How AdditiveCompare works
What we measure, how a printer qualifies for a material, and where every number comes from.
Scope
The index covers fused filament fabrication (FFF, also sold as FDM) printers that engineers and prosumers buy for functional parts. Resin, powder-bed and metal systems are left out on purpose: their trade-offs aren't comparable on the same axes.
Material qualification
Each material has two thresholds: a minimum nozzle temperature and a recommended active chamber temperature. A printer gets one of four statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Qualified | Nozzle meets the minimum and an actively heated chamber meets the recommendation. For closed systems: the vendor sells the material for that machine. |
| Marginal | Nozzle meets the minimum but the chamber doesn't. Small parts often print; large parts risk warping, weak layer bonding or low crystallinity. |
| Nozzle too cold | The hotend can't reach the material's processing temperature. |
| Not in vendor catalog | A closed system whose vendor doesn't sell the material, whatever the hardware could do. |
Current thresholds
| Material | Nozzle minimum | Chamber recommended |
|---|---|---|
| ASA / ABS | 250 °C | 45 °C |
| Polycarbonate (PC) | 270 °C | 60 °C |
| Nylon CF (PA-CF) | 280 °C | 50 °C |
| PPS-CF | 320 °C | 90 °C |
| ULTEM 9085 (PEI) | 360 °C | 90 °C |
| PEKK | 360 °C | 90 °C |
| PEEK | 400 °C | 100 °C |
These are typical processing values, not a substitute for your filament supplier's datasheet. Abrasive filled grades also need a hardened nozzle, which we note but don't score.
Chamber definitions
Only an actively heated chamber, one with its own heater and setpoint, counts toward qualification. We record four chamber types: active (heater with a published maximum), passive (enclosure warmed by the bed, with the manufacturer's stated peak), enclosed (unheated enclosure) and open frame.
Price tiers
Prices move too often to rank on exact figures, so each printer gets a tier from an indicative list or retail price recorded with its source.
| Tier | Price band (USD) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Under $1,000 |
| 2 | $1,000 to $3,000 |
| 3 | $3,000 to $8,000 |
| 4 | $8,000 to $20,000 |
| 5 | Over $20,000, or sold by quote |
Derived metrics
Build volume is the product of the build envelope's three dimensions, in litres. Exterior volume is the product of the machine's external dimensions, a proxy for the floor or bench space it occupies. Envelope efficiency is build volume divided by exterior volume: how much of the machine is usable print space.
Max print speed is the manufacturer's claim. Vendors measure it differently (some quote travel speed), so treat it as an upper bound, not throughput.
The Pareto frontier
On any two axes, a printer is on the frontier if no other printer is at least as good on both and better on one. Moving along the frontier always trades one axis for the other. Printers below it are dominated: something else gives you more of both. The frontier respects each metric's direction: higher is better for temperatures, volume and speed; lower is better for exterior volume and price tier.
Sources and verification
Every figure comes from the manufacturer's own spec sheet or an authorised reseller listing, linked on each printer page with the date it was checked. When a manufacturer doesn't publish a figure we show “not published” rather than estimate it, and the printer drops off any chart axis that needs that figure.
The current dataset was verified on October 31, 2026.
Corrections
If a figure is wrong or out of date, email data@additivecompare.com with a link to the source. Manufacturers are welcome to submit spec sheets; we publish figures, not marketing copy.