Happy with the M200 printer

Zortrax M200 General Discussion
1
 
 
I have had the Zortrax M200 for over one month.
I will say now that I am extremely pleased with it, never had a single fault with it.
 
This printer has been hammered in anger right from the first day.
I am a mechanical designer, making real-world engineering parts, gears, bearing housings for pre-production
checks, some models have to be printed in two or more parts to fit onto the table.
 
Not the occasional jewelry, ear-rings and key ring fobs.
 
Most of my prints take at least 8 hours, some have been over 30 hours, and not always on the finest settings.
The printer usually runs 16+ hours every day, and overnight.
 
I have collected some observations over this time, where future versions of this printer could be improved
a little.
 
 
The heater element is just about capable of keeping the heater block at the correct temperature when
the printer is working, but it has little reserve heat.
 
The heater block needs two heater elements, and of a higher wattage, so that the block heats up faster.
 
The block needs to be made of stainless steel, not Aluminium, and of a larger mass to conserve heat.
The Aluminium loses heat too fast between prints, the extruder re-heat is taking five minutes between prints
even one immediately after the other.
 
The extruder block and the heated platform currently heat up separately, why can they not heat up together.
 
 
 
The reason that it is sometimes difficult to remove the base mat from the heated platform is because all of 
those holes in the platform are cylindrical, and the plastic sticks in the holes, too well sometimes.
 
If the holes were slightly tapered by 1 or 2 degrees, wider at the top, then the base mat would lift off much 
easier.
 
 
Sometimes I have failed prints half way through a long print.
This is not any fault at all with the printer, but when I have made the walls of the print too thin, and part of it 
 
detaches from the lower part of the model, or I realise that I have forgotten to change some dimensions
on the model.
 
So for this reason, it would be a good idea to have a print abort button on the front panel.
Where the printer stops all printing and heating and then goes back to the origins and shuts off.
Currently, I have to just turn the printer off, mid-print, turn it back back on and wind the table down with the jog button.
 
Some memory in the processor box would be useful.
When I withdraw the SD card, the printer stops.
Also a USB port would be useful so that I can plug in a USB stick.
 
When the printer shuts down with the new auto shutdown function, the processor fan and the lights do not turn 
off.
 
==========
 
The Z-suite software.
This is superb software, I am really pleased with how it works, but it would be nice to have
a user defined default go-to directory to find the next zcode files to use.
 
 
dave
 
2

The reason that it is sometimes difficult to remove the base mat from the heated platform is because all of 

those holes in the platform are cylindrical, and the plastic sticks in the holes, too well sometimes.
 
If the holes were slightly tapered by 1 or 2 degrees, wider at the top, then the base mat would lift off much 
easier.
 

I thought that filament sticking to the holes was a benefit since it helped to anchor the raft on the next print.

3

I am a mechanical designer, making real-world engineering parts, gears, bearing housings for pre-production

checks, some models have to be printed in two or more parts to fit onto the table.
 
Not the occasional jewelry, ear-rings and key ring fobs

We're all very impressed, I'm sure.

The block needs to be made of stainless steel, not Aluminium

Aluminum is used for the heater block because its primary function is to conduct heat from the heater to the nozzle and to add some thermal mass for stability. Stainless is poor heat conductor compared with Al, and so would probably not work as well in this application I think. A bit more power in the heater might be nice if the PSU, cables, connectors, PCB traces, MOSFETs etc. could supply it and the PID loop control it.

The reason that it is sometimes difficult to remove the base mat from the heated platform is because all of 
those holes in the platform are cylindrical, and the plastic sticks in the holes, too well sometimes.
 
If the holes were slightly tapered by 1 or 2 degrees, wider at the top, then the base mat would lift off much 
easier.

Ignoring the fact that perfboard with conical holes is not commonly available and would be a real b*itch to manufacture, the whole point of the perfboard is to promote adhesion of the raft to the platform - many users have trouble with insufficient adhesion. Get yourself a good scraper, it's really not that hard to separate the raft from the perfboard. Better too much adhesion than too little.

...it would be a good idea to have a print abort button on the front panel.
Where the printer stops all printing and heating and then goes back to the origins and shuts off.

This feature exists. Press and hold the encoder button - the print will pause and a menu will appear with options, among which is "stop the print process".

The extruder block and the heated platform currently heat up separately, why can they not heat up together.

One of the Great Mysteries of the age...

1 Like
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As a mines and oil rigs field service fitter of 25 years I would like to repeat my continued assertion that the day they put a daily bag limit of 10 on mechanical engineers (especially self proclaimed) I will buy myself a shiny new rifle.

5

As a mines and oil rigs field service fitter of 25 years I would like to repeat my continued assertion that the day they put a daily bag limit of 10 on mechanical engineers (especially self proclaimed) I will buy myself a shiny new rifle.

Easy now, no need to be hostile. Not ALL of us think we know everything (though a few such as myself really do know everything).  :lol:

6

As a mines and oil rigs field service fitter of 25 years I would like to repeat my continued assertion that the day they put a daily bag limit of 10 on mechanical engineers (especially self proclaimed) I will buy myself a shiny new rifle.

An oil field service fitter is not an engineer, usually just another ignorant grease monkey grunt working out in all weathers,

It is us real engineers sitting in cosy warm offices in the city centre who tell the grunts what to do.