What Is 3D Printing? The 7 Main Technologies in Plain Words

What Is Additive Manufacturing

3D printing is formally called Additive Manufacturing (AM): unlike machining that removes material, it builds parts layer by layer. The workflow is just three steps — model, slice, print. Here is the 7 mainstream industrial technologies in one line each.

The 7 Main Technologies

• FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling): a heated nozzle extrudes thermoplastic filament; lowest cost and toughest parts, ideal for functional parts and prototypes.
• SLA (Stereolithography): a UV laser cures liquid resin cross-section by cross-section; highest accuracy and surface quality, great for visual models, dental and jewelry.
• DLP (Digital Light Processing): a projector cures a whole layer at once; faster than SLA, common for dental models and fine small parts.
• SLS (Selective Laser Sintering): a laser sinters nylon powder; no supports needed, direct tough functional parts.
• SLM / DMLS (Metal Powder Bed Fusion): a laser fuses titanium, aluminum or stainless steel powder into dense metal parts for aerospace and medical implants.
• MJF (Multi Jet Fusion): HP’s process jets fusion agent onto nylon powder; extremely fast for batch nylon production.
• Binder Jetting: binds sand or metal powder with a binder; ideal for large sand molds and low-cost metal parts.

How to Choose

For cheap, tough functional parts choose FDM/SLS; for high accuracy and surface choose SLA/DLP; for metal choose SLM; for volume nylon choose MJF. Selection is always a trade-off among accuracy, material, speed and cost.