What is Material Jetting 3D Printing | The Complete Guide

So, what exactly is material jetting additive manufacturing? It’s like those office inkjets, only this one’s built for serious work. Instead of laying down ink on paper, it shoots out tiny drops of liquid photopolymer onto a flat platform. A quick flash of UV light locks each pass in place. Layer after layer, the shape takes form until you’re holding a finished part. What makes it shine are the little things, sharp edges, clean surfaces, and the ability to blend materials in a single build.

Material Jetting 3D Printing Process Overview

Here’s the material jetting process boiled down:

1. Droplets of resin are jetted onto the tray, super tiny, smaller than a strand of hair.

2. UV lamps sweep across and cure them instantly.

3. The platform lowers a notch, setting up the next layer.

4. Repeat until your design comes to life.

Simple cycle, but incredibly precise. That’s also why material jetting gets so much love for prototypes, it can nail the look and feel of an injection-molded piece, minus the pricey molds and tooling.

How It Differs from Other AM

Most extrusion printers are basically squeezing out hot plastic, and powder systems are about sticking or fusing tiny grains together. Material jetting’s a whole different vibe, clean, precise, almost surgical. No thick layer lines to sand down, no brutal post-processing.

Multi-Material Jetting

And here’s the fun part: multi material jetting. You can blend rigid and flexible, transparent and opaque, even different colors in the same print. Imagine a single build where a hinge actually bends, or a prototype looks nearly identical to the finished product. That’s why engineers, medical designers, and product teams love it, it saves a ton of back-and-forth in development.

Of course, buying a material jetting 3D printer isn’t cheap. If you’d rather skip the six-figure investment, we’ve got you covered. At JLC3DP, our professional printing services start at just $0.30 per part, so you can experiment, prototype, and refine your designs without burning your budget.

Material Jetting 3D Printer: Equipment Guide

When you’re dealing with a material jetting 3D printer, it helps to know what’s under the hood. Below is a quick look at the core parts, what the machine can do, and how the whole setup runs in practice.

Material Jetting 3D Printer Price: What to Expect

Material jetting isn’t the cheapest route in additive manufacturing, but it makes up for it with detail and polish. Depending on whether you’re eyeing a benchtop setup for prototyping or a full-scale industrial system, here’s a ballpark:

And here’s the best part: you don’t need to drop a fortune on your own printer to get started. At JLC3DP, we make material jetting additive manufacturing accessible to everyone. Whether you need one-off prototypes or a small batch of material jetting products, we can deliver, starting from just $0.30 per part.

Ready to see what your design looks like in real life? Get a free quote today and bring your ideas off the screen.

Advantages and Applications of Material Jetting

1. High Resolution & Surface Finish

One of the biggest reasons people turn to material jetting additive manufacturing is the finish. Parts come out smooth, so smooth they often look injection-molded straight off the tray. No heavy sanding, no hours of post-work.

2. Design Freedom

Because the printer can place droplets with pinpoint accuracy, you’re free to go wild with geometry. Think thin walls, complex curves, even transparent parts for fit checks or display models. For prototyping, it’s a dream, what you see on screen is almost exactly what you pull out of the machine.

3. Multi-Material Printing

This is where the technology really flexes. You can combine flexible and rigid materials in the same build. Need a hinge that bends attached to a stiff housing? Done. Need a part that shows off a rubber grip over a transparent shell? Also doable. With material jetting products, you don’t have to glue or assemble different materials later, it’s all printed in one go.

4. Industries Putting It to Work

a. Medical

surgical guides, anatomical models, dental prototypes.

b. Consumer goods

packaging mockups, design prototypes, custom fit tests.

c. Aerospace & automotive

quick validation parts, tooling, jigs, fixtures.

Across these fields, the draw is the same, parts that look and feel close to the final product, ready for testing or even limited end-use.

Material Jetting vs Binder Jetting: Detailed Comparison

Both technologies get tossed around in the same conversations, but they’re not the same tool for the same job. Curious about binder jetting itself? We’ve put together a complete binder jetting full guide that walks through the process, costs, and real-world use cases.

Here’s a side-by-side look at the difference between material jetting and binder jetting:

If you’re lining up material jetting vs binder jetting, here’s the quick take: material jetting is your pick when you need something that looks sharp on the table, while binder jetting is the workhorse for cranking out real metal or ceramic parts in bulk.

If you want the full breakdown of how these two stack up in detail, check out our deep dive on material jetting vs binder jetting.

Success Stories: Material Jetting Products in Action

We’ve seen firsthand how material jetting products can make a difference across industries. Here are a few highlights from our own projects at JLC3DP.

Medical Applications

One of our most impactful runs was for a healthcare client that needed patient-specific anatomical models. Using material jetting, we produced transparent models with embedded color-coded structures, which gave surgeons a clear view before heading into the operating room. It wasn’t just a prototype, it was a real tool that made a difference in patient care.

Consumer Goods

We’ve also helped consumer brands speed up their development cycles. From eyewear prototypes with flexible hinges to packaging mockups that looked and felt production-ready, our material jetting service has allowed designers to test both form and function before mass production. The detail and finish made it possible to present models to investors and focus groups without needing costly molds.

Industrial Use Cases

On the industrial side, we’ve supplied tooling, jigs, and fixtures for companies that needed fast turnaround and high accuracy. Material jetting gave them strong, precise parts that held up in day-to-day operations. These aren’t just showpieces, they’re parts that get used on the floor.

Every one of these projects started with the same thing: a design file and an idea. The rest was handled here at JLC3DP. And the next success story? That could be yours.

Conclusion and Future Outlook

Material jetting is evolving fast. Printheads are getting faster, new resins are hitting the market, and multi-material capability is only getting more advanced. We’re already seeing movement toward hybrid printing setups and production-grade applications that go beyond prototyping.

For businesses, this means opportunity. Whether it’s cutting development time, producing lifelike prototypes, or even small-batch functional parts, material jetting additive manufacturing is no longer out of reach.

At JLC3DP, we make sure of that. Our services start at just $0.30 per part, so you can test, iterate, and scale without breaking the budget. Get pricing now.

Ready to move your project forward? Let’s make it happen.