3D Printer Life Expectancy  

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

Posted by: @cwbullet

How long can we expect a printer to print?

To answer the question literally, however long the spool of filament will last.

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

@swiss_cheese

I concur.  I just thought it was a fun discussion.  From what I have read, regular maintenance will make them last a long time.  The technology will become obsolete, but some will continue to print.  One of my printers is an original MK3 and another is an MK2.5 thT was upgraded.  Both are still running strong.  Original parts that I would say are 3 years old.  The upgraded 2.5 has a lot of replacement parts.  The MK3 has only had a hotend, thermistor, and heating cartridge replaced (outside of being upgraded to the MK3S+).  They both function fine.  

As long as there is an upgrade path, I will upgrade them.  

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

All I can think when reading this thread is Triggers Broom! A few may get what I mean......

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

Posted by: @tim-2

Posted by: @cwbullet

How long can we expect a printer to print?

To answer the question literally, however long the spool of filament will last.

That is for another thread.  

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

Posted by: @guyh

All I can think when reading this thread is Triggers Broom! A few may get what I mean......

Ha, yes, there are at least 2 of us

earlier post - StanHD

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

How many years old is your oldest printer that is still printing?  Mine is 4 years old.  

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

@stanhd

That makes 3

Lol, good old trigger.

Still find myself watching reruns of it on a regular basis, they dont make them like that any more.

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

Back to the subject of longevity.

Any printer will last as long as you are willing to maintain and replace parts, board components are normally quoted at a life of 10000 hours, but this is very much dependant on environmental conditions ( And the quality of said components).   I have many electronic devices that have well exceeded that and are still going strong.  However, as age increases, reliability can decrease.

You are onto a good start with prusa as the components used are of a very high quality.

Regular maintenance, and a nice clean environment will increase the life of most wear components.

We have both colour and mono huge laser printers in dirty environments that are over 7 years and some 12 years old, most are still going strong but this is after many many replaced parts.  And a few issues along the way.

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

@clarmrrsn

Good copy.  This is exactly I have been reading.  You may need to replace parts, but it should keep kicking.  

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

Posted by: @clarmrrsn

board components are normally quoted at a life of 10000 hours

Lol - I've never seen anything like a completed circuit board with a stated MTBF of 10,000 hours. Nor have I seen typical electronic components with such a low stated MTBF. Well, the thermistor in the hot end is rated at >1000 hours, and the Misumi bearings are only rated 1000km (~5 million 200 mm strokes). But the uC? 10,000 firmware flashes, 100,000EEPROM writes, MTBF is a mystery - but similar complexity RAM modules are rated 2,000,000 hours; and wall wart power supplies tend to be short lived 50k hour devices. An Intel Atom E3800 has an MTBF of 777,906 hours.

Once upon a time I use to know how to calculate the MTBF of a selection of parts... 300 components, each with a life of 1 million hours, yields X hours. But with a single item at 1,000 hours, and many at hundreds of thousands, well, that 1,000 hour part becomes significant at setting the group MTBF. Next up from the thermistor is likely the heater element, motors [bearings], or LED power supply. Good switchers that spec this (t-LED doesn't) hint around 300,000 hours. 

If we consider maintenance to include wear items like the thermistor, linear bushings, motors, belts, nozzles, printer life is probably a few to several months for heavy users, a few years for light users.  I know I knocked out my first set of linear bushings in about three months. Nozzle was quicker, but I changed it more for overkill than need. Oddly, my thermistor is still intact: well past the typical 1000 hour mark suggested by the manufacturer. But them I am not printing at 300c, the rated temp for that >1,000 hour lifetime.

So how deep into this chasm shall we dive? 

RE: 3D Printer Life Expectancy

Yes, usually, I get tired of a computer before the ram wears out.  It gets too slow.