Printing engineering parts

Hi Everyone !

I recently had the opportunity to see a Zortrax in action at the 3D printing show in Paris and I have been very much impressed by the M200 printer. The printing quality is quite remarkable (probably the best I have seen till now). I currently have a flashforge printer and stuck to printing PLA which is for me a major limitation. So I'm seriously considering purchasing a M200 for printing engineered parts. Therefore I have a few questions :

- do you (i.e. zortrax users) experience significant warping for large parts 

- what is the max. enclosure temperature at which the printer can be used ?

- what is exactly the Z-ultrat filament ? does it compare favorably to Z-ABS (in terms of strength and resilience) and does it help reducing warping as well ?

- what are the printing speeds for Z-ABS and Z-Ultrat (I know that different printing speeds are available but I was not able to get any information of the actual printing speed values)

Sorry, that is a lot of questions for a first post :-)

Thank you in advance

Regards,

F. 

Really no feedback ?

Hello doomkang,

Maybe you try to search the forum a little bit more to get a better overview. …

I will try to answer a few things…

Warping is a problem at certain prints especially large ones.

It can be reduced by different methods:

  • using z-ultrat helps a lot

  • enclose your machine, eventually establish a controlled temperature inside by heating…

  • level platform use abs slurry to make your print stick to the platform.

  • use lower fan speed…

Read the forum there is much more to find

Good luck

Andreas

Hi Everyone !

I recently had the opportunity to see a Zortrax in action at the 3D printing show in Paris and I have been very much impressed by the M200 printer. The printing quality is quite remarkable (probably the best I have seen till now). I currently have a flashforge printer and stuck to printing PLA which is for me a major limitation. So I'm seriously considering purchasing a M200 for printing engineered parts. Therefore I have a few questions :

- do you (i.e. zortrax users) experience significant warping for large parts 

- what is the max. enclosure temperature at which the printer can be used ?

- what is exactly the Z-ultrat filament ? does it compare favorably to Z-ABS (in terms of strength and resilience) and does it help reducing warping as well ?

- what are the printing speeds for Z-ABS and Z-Ultrat (I know that different printing speeds are available but I was not able to get any information of the actual printing speed values)

Sorry, that is a lot of questions for a first post :-)

Thank you in advance

Regards,

F. 

Welcome, I missed your post until now.

- Warping is always a challenge with some parts, but with practice it can be minimized.

- With a 4-sided enclosure the chamber gets up to around 35-40C if I remember correctly. With a top enclosure it will go to 55-60 but this may reduce fan life, cause filament slippage in the feeder, and possibly cause malfunctions in the nozzle temp control system.

- Z-UltraT is I think ABS + PC. It has less warpage (but not zero) and better layer adhesion than Z-ABS. It's glossy, whereas Z-ABS is matte. I like it for engineering parts, it feels more dense.

- The speeds are "Normal" and "Fast" :) I don't know the numbers. M200 is generally not a printer for those in a hurry.

julia

Thank you very much for your very valuable answers.

I’m convinced that the M200 is a really good machine, especially in this price range.

To be honest, I’m now hesitating for two reasons:

1 – There are now many different filaments available (PETG, PLA modified with inorganic fillers…) with high thermal and mechanical properties. Those filaments can be printed quite easily (e.g. with limited if no warping at all) but they are so expensive ! ABS still remains the best choice for mechanical parts at low cost. Nevertheless, I would really appreciate to be able printing these materials on the Zortrax. Is there any chance that the software will allow this in the near future ? (I’m aware of the warranty issues).

2 – The other reason is a bit more trivial: I’ve read on the forum that Zortrax has planned to release new machines for 2015 (If I have well understood, there will be an improved M200… am I right ?). May someone from Zortrax give us a short overview on these new machines ? (Yes, I know : I’m curious J).

Thank you again,

F.

Ps : what is the net weight of filament on a spool ?

I'm using the M200 mostly to produce mechanical parts and here are my findings:

The good:

1) Everyone that already have a 3D printer and gave a look at my made parts agreed that the M200 prints quality is near perfect. Recently I printed some parts for the Falla3D project for a 3DHubs order and all the parts snapped perfectly togheter without any extra step, even if the parts were made in different printing jobs and some were made in Z-ABS and some in Z-Ultrat.

2) PLA and other organic materials can't be used in production and will degrade soon. Nylon often clogs any extruder, Ultem is quite expensive but as Zortrax said they are considering if it can be used in the M200. Wood and other materials are mostly for aestetichs and design. ABS instead can be used for production, can be further machined, sanded, polished and the M200 does a great job with it.

3) The M200 is a click and go printer. You won't go mad with parameters, Most of times it makes the prints you need out of the box, and is a good choice for those that need a 3D printer to produce more then to play and mod with it.

4) It is fair easy to maintain and once you'll have understood the way it has been made all the problems you can face will have some tutorial to solve or an answer (sooner or later) by the forum or the support team.

The bad:

1) Warping, curlings, burn marks: Z-ABS is almost a standard ABS and so you'll have to deal with warping on large parts. Enclosing the M200 on the 3 open sides will help a lot the print to stay flat. Also it is very important to let the print cool down on the bed for a fair amount of time after the end of the job, I usually let it cool down until the heated plate is completely cold, even 1-2 hours if needed. I never had until now detachements of the prints from the bed even if I didn't use yet any compound on the bed (it is just like it came from factory). It seems that latest M200 beds stick prints quite better then first series. To end with there are a few situations in which Z-ABS produce brown marks like burnt spots. I'm still investigating but it mostly happens near overhangs when supports are used. Z-Ultrat has less warping and curlings, it is a very hard material, probably loaded with PC but in truth I try to make everything with Z-ABS because it's easier to finish.

2) The software: I'm sure that Zortrax is trying to make it's best to improve the software that is still in a beta stage, but a lot of improvements need to be done. There are many errors in the way Z-Suite "sees" the piece and it can lead to errors in the prints at various levels. You'll have to closely watch to each coded layer in Z-Suite to understand if what had been made can really be printed without problems. This is the biggest step that Zortrax can do to improve the printer, focus on the software development before announcing new printers.... we need a software we can work without problems and we can trust on!

3) Cost of produced parts: Since the M200 uses proprietary filaments, they are someway more expensive than the market price for similar product. A spool of Z-ABS is about 800g net and is priced 27 Euros + VAT. You can find similar filament for 30% less but it's not supported by Zortrax and you'll loose the warranty if you use it. Z-Ultrat is even more expensive at 42 Euros a spool and in my opinion should be only used in parts where severe warpings can't let you go with Z-ABS or you need extremely solid and hard pieces. Z-Ultrat is less prone to sanding and further machining then Z-ABS.

To end with I think that the M200 is an excellent product and on level of top famous printers like the Ultimaker2 or the Makerbot but with the extra of easy usage. I seem to have read that the 2015 M200 is nothing but an enclosed M200 and the firmware/software for both will be same. Rafal already stated that M200 will still be the top of the consumer line for next year too.