There are a variety of companies in the 3D printing space producing many different machines. While they are complex many printers do have components they share in common.

Motors, belts, pulleys, bearings, linear rails and many others parts are frequently used as the foundation for the kinematic (motion) systems that many printers use.

Print surfaces are another essential component as every printer needs a surface to print onto that will hold the part in place during the printing process. These include glass, buildtak and the more advanced flexible spring steel sheets that are coated with a PEI film or PEI powder coating.

Hotends – every filament-based printer requires a hotend to feed the filament into which heats up and melts the filament as it is being printed.

Extruders – the extruder is responsible for pulling the filament from the spool and feeding it into the hotend to be melted and deposited during the printing process extruders are available for either a bowden or direct drive configuration.