What 3d printer do you use at work?

There is Zortrax M200 at my office. I use it heavily for creating parts related to power or hand tools designs.

I ordered samples from Makerbot reseller, Formlabs 2, and Ultimaker 3 in advantage to compare prints to each other with respect to quality and price. IMHO, when quality of surface is a MUST Formlabs is a winner. However if money does play a role to you, it can be failed decision.

The price of print itself is high, but the cost of printing makes real difference. Original resign from formlabs is not cheap. Comparing to cost of FDM, prints can be 4x more expensive. If you are going to print big prints, as I do, like 10 to 15 cm high, this can make a differance.

Makerbot quality of samples I achieved were low with respect to Zortrax and Ultimaker. The last one has superior to Zortrax configuration and tooling assets. Same with price. At the end I decided to buy Zortrax. This is why.

  • very good quality of printed surfaces(ABS accuracy 0.09 mm, infill high or maximum)

  • easy to use, no extra experience in 3D printing necessary

  • nice design(imho superior to Ultimaker)

  • extra covers to “seal” printing area

  • low price with respect to prints quality

These are pros. There are cons either:

  • ABS which default material Zortrax M200 is printing the parts has high shrinkage. I mean high! I Spent a lot of time to find appropriate configurtation regarding settings and position of printing, and finally there is no known to me solution to achieve big parts fitting together. Recently I`ve done some desgin for 18V cordless drill, printing components seperately i.e “color” housing and TPR area, trying at the end to assemble them. It does not work every time. Parts tend to have diffirent tollerance regarding the big dimensions. My advise is to print whole designed device at once, and them paint seperately appropriate areas.

  • there is no sensor regarding missing fillament in printing head. It happened to me several times, that printer was doing its job while the fillament was missing. It can be annoying issue with 3D printer placed in different room, left for 18 + hours long print alone.

Finall question: Am I happy with Zortrax? Yes.

I learned how to over come mentioned annoying issues( i.e big shrinkage)