Methodology
Every printer record follows the same rules, so a figure means the same thing on every page. This is how the records are built and checked.
Updated
Where the figures come from
Specifications come from the manufacturer first: the product page, the published spec sheet or the manufacturer's documentation. Launch dates and launch prices come from the manufacturer's announcement or, where it gives none, from launch coverage in the 3D printing trade press. Every record lists its sources with the date each was read.
Missing values
When a manufacturer does not publish a figure, the field is left empty and shows as a dash. Nothing is estimated or carried over from a similar model. A dash means "not published", not "zero" or "poor".
Claimed figures
Maximum speed, acceleration and volumetric flow are the manufacturer's claims, labelled as claims wherever they appear. They are not measurements by this site, and different manufacturers test them in different ways.
Field definitions
- Announced: the date the manufacturer first published the printer, with the trade show when it launched at one.
- Released: the month the first customer units shipped or went on general sale.
- Launch price: the manufacturer's price in US dollars for the cheapest configuration sold at launch, without optional multi-material units. A model sold only with a multi-material unit is priced with it. Current street prices differ.
- Build volume: the manufacturer's stated X × Y × Z in millimeters. For multi-nozzle machines it is the single-nozzle volume. Delta printers print inside a cylinder, shown as diameter × height.
- Enclosure: "open frame", "enclosed (passive)" when the chamber is warmed only by the bed and hotend, or "actively heated chamber" when the printer has its own chamber heater.
- Air filtration: the filter media fitted as standard. "None" means the manufacturer fits no filter; a dash means it does not say.
- Max chamber temperature: the manufacturer's stated figure, whichever enclosure type it applies to.
- Extruder: "direct drive" when the extruder motor sits on the toolhead, "Bowden" when it pushes filament through a tube from the frame.
- Laser module: laser engraving modules the manufacturer offers for the model, by power, and whether the standard package includes one. "None offered" means the manufacturer sells no laser module for it.
- Firmware: "open source" when the manufacturer publishes the firmware source code under an open license.
- Status: "announced" before shipping, "shipping" while sold new, "discontinued" once the manufacturer ends it.
Verification
Each printer page shows the date its record was last checked against its sources. When a manufacturer changes a specification, the record changes with it and the change is logged on the corrections page. List and comparison tables are computed from the printer records, so they update when a record does.