Sculpteo - 3D Printing Service

[maihama eki]

I placed a test order with Sculpteo earlier this week. They are based in France, but seem to have an office in Oakland, CA. I see that they are owned by BASF since 2019.

 

https://www.sculpteo.com/en/

 

The part price was very good. The promised ship date was only 1 week after I placed the order. The shipping cost is somewhat higher which makes me think my order may be coming from France. If so, I anticipate shipping will take longer.

 

I will report how it went when they deliver the parts.

 

 

Edited September 11, 2024 by maihama eki

[maihama eki]

Belated response on this… the order from Sculpteo went pretty well. 

Uploading the file and placing the order was very easy. I placed the order on Sept 9. They estimated a ship date one week later, but actually shipped on Sept 13. This was their standard production time, not expedited. The order arrived at my house on Sept 16 - exactly 1 week from order to parts in hand which is almost unbelievable. This is far faster than Shapeways even paying for expedited processing.

 

The cost was also very reasonable. I paid $7.07 each for a print that would have been twice that much at Shapeways. My print was 5 pieces of the post shown below tied together into 1 file. It is a 1/4 inch scale station post. The print technology is different though, so it’s not an exact comparison. Shipping was $19, but that was for express shipping from France to Colorado. 
 

The not so good is that Sculpteo doesn’t have an equivalent to Shapeways Fine Detail Plastic. I ordered Sculpteo’s:

Material: Multijet Fusion, PA12 (Grey)

Finish: Not Dyed Polished, Grey
This is from an HP printer. I’ve ordered this material before, and was a little skeptical about the resolution. It seemed like one of 2 possible options they had for highet resolution. 
 

Here is a photo of the results. On the left is the Sculpteo MJF piece as printed. On the right is the Shapeways Fine Detail piece, painted. If you zoom in you can see the sharper details on the Shapeways piece.

 

 

In summary, I was very happy with Sculpteo’s interface, pricing, and delivery, and I will definitely order from them again. I need to find a better material option though, especially for n scale stuff. 

 

[maihama eki]

Oops. Should probably have posted this in one of the Shapeways threads instead.