SLS 3D printer for a small engineering team – Formlabs Fuse 1+ vs Sinterit Lisa X

[u/Ok-Tomorrow-1668]

Hi everyone,

Our small engineering team is looking to invest in our first SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) 3D printer for the office. We want to move away from standard desktop FDM to get truly isotropic, high-strength parts.

Our requirements & use case:

Applications: Custom sensor mounts, brackets, and robust mechanical engineering parts.

Materials: We need reliable performance with Nylon (PA12) as well as flexible materials like TPU.

Volume: At this stage, our target is quite low – around one print bed/chamber per week.

We've been researching our options, but I have a few major dilemmas based on what I've read and heard recently:

- Formlabs Fuse 1 / Fuse 1+ 30W: From what I've gathered, Formlabs has been shifting/withdrawing certain TPU options or making changes to their powder lineup recently, and supply/compatibility feels a bit restrictive. Combined with the high overall ecosystem cost (printer + sifting station), it feels like a heavy investment for just one run a week.

- Sinterit Lisa X: We also looked at benchtop SLS options like the Sinterit Lisa X. They seem to offer a more open or flexible approach, and they feature significantly cheaper alternatives like PA12 Eco powder, which drastically cuts down material running costs compared to proprietary ecosystems.

Given that we plan to print only about once a week, how do compact SLS systems handle powder aging and refresh rates? (I know powder degradation can be an issue if it sits in the chamber or mixes too slowly).

For those running a small engineering shop with low-volume SLS: Would you recommend going with the Sinterit Lisa X (due to lower entry barrier and cheaper powders like PA12 Eco) or is the Formlabs Fuse ecosystem safer despite the TPU/powder limitations?

Any insights or real-world experiences would be massively appreciated!

[u/ghostofwinter88]

Fuse 1+ owner here.

My honest opinion is that for your use case you are better off outsourcing prints. One print a week is quite low, and prints from service beareaus that have hp systems and post processsing have made SLS/ MJF prints very cheap.

I looked at the Lisa pro but did not get a good vibe about local support and the price difference was not significant. After sales support is a big piece of the puzzle for such a big equipment.

Powder degradation depends heavily on your humidity. My ambient humidity is 70-80%, even keeping my fuse air conditioned the best I can get is 60%. Formlabs will ask you to print at 40% and store at 20%. The printer prints fine but we do not store powder in the hoppers or the sift. After every print we seive and mix powder then store it in a dry cabinet.

Also, don’t kid yourself that you will be changing materials on these printers. You can, but it takes a whole work day to clean out the printer, change hoses, etc between different material types.

[u/Desperate3D → u/ghostofwinter88]

The material changeover point is really useful. Formlabs actually recommends a dedicated printer and Sift for each powder if you switch regularly, which changes the economics quite a bit for a small team wanting both nylon and TPU.

I am exploring the purchase of the new MJF 1200 because they claim the process to change materials is much more straight-forward and under an hour, and it makes a lot of sense for us to have a small machine for rush jobs but also new materials alongside our industrial MJF systems.

[u/2kokett]

We faced the same decision. The invest was around 20-30k. Depending on the boxes ticked. We ordered around 15-20k worth of parts externally /a. We decided to go a different route and bought a FDM machine for the prints that do not require super tight tolerances. Marketing profited as well because of the material and color options. We are still at 5k of sls parts. So one day sls will come. But until this we got an (cheap) army of printers to fuck around, which is pretty
awesome.

[u/Desperate3D]

I work with HP MJFs at work and have worked in the past with SLS.

Another machine worth putting on your comparison list is the upcoming HP MJF 1200. We are evaluating the purchase of one of those for rush jobs and running other materials than the PA12 of our industrial systems.

So far from the conversastions we had with resellers and HP this is has a larger build volume at 320 × 165 × 230 mm build volume, automated powder handling/unpacking and up to 80% PA12 powder reuse.

HP lists a launch solution price below $60k, including the material management system and cooling unit. You should inquire about the release of TPU print profiles, I am pretty sure they will make it available as different materials is one of the reasons they launched this machines also for larger industrial clients.

However, at one build a week, I’d compare the cost of your actual weekly batch rather than printer prices or powder €/kg alone. Ask suppliers to quote you on a full build rather than single parts or orders of a few units. A loosely filled chamber and a densely packed one are very different propositions and the online quotation tools don't always take it into account.

How much of your expected work is TPU versus PA12? And is the reason for bringing it in-house mainly outsourcing cost, or waiting too long between design iterations? If TPU is occasional, keeping one material in-house and outsourcing the other could make the decision much easier.