Metal 3D printing notes from a Guangzhou supplier
Sourcing, specification and compliance notes written from inside the Chinese supply chain. Published data is dated at the top of each page.
- 3D Printing Supports Design: Getting Them Off Cleanly
Supports are not an accessory the machine adds - they are a design decision with a surface-quality consequence. 3D printing supports design is settled by where the contact points land and whether anything can physically get in to remove them.
- CuCrZr vs Pure Copper 3D Printing: Which One?
The conductivity table is the last thing to read, not the first. CuCrZr vs Pure Copper 3D printing is settled by how hard the alloy is to build and what the part does at temperature - and giving up some conductivity is usually harmless.
- Metal 3D Printing Material Selection: Which Metal?
There is no best metal for 3D printing, only the one your part can survive. Four questions in a fixed order eliminate most alloys before cost ever enters the conversation, and the last question is the one buyers ask first.
- Minimum Wall Thickness 3D Printing: What Sets It
A published minimum wall thickness tells you what a machine can build, not what your part should be. The useful number is a decision about load and span, and the machine limit only tells you when to stop asking.
- 3D Printing Warping: Why Parts Bend and How to Stop It
A part that comes off the plate already bent was not damaged in the machine - it was held flat while its stress built up, and it bent the moment the constraint was removed. Fixing 3D printing warping is mostly a question of order of operations.
- 3D Printing Powder Reuse: Can You Reuse It?
There is no safe number of reuses for your powder, and nobody can give you one - not us, not the machine maker, not a paper. What exists is a qualified limit for a specific lot, and four measurements that tell you whether it still holds.
- How to Read a Metal Powder Certificate of Analysis
Most metal powder certificates are technically valid and practically useless. What separates a real lot certificate from a brochure is which fields are present, which state a method, and whether the numbers are typical or measured.
- SLS vs SLA vs SLM: How to Choose
An SLS versus SLA versus SLM comparison on the numbers that actually decide it - tolerance, layer height, minimum feature and wall, surface finish and batch economics - plus the honest answer to which process is wrong for which part.
- 3D Printing Cost Breakdown: What a Part Really Costs
The same part in SLA, SLS and SLM has three different cost shapes. Knowing which line dominates - and which lines quotes quietly leave out - is how you tell a real quote from a headline number.
- Metal 3D Printing Powder Prices: Reading the Q4 2026 Data
Two published Chinese powder lists, both dated 7 October 2026, differ by about thirty times for the same metal. Neither is wrong, they measure different products, and telling them apart is the most useful thing a buyer can do before asking for a quote.
- Metal 3D Printing Powder: A Buyer's Guide
Most metal powder quotes are not comparable, because the sellers are quoting different things. This guide sets out the five decisions to make in order, the datasheet fields that matter, what actually moves the price, and what to put on the purchase order.
Every article lists its own sources and the date the data was current. Nothing here is a quotation — send us the grade, quantity and destination and we will price it in writing.