- Does anyone have experiences in geosciences regarding sample printing? What type of printer are you using? What type of material could be interesting. We are thinking of PVA and PLA combination. Someone has experiences?
there are mainly two sorts of 3D printers, the industrial-type printers and the consumer-oriented 3D printers, a.k.a. desktop 3D printers.
I want to only focus on the most common consumables used in consumer 3D printers using the FDM (fused deposition modeling) technology. A traditional inkjet printer needs ink cartridges in order to be able to print – the situation is similar for 3D printers, except that 3D desktop-type printers need plastic filament.
For topography/map printing I've seen LOM (laminated object manufacturing) being used. It is a rather fast and "cheap" technology.
See https://www.ihk-koblenz.de/innovation/innovation_technologie/techniken_und_technologien/Additive_Verfahren_-_3D-Druck/Laminated_Object_Manufactoring_LOM/1494346
or http://www.raprotec.de/lomtechnik.htm (both links lead to text in German)