Advantages and disadvantages of 3D printing and CNC

Nowadays, when manufacturing product prototypes for product development, 3D printing and CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machines are two prototyping processes that need to be considered. In specific applications, especially when the design and product specifications have not been finalized, how to combine these two How do choose between processes?
3D printing advantages:
1. Complex shapes can be manufactured without the use of molds without affecting time or cost. Small batches of parts can be delivered to users quickly, and design changes can be accommodated with flexibility and agility.
2. Support multi-part processing process to save time. Users can produce multiple parts within a single project, produce multiple versions of a single part, or produce multiple parts for different projects.
3. No multiple setups are required to manufacture parts, and no human supervision or intervention is required. After a job is started, the equipment runs until the part is finished.
Product quality characteristics after 3D printing and CNC processing:
1. Materials.
The 3D printing process as a whole can handle a wide range of material classes, but each technology can only process one class of materials, covering a small number of materials in the corresponding class; CNC can process a variety of materials, each of which contains many options and limitations. The factor is simply whether the material can be processed.
2. Material properties.
After CNC machining, the mechanical properties of the resulting prototype are almost identical to those of the raw material; after 3D printing, the properties of the prototype are similar to those of the raw material. Also consider that 3D printed parts are often anisotropic due to the layered nature of the process.
3. The CNC process tolerance is smaller.
4. A CNC surface finish is better.