Comments on: Stratasys ABS Rapid-Prototyping Machine

By: Thomas

Thomas — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:26:40 +0000

The reason for the 70C/75C limitation on the Elite/1200 units is due to component thermal cycling concerns due to exposing some of the electronics/motors to the chamber temps. Several of the earlier units had significant lifespan issue that was causing warrantee support issues. The biggest change in the Fortus redesign was to fix the earlier hardware design of component thermal exposure. The extruder design(s) are mostly identical, however.

I realize that the reason for the communities approach on using heated beds is to not step on the chamber patents, but my advice would be to go the other way. Meaning, after placing a layer down, maybe consider having another injector of a cooling agent such as liquid nitrogen. Obviously this would present potential adhering concerns as well as potential condensation concerns, but could also potentially create a near unlimited build envelope which is the biggest problem currently faced with entire FDM approach.

By: Have Blue

Have Blue — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 21:13:57 +0000

I should correct myself just a little – the backend feed rollers aren’t actually in the cartridge itself on the big T-class machines (looks like a Fortus 400mc, yes?), but are in the cartridge receiver block (for lack of a better term). I understand there’s a little thumbwheel on the cartridge itself to feed the filament into the backend feed rollers.

Thanks for the photos – very cool to see how they insulate the chamber on the big T-class machines!

By: Keith Neufeld

Keith Neufeld — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:08:03 +0000

Have Blue, thanks for the detail on how the Stratasys operates! That’s good to know.

By: Have Blue

Have Blue — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:05:14 +0000

The toothmarks along the entire length of the filament is almost certainly from the feed rollers inside the material cartridge. These feed rollers drive the filament up to the head, where the main feed rollers (which bite in much more deeply) take over and drive the filament through the liquifier itself.

By: Justyn

Justyn — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:30:05 +0000

I don’t know if you’re subscribed to this blog:
http://haveblue.org/

From a guy in the RepRap community with a Stratasys machine who experiments, among other things, with finding cheap consumables to use in it.

By: James

James — Tue, 31 May 2011 01:05:11 +0000

Hi Keith,

We use a stratasys dimension elite here at work and use a water/caustic soda solution to dissolve the support material.
Our build chamber maintains 75 degrees C.
Cheers,
James

By: Rich Decibels

Rich Decibels — Mon, 30 May 2011 21:50:56 +0000

Hi Keith, not sure if this is what you’re after but these guys in Germany use a dual extruder for PLA and ABS with the PLA as a support. They describe the recipe for a solvent that disolves PLA but leaves ABS untouched:
http://ifeelbeta.de/index.php/support