans adding to the cost of your 3D printer.

Since we get-go reviewed the Form 3 a few years ago, less expensive SLA printers led past the Peopoly Phenom have come out. And while those devices cost a fraction of what you'll pay for the Form iii, the Formlabs printer remains the standard bearer for SLA models.

Grade 3 3D printer review: Pattern

The Class 3 looks much like previous printers from Formlabs, with an orange plastic hood over the printing surface area and a black plastic base. That'south virtually more just aesthetics: the UV-blocking orange plastic lets you see what is going on while printing is underway, but without outside lights interfering with the process. This hood folds back to reveal the important parts of the Grade 3 — the resin tank and the print platform. Both are a little larger than the previous Form printers, offering a print area of 5.7 ten v.7 x seven.3 inches, or just over 237 cubic inches. A larger model, the Course 3L, ups this to xi.8 x thirteen.2 x 7.9 inches, a total of 1,230 cubic inches. The Form 3L, which is due to start shipping later on this yr, will cost you lot a cool $ix,999, though.

We had no failed prints in our Form three tests, which is a get-go for a 3D printer.

The removable resin tank is where the liquid resin sits during printing. The tank's base of operations features a thin, clear plastic layer that the press light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation shines through. To create each layer of the print, the build platform is lowered down to simply over this base layer, trapping a thin layer of liquid resin. The UV light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation then zaps the liquid, turning it into solid resin, which sticks to the build platform. The printer then lifts the platform, taking the hardened resin with it. The platform lowers again, trapping another layer of liquid resin, and the process repeats. Thus, the Class 3 creates the print layer by layer with layer heights ranging from 0.1mm downwards to 0.025mm.

One of the innovations here is the flexible plastic on the lesser of the layer, which means that the Form three can apply less forcefulness in pulling the hardened layers upwards. Formlabs calls this Low Forcefulness Stereolithography, and claims that it makes printing more reliable. Formlabs isn't the first printer maker to use this technique (it's available as an upgrade feature for printers similar the Peopoly Moai), only it definitely seems to be constructive. Nosotros had no failed prints in our Form 3 tests, which is a showtime for a 3D printer.

The Form 3's light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation and optics are plant nether the resin tank, located in a sealed bundle called the Light Processing Unit (LPU). This, Formlabs claims, makes the printer more reliable as dust tin can't arrive to block the path of the laser. It also makes the LPU easier to replace, as the whole unit can be easily removed and replaced by the user.

The Class 3 produced excellent quality prints, with fine details and smooth, organic curves and surfaces, even when nosotros used the fastest print settings.

The Resin cartridge in the rear of the Form 3 holds the liquid resin. The printer automatically fills the resin tank: You never need to bear upon the resin or fill the tank yourself, which is a plus because it is nasty, stinky stuff. The resin tank and cartridge are removable so you lot can swap out different printing resins without having to clear out the whole printer. The tanks tin can be cleaned out and reused, but the resin cartridges can't be reused. It is possible to fill a cartridge with a 3rd-political party resin, but Formlabs stresses that this might void the warranty of its printer. If you lot aren't using the printer for a few days, Formlabs recommends that yous remove the print tank and shop it in the airtight shipping container it came in to prevent it hardening in place.

Class 3 3D printer review: Controls

The Form three includes an excellent touch screen that allows you to control the printer directly, accessing all of the features and stopping or starting prints. Most users will turn to the PreForm software and the online printing dashboard to operate the Grade 3, though.

SLA printers typically require a lot of tweaking, calibration and other picayune to get good results. The Form 3 just works.

PreForm is the software that prepares your print, loading a 3D model (standard .stl and Wavefront .obj formats are supported) and slicing the model for press. Available as a free download for Mac and Windows, PreForm is straightforward to use, with a helpful one-impact printing feature that automatically prepares the print, creating the supports that hold it in place while printing and sending the file to the printer. If you desire to tweak the process yourself, PreForm allows you to scale, move, spin and otherwise mess with 3D models, besides every bit arrange several models for printing at 1 fourth dimension (a procedure called plating).

The printing dashboard is an online service that manages the Grade 3. Information technology's aimed more at users who operate multiple Form printers or those who share a single printer between multiple users. This dashboard allows you to queue and schedule prints, monitor print progress and pause or cancel printing. The dashboard can also notify y'all through your cellphone when a print is complete or when a printer has a problem or requires maintenance.

MORE: How to Purchase a 3D Printer

Since there's no photographic camera within the Grade 3 to monitor the prints, y'all generally don't know if a print has failed until it is complete, unless you take a expect during the printing process. The Form three isn't unique in this, though: The style that 3D printers similar this work, with a large print platform obscuring the printing area, makes it harder to come across how the print is progressing.

Class 3 3D printer review: Operation

In our tests, the Form 3 produced excellent quality prints, with fine details and shine, organic curves and surfaces, even when nosotros used the fastest print settings. Our examination models had shine, even detail with barely detectable layers.

Our first test model is a 3D browse of Rodin's The Thinker sculpture. The resulting prints looked fantabulous. Nosotros appreciated the curves on the sculpture'south shoulders and arms and excellent detail on its confront.

The layers of the print were barely visible, even on the fastest 25-micron printing setting.

With the layer height on the minimum 0.025mm setting, the layers are barely visible on the shoulders of The Thinker.

Our second examination creates complex set up of planetary gears, to come across how well the printer can produce interlocking parts. The Course 3 produced fantabulous quality prints here, also, handling complex details like the spiral thread and gear teeth. The parts fit together without any hassle, with screws fitting tightly into other parts and gears meshing together cleanly.

Finally, we use a geometric sculpture as a examination of how well the printer can reproduce sharp edges and points. Again, we establish fantabulous results hither, with the many angled surfaces of the sculpture coming out with make clean, smooth edges and sharp points that almost look like they could draw blood.

Form three 3D printer review: Speed

The Form 3 is not a especially fast printer, taking between ten hours and 17 hours and 21 minutes to complete our standard 4.five-inch Thinker exam impress, depending on where nosotros set the layer height. SLA printers are not generally very fast, and the Class 3 doesn't buck the trend. These times are comparable to other SLA printers similar the Peopoly Moai, which took between seven hours and 20 minutes and eighteen hours to produce a like print.

One affair to annotation, though: while our tests were done with the standard gray and clear resins from Course, the company offers a special resin chosen Draft Resin, which can be printed in layers 0.3mm thick. That would make printing significantly quicker, but less detailed. That resin wasn't available for united states of america to test.

Form 3 3D printer review: Print materials

The Form 3 is designed to work with parts and materials merely from Formlabs. You have to buy the resin tanks and cartridges from the printer maker. A new resin tank will toll you lot $149, while a cartridge that contains a liter of resin costs $149 for the standard resin, $175 for the tough resin and $299 for the castable wax resin that jewelers and artists apply to create molds.

Information technology is possible to use third-party resin with the Form 3 by filling one of the printer's cartridges with another supplier'southward, only Formlabs claims that this could void the Form iii warranty. For reference, we got seven fairly big prints out of a unmarried cartridge of the gray resin, so each print cost about $21.

Form iii 3D printer review: Verdict

The Grade 3 is a real plug-and-play 3D printer. We didn't take to do any tweaking or fiddling around to get printing — nosotros merely plugged in the Form 3 loaded it upward and started printing. The whole process was make clean and generally hassle free, which is a lot different from typical SLA printers that require a lot of tweaking, calibration and other piddling to go good results. The Grade 3 just works.

At $three,499 and upwardly, though, the Form 3 is also one of the most expensive 3D printers we have tested, and it is expensive to run. For professionals and anyone else who relies on 3D printing, that won't be an issue. The Class 3 will cost a lot up front, but will be worth it for the easier printing information technology offers. For enthusiasts and amateurs, it's trickier, as you lot can become equally expert results from a much cheaper printer like the $1,999 Peopoly Phenom if you are prepared to take the time to tweak the printer and develop a workflow for cleaning and hardening prints afterward.

Still, if 3D press is a critical office of your workflow, you'll be pleased with the ease of utilize and quality results you'll get past the Course 3.

Richard Baguley has been working equally a engineering science writer and journalist since 1993. As well as contributing to Tom's Guide, he writes for Cnet, T3, Wired and many other publications.