By Lucas Mearian
Senior Reporter,
Computerworld | Feb 7, 2017 3:01 AM
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Dutch 3D printer company Ultimaker BV has earned a reputation in the user community for building high-quality machines that produce highly accurate prints. With a price of $3,495 (through resellers ), the Ultimaker 3 is aimed squarely at professionals and prosumers for rapid prototyping of both complex geometries (precision builds) and the use of multiple, industrial-grade polymer materials.
At virtually any 3D printer conference, Ultimaker machines can be found on the exhibit floor being used by third-party service providers to demo their printable wares. Asked what they liked about the machines, users typically say they are easy to use and accurate.
The Ultimaker 3 building the Eiffel Tower and its scaffolding support.
Online user community 3D Hubs has consistently rated Ultimaker printers among the very best over the past three years, and its review of the Ultimaker 2+ , which included input from 89 users, placed that printer as the best in the “Prosumer” category.
As a company, Ultimaker is among the top providers of “low-cost” desktop 3D printers, according to Terry Wohlers, president of industry research firm Wohler’s Associates. Low cost, however, is a subjective term and the Ultimaker 3 is definitely not for beginners.
It comes with two print cores (extruder heads); you can use either two filament colors or use one core for build material and the other for dissolvable support material. The extruder heads can be swapped out with just a pinch of a lever, which is really convenient if you’re looking to change out materials or if a print head needs replacing.
Swapping out the Ultimaker 3’s print heads is as easy as simply pinching two levers together.
The primary print core can be used for printing with a wide range of materials, including PLA, ABS, CPE and nylon. While PLA and ABS are common thermoplastics for 3D printing, materials such as CPE (chlorinated polyethylene) and nylon are rarer. CPE is a flexible polymer with good UV and chemical resistance, a high tear strength and fire resistance. Nylon is both slick and bendable — great for making flexible objects such as tubing or casings.
The support print core can be used for PVA material. In order to use different polymers, the temperature settings on the print cores must be adjusted through the onboard LED menu.
The Ultimaker 3 can support one filament or two, which are fed through two separate print heads. The material is recognized by the printer through an NFC chip embedded in the spool.
The machine offers outstanding print resolution, anywhere from 20 to 200 microns. By comparison, the last printer I reviewed was the Makerbot Replicator+ , which sells for about $2,500 ( Amazon price ) and offers a 100- to 400-micron resolution range.
This hotspot-enabled 3D printer lets you remotely monitor print jobs with an onboard camera that feeds images through a Wi-Fi link, and you can connect a laptop or desktop computer to it using Wi-Fi or Ethernet. It also comes with a USB port, from which you can print models via files stored on a thumb drive.
The Ultimaker 3 is a good size for desktop use. It measures 13.5 x 15 x 15.25 in., weighs 23 lbs. and has a moderately good build volume: 8.5 x 8.5 x 7.9 in. (or 7.8 x 8.5 x 7.9 in. when in dual-extruder mode).
Ultimaker also provides a handy online manual for unboxing and setting up the printer and for troubleshooting issues.
Because the Ultimaker 3 offers dual extrusion of filaments, the machine’s initial setup is a bit more complex. However, the machine’s LED screen and selector knob guides a user effortlessly through placing the two print heads in the extruder assembly and loading filament.
I had the printer set up in about 25 minutes.
Straight out of the gate, however, I ran into an issue. While trying to print a model of the Eiffel Tower, the Ultimaker threw an error message telling me there was a problem with the “active level sensor,” which relates to achieving a balanced distance from the print head to the build plate.
I used the machine’s automated active leveling function via the main LED menu and was off and printing. (I later ran into more leveling issues; more about that below.)
Ultimaker uses a free, open-source software called Cura to prepare your model for 3D printing. Cura software is also used by other 3D printer makers, such as Lulzbot and Prusa.
For novices, Cura makes it easy to get great results, and for experts there are over 200 settings to adjust a job to your needs.
I’ve found the Cura software, including Ultimaker’s flavor, relatively intuitive, though not as easy to navigate as other slicer software I’ve used. Ultimaker, however, offers a plethora of online information in user manuals for both the printer and its software that will answer any questions a maker may have.
