This time I made a print for comparison with a sample part I printed for control with a Stratasys Fortus 400 industrial 3d printer, this parts have small features and are intended for checking precision and minimum feature size printable with both machines.
The original CAD dimension which is being measured in the image is 26.5mm, both machines had excelent precision in general terms (M200@26.52mm vs SSYS@26.51mm)
When checking the overall quality of the prints, you may say I am optimistic, but definitely I liked better the one produced with the M200, why? because the overall noise in the surface of the print, as you can see here:
In the bottom face of both prints you can see a big difference in favour of the SSYS machine, is flatter and has more regular and closed filling. I am counting on that it happened due to the smaller z-axis step used in the SSYS print (0.127mm) I am waiting for an update in the Z-Suite to repeat this test using smaller slices for the M200.
About the detail, the chars I wanted to print were 0.4mm thick, the SSYS printer can produce parts with smaller detail, if not perfectly, the little details are reproduced better, I think this is because the M200 0.4mm diameter nozzle is too big for this test, compared to the 0.25mm nozzle of the Fortus machine, it doesn’t matter, as I said before, I am testing the limits and I may be pushing the boundaries. I know that the nozzle diameter does not really affect to the surface finish of most of the parts, and a bigger nozzle size leads to faster prints with higher reliability because it avoids clogs and improves extrussion control.
Also, and this is a comment for the Zortrax Staff, being very rigurous about detail, you can see in the last picture that there is a little accumulation of material in the places where the extrussion starts, in the SSYS print you can see more regular “paths”, they have finer control of the extrussion maybe to the number of steps of the extruder motors.
Honestly I never got a chance to compare our prints with so heavy industrial printer as Fortus 400 but seems it is not so bad (our software and firmware is still just in beta version).
0.25mm this is really tiny nozzle
About small details this is what last weeks one of our programmer doing and it is finished just a lot of test it needed before we enable this setting, with small trick some of small unprintable details can be printed without care about ‘big’ nozzle.
If is possible to get .stl file of part which you used for test please send it to support@zortrax.com it can be used in further tuning.
Thanks for sharing your comparison. It helps those of us that have not yet decided on which printer to order as our first printer. A comparison with an UP Plus 2 would be much appreciated.
@Winstonc No, Stratasys printers do not feature needle valves, they use smaller diameter nozzles to control the extrusion.
@Old Frog I will post another comparison for the Up Plus 2, I can tell you the Up Plus 2 is an excellent machine too, but I completly prefer the M200 over the Up and Up Mini 3d printers (which I had the chance to test and also torture a little bit). Nevertheless I think @Julia Truchsess is the indicated person for telling you about the Up printers since she has extensive experience with those machines. You can send her a PM requesting her information about her experiences.
Honestly I never got a chance to compare our prints with so heavy industrial printer as Fortus 400 but seems it is not so bad (our software and firmware is still just in beta version).
0.25mm this is really tiny nozzle
About small details this is what last weeks one of our programmer doing and it is finished just a lot of test it needed before we enable this setting, with small trick some of small unprintable details can be printed without care about ‘big’ nozzle.
If is possible to get .stl file of part which you used for test please send it to support@zortrax.com it can be used in further tuning.
Best Regards
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I’ve already sent the file from my “jaczpan_360” mail address.
I also have two UP Plus 2 printers plus an Afinia and they are excellent, but I am looking forward to getting my Zortrax with the bigger build envelope.
[quote name=Winstonc]I also have two UP Plus 2 printers plus an Afinia and they are excellent, but I am looking forward to getting my Zortrax with the bigger build envelope.
Feel free to ask me any questions.
David
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Me too having UP! Plus printer and really would like to know the
Zortrax capability. Sofar the prints looks really nice.
Have a small simple “evaluating” part which I have used to see the print guality.
Printed with several fdm’s ( abs), SSys 1200ES, Mojo, Tiertime, Up!, Profimaker,
[quote name=amd-tec][quote=Winstonc]I also have two UP Plus 2 printers plus an Afinia and they are excellent, but I am looking forward to getting my Zortrax with the bigger build envelope.
Feel free to ask me any questions.
David
[/quote]
Me too having UP! Plus printer and really would like to know the
Zortrax capability. Sofar the prints looks really nice.
Have a small simple “evaluating” part which I have used to see the print guality.
Printed with several fdm’s ( abs), SSys 1200ES, Mojo, Tiertime, Up!, Profimaker,
and with the Danish SHS Blue Printer.
Could anyone or Zortrax stuff do me sample print?
Thanks,
amd-tec
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Hi amd-tec,
Looks like the new UP! forum!! hehe
Mine should arrive today and I’ll be posting as much as I can on it. I’ll also be keen to do some UP vs Zortrax prints.
[quote name=wilsonj][quote=amd-tec][quote=Winstonc]I also have two UP Plus 2 printers plus an Afinia and they are excellent, but I am looking forward to getting my Zortrax with the bigger build envelope.
Feel free to ask me any questions.
David
[/quote]
Me too having UP! Plus printer and really would like to know the
Zortrax capability. Sofar the prints looks really nice.
Have a small simple “evaluating” part which I have used to see the print guality.
Printed with several fdm’s ( abs), SSys 1200ES, Mojo, Tiertime, Up!, Profimaker,
and with the Danish SHS Blue Printer.
Could anyone or Zortrax stuff do me sample print?
Thanks,
amd-tec
[/quote]
Hi amd-tec,
Looks like the new UP! forum!! hehe
Mine should arrive today and I’ll be posting as much as I can on it. I’ll also be keen to do some UP vs Zortrax prints.
Cheers
Jamie (3dprintergear)
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Hi Jamie,
yes, lot of Uppers here ;), let us know how it goes with Zortrax.
Thank you for this model I want to say that it is the most complicated model for print (due of impossible support) which I ever seen (it looks simple but is not so simple) but it went quiet good.
Print time ~2h, removing of support 10minutes, small post processing with hot air gun to remove white marks 20seconds (because of it at some pictures part looks shiny and kind of melted but it is due of camera setup in reality it looks perfect), it can went better if I have time and more care with support removal.
Your model for sure we will always use for tune removable support generation.
Thank you for this model I want to say that it is the most complicated model for print (due of impossible support) which I ever seen (it looks simple but is not so simple) but it went quiet good.
Print time ~2h, removing of support 10minutes, small post processing with hot air gun to remove white marks 20seconds (because of it at some pictures part looks shiny and kind of melted but it is due of camera setup in reality it looks perfect), it can went better if I have time and more care with support removal.
Your model for sure we will always use for tune removable support generation.
Best Regards
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Hi Martin,
and thanks for printing the part. It looks nice, how did the sphere printed? Thats hard part for many printers…
One question could you print the part turned 90° like in the picture I added to dropbox.
That`s the orientation I have used to evaluating fdm-printers ;).
EDIT:
I did a closer look, and have to say, Zortrax do perhaps better job than UP! or at least equal.
For prevent further questions about more prints of this part with other ‘°’ then this time I placed two copies of it in different angle, one 90° turned and one as is after loading .stl file.
Z-Suite software used v0.0.3, default settings - 0.19mm layer.
For prevent further questions about more prints of this part with other ‘°’ then this time I placed two copies of it in different angle, one 90° turned and one as is after loading .stl file.
Z-Suite software used v0.0.3, default settings - 0.19mm layer.
Sphere have few overheated layers, something to tune in future.
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Yeah, I have noticed this too on the bottom of spheres. The prints look great though!
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I think this is pretty typical of all FDM machines. I call it the mushroom effect. I’ve seen it to a lesser degree even on pro machines with dissolvable support.
I doubt it is something that will ever be completely tuned out.
Maybe tomorrow I should try with some crazy angle as 45°