Med Device Developer

I've been using McMaster for almost 20 years and love it more now than ever. Most orders ship the same day and arrive the next day for a very reasonable shipping cost. I don't think I've ever had them ship the wrong item, and you can return most items with no questions asked.

Strengths: They have absolutely everything you might need to clean, fabricate, organize, fasten, turn-on, shut-off, plumb, connect, seal, light, machine, finish, polish, cut, protect, move, store, heat, cool, dispense, mark, or ship at your facility.

Needs to improve: They don't have same day delivery, but I'm not complaining

If you're looking for a decent and affordable SLA machine, these machines seem to work pretty well, but EnvisionTEC's customer service has been a consistent disappointment - we have received several incorrect orders and had one or two dropped entirely.

Strengths: A range of SLA machines from affordable desktop to larger machines. My experience with their Perfactory Micro-Edu machine has been largely positive. Machine resolution is good and it is easy to use.

Needs to improve: Perfactory Micro EDU machine is clearly intended more for the hobbyist, and not for an engineering lab where it is kept busy a high percentage of the time. The "basement" component has some durability issues that require more frequent replacement than we expected. If this part isn't kept in top condition, SLA components can contain defects, or fail to build entirely. Basement life can be increased by frequent filtering of the SLA resin, which is messy, to say the least. Another disappointment was that the machine we received was largely a beta release, and did not work with all of the "compatible" materials (which they were happy to sell us), requiring about 6 more months of development by EnvisionTEC.

Typically, the shorter the lead time on the component order, the smaller your choice of materials, though they have shown the ability to be flexible and accommodate special requests on quick-turn orders

If you are looking for very high resolution SLA, there are better choices out there, but if you need SLA parts fast from a high capacity supplier, it's hard to beat them.

Strengths: Quickparts has a substantial variety of SLA materials available, including water clear and high temperature materials. IMO, their greatest strength is that they give you the option to pick your ship date (expedited pricing applies). This has very often come in handy when speed is of greater concern than cost.
I have used them extensively over that last year, and they have never failed to ship on time.

Needs to improve: Quickparts distributes their SLA manufacturing around the US and Mexico. Some specialty SLA materials are only run at certain locations, so if you're looking for something exotic, lead times can be a little longer on occasion (3 or 4 days instead of 1 or 2). For my last couple of orders (Dec 2013), they assigned a Project Manager based in Mexico who was far less responsive to phone calls than PM's that I've worked with in the past. I cannot say if the issue was due to the PM, or their location.