Mostly cost & benefits over existing metal 3D printing technologies.
Current metal 3D printing machines cost well over $1 million, and have some significant caveats for part design. Due to the residual stresses in the parts, supports structures are required for many part geometries. This means your parts that have been designed to be unmachineable, now have support structures that then need to be machined off. The easily removable supports are a huge win for Desktop Metal here.
Repeatability has also been an issue in metal 3D printing. This is partly due to the nature of the sintering/melting process, but mostly because the majority of parts produced on metal 3D printers are actually designed to be manufactured using another process. I have higher hopes for the production system than the studio system for improvements in that area, but remains to be seen at this point.
Current metal 3D printing machines cost well over $1 million, and have some significant caveats for part design. Due to the residual stresses in the parts, supports structures are required for many part geometries. This means your parts that have been designed to be unmachineable, now have support structures that then need to be machined off. The easily removable supports are a huge win for Desktop Metal here.
Repeatability has also been an issue in metal 3D printing. This is partly due to the nature of the sintering/melting process, but mostly because the majority of parts produced on metal 3D printers are actually designed to be manufactured using another process. I have higher hopes for the production system than the studio system for improvements in that area, but remains to be seen at this point.