MD90
1
My company has been in search of a printer and we think we have narrowed it down to these two models.
One is the tried and true Dimension which we know from previous experience will last for years and produce accurate parts.
The other is the new MarkOne printer that prints in Nylon reinforced with carbon fiber, fiberglass, or Kevlar.
What are your thoughts?
I am concerned about the reliability of the new MarkOne but I also think the dimension may be a bit dated.
3 Likes
Where are u based? yes, i also believe the dimensions is a bit dated however… It has been tried and tested and proven itself over the years… I have a connex 260 and a alaris 30 a mojo and i still believe in stratasys makes Feel free to pop me a mail Nickysmit38@gmail.com
I have not heard of the MarkOne before googling it just now, but we do have a Dimension in-house. The Dimension builds great, accurate parts 99% of the time and I have yet to see any of these “hobby” printers come close to that kind of reliability. My point of view is that the MarkOne may be an inexpensive way to get some higher-strength parts, but down time could be more expensive than having simply outsourced the parts to an SLS service bureau in the first place.
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MD90
4
Rochester NY, We have three printers: an ancient Dimension BST, a Z-Printer 260, and a Makerbot Rep2x. All are currently broken-down.
The price tag on the MarkOne is more favorable than the Dimension and the annual service charges. But the build platform size on the Dimension and ease of use are hard to beat.
I am based in south africa and my connex is up for sale 90k usd perfect condition my alaris up for sale 8000 usd both prices excludes shipping
Big_W
6
I have a SST1200es in house and I absolutely love it, I haven’t heard of the MarkOne either but if I were to get another printer it would either be a used 1200es or possibly a Fortus, I would be staying with Dimension for sure. I’m a firm believer in both brand loyalty and sticking with what works, and the Dimension has never let us down. It has its issues like any other printer would, but the quality and strength that I get from the prints is hard to beat. We primarily use ours for form/fit/function prototyping and as foundry patterns and the hobby printers can’t touch the dimension for those kinds of parts.
The soluble support material is in a league of its own as well, there’s essentially no limit to the geometry you can print. I built a wash tank myself instead of purchasing one using a couple silicone pad heaters, a controller, and a cheap parts washer tank. It may not work as efficiently as one you can buy for a couple thousand bucks, but it does the job and it was cheap to build. It dissolves the support material right out. Perfect for foundry patterns where you need an untouched, perfect model surface to cast from.
I don’t know if that helps your decision, but I do like my 1200es a lot!
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MD90
7
We looked at the Fortus, it is a very nice machine but it was out of our price range. I am all for the Dimension as I have used it before and know how simple it is. But holding this Carbon Fiber inlayed part is also very impressive.
Mark One claims to have a better resolution but at what cost? I’m thinking it takes a big hit in speed working with nylon and CF composites. But at that price it seems almost worth it.
1 Like
tiikki
8
There are only two issues with Dimension. Cost of the machine and cost of the material. Everything else is great.
Big_W
9
That’s our current limitation as well. Our 1200es is used for mostly in-house production and some customer projects, but it isn’t a large moneymaker on its own for how we use it. A Fortus would be great (multiple materials and a larger build table would be excellent) but it’s still pretty expensive to purchase one.
MD90
10
If we are going to buy anything it would be through a dealer that we could purchase a warranty and service through, Sorry.
I think it has been rather well-demonstrated that the cost of the machine itself is worth it. In regards to material, you have two alternative options. First, you can buy refilled OEM compatible cartridges from Argyle Materials for a 25% cost savings. Option two involves uploading a modified software ROM to the HDD which allows you to use whatever filament you want.
MD90
12
Taking a chance at bricking a $40,000 machine for $200 savings, I think I’ll stick with the overly priced materials.
1 Like
Well since everyone is suggesting the Dimension, I’ll tell you my experience with the Mark One. We have only had one problem in the first 8 months of using the Mark One and all it required was to replace a print head. The Mark One excels at printing strong parts by using a continuous fiber to reinforce the nylon prints. It is excellent for jigs, fixtures, molds, usable tools, orthotics and durable usable parts. The build size is 12.59" x 5.2" x 6.06" or 320mm x 132mm x 154mm. At $8,799 it is a bargain for what it can produce. Have you seen benchmark parts from your files?
2 Likes
MD90
14
I have not had a benchmark part made from my files, I was given a sample from a demo show. The model had a few inconsistencies that I had to trim off. The part suffers from discoloration at a few of the wing tips where these issues were seen. Is this common? I saw this on more than one demo part. The developer blamed atmosphere in the nylon due to him opening and demoing the sealed nylon holding case.
Well, I agree with you, I am just suggesting that other options exist. We run Stratasys ABS.
As that is a lot of carbon fiber to put in such a small part, it looks like the tips got burned from the extruder head. I have only seen that happen once and it was on a very thin print for a logo key chain. Nylon tends to be very moisture absorbent and we always keep ours in the dry box that came with the printer. If you email me at amoskowitz@accucode.com I can provide a benchmark part or two from your files so you can see the print quality.
Sarl
17
hy every one
I’m a french company who haved a dimension elite, and now a fortus 250, and also mark one (and another very professionnal open source printer) . The printer have not the same business. You can use stratasys for all your parts, and markone for strong part, but not for thin parts ( or only in nylon). I’m very proud of my fortus, but she’s very expansive! ( material, and cost of production), but she’s always here. She’s an easy printer. The mark one is not an easy printer, you can have print faillure often! Using carbon is difficult. The markone is a good printer but you cannon’t print during all days like stratasys.
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MD90
18
I appreciate the offer. One of the MarkForged reps was telling me that there is a 30mm. minimum diameter and a 600mm minimum length for the carbon fiber material. Could you explain this better? How it effects a print.
MD90
19
Thank you for the information. What is the cause of most failures?
Sarl
20
problem of fiber in the extruder, mainly with the carbon fiber who is very fragile, and break inside the nozzle.
Some little problem of warping with the nylon if you doesn’t have the rigth z offset.
Another thing for the markforged, who doesn’t indicate on the website, be carrefull when you design your part, if you want fiber, you have to have an aera of layer who can receive 600mm of fiber. Because, the cutting of the fiber arrive 600mm before the nozzle, so you have to extrude 600mm of fiber by layer. If not it’s impossible to have fiber in your part, so forget thin feature, little parts… And it’s why my machine doesn’t work often…
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