Objet 30 Pro

[JulianaA]

Hello World.

Is anyone using the Stratasys Objet30 Pro? We have one here and the heads are failing. Our support people told us to buy new ones ($1,400 each & we need 2 = $2,800) but we wanted to try cleaning them (a lot) instead. Anyone have success removing the heads and soaking them in a liquid that can clean out the gunk? Kerosene?

I think I’m just wasting time wiping the heads with alcohol and running Print Head Wizard. The printer is 2 years old. We ran Vero White for about 6 months and then Durus White for the remainder. We have less than 800 hours of use on the print heads. They should get about 2,000 hrs.

(I thought) I was diligent in wiping the heads with alcohol after builds and running it at least every other day but just learned that with Durus, we should have been cleaning the heads Before And After. And, I learned that I ought to put some pressure on the heads when I wipe them with the special cloths – and I learned that I should not scrub because little particles will get re-inserted; it’s just one wipe and then get a new part of the cloth. Wish I had known!

Anyone with ideas on how to clean rather than replace? Anyone tried and succeeded? Anyone tried and not succeeded? Anyone out there with an Objet 30 Pro - take my advice and clean it constantly! This website is pretty quiet wrt Objet but I thought I would try.

Thanks for any help. -JulianaA

[MindFuLL]

Yeah, 90% of the time you hear about these machines is someone trying to sell one. In my opinion, if Stratasys gave them away for free they would still be a terrible value. Between the proprietary consumables, maintenance, replacement parts… I don’t get it.
Gook luck!
-Jesse

[drumguy560]

that is how the pros do it. I believe this is a service you can send your heads in for professional cleaning. Otherwise it is required to have an ultrasonic cleaner and some chemicals. I’d try 100% isopropyl first, (maybe heat it up as well) and try that for a few days. If that doesn’t work, you may have to send it into the above linked place for cleaning

[drumguy560]

http://www.printheadrecoveryservices.co.uk/index.php

[wirtp]

Take the heads off and Soak them in alcohol and then repetitive head cleanings & pattern checks. A weight test is very effective at showing blocked nozzles as well.

[plvcpt]

Hi Juliana,

I own an Objet 30 prime and my reseller warned me about using Durus when I bought the printer.

For your support Print head, if it is clogged, you could try using a 5% NaOH solution (sodium hydroxide) to soak the head in and use a pressure washer to push water through the nozzles but make sure to soak the head in alcohol right after to eliminate the water residue.

For the model head, I don’t know which solvent can dilute the material but I suggest you do some tests on printed samples to see what you can find that could be strong enough and try the same process as above with this solvent replacing the sodium hydroxide.

Good luck!

[plvcpt]

I forgot to mention that the Rigur (rgd450) is of better quality and as I was told by my printer supplier, you should avoid using Durus…

[G2Design]

Been running our Objet 24 for 5 years and no issues. We follow the maintenance schedule religiously, not lost a single nozzle. Know another couple of companies that use them without issue. Have it serviced annually, but considering going onto a maintenance contract now.

[G2Design]

How many nozzles are you down on the pattern test on each head?

[JulianaA]

Wow you guys. I am blown away with getting so many good replies in less than a day! THANK YOU!! I love 3d printing for how it brings out the energy/ creative/ technical/ inventor in all of us - sorry to get sappy, but I am just so grateful. Yesterday, I thought I was just screaming into the wind and it’s a relief to hear your replies. I’m going to go through and write actual replies now. I just wanted to say THANKS first. -J

[JulianaA]

Thanks for the note, G2Design.

I was voting for the Objet 24 over the 30Pro because it is a really good price. My boss liked the how the 30Pro has the ability to use different materials. Looking back, it might have been better to go with the 24 because Durus isn’t an option (but then again Rigur might prove to be a happy medium for us…). Plus, switching material costs/uses material so even though we Can run a clear or a blue or whatever, we never do because we don’t want to spend the $ on the switch-over.

Good luck keeping your machine working for many years to come! -Juliana

[JulianaA]

I hear ya. The thing is, when the machine is working it makes Really Nice Parts. The manager/ person with the money buys it and then tasks the next person down the line with keeping it up. It’s a DIVA wrt time and effort and cleaning. I really thought I had been doing a good job of cleaning it…

Another part of the problem is that the system is so new that the support wasn’t there/ isn’t there. We should have had a once-per-year tune-up in our maintenance agreement (the company doing this for us has just implemented it). We also should have had more training on How exactly to clean it. There were very different interpretations of how to wipe the heads: with pressure, without; scrubbing vs single direction; before and after vs just every other run. Even what type of alcohol to use was unclear. We used 70% until just recently, the tech said it should be 90%.

It’s fun doing something that hasn’t been thoroughly figured-out yet… mostly. -Juliana

[G2Design]

We had the same decision to make. We were keen for multi materials but when we realised the price to purge materials on changeover we realised it wasn’t viable unless doing a sizeable batch of parts. As a design consultancy that doesn’t happen often for us, so in instances when we need a different material we just outsource.

Hope you get running soon.

[JulianaA]

Yeah - and Rigur is $25 cheaper than Durus!?!?

Durus is $650 per 2x 1kg and Rigur is $625 for the same.

We still have one more container of Durus to use up…

[G2Design]

If it helps I can give you a copy of our cleaning instruction guide and schedule, which is written up from our training. The engineer who trained us had used these machine in anger in industry and then joint the reseller in the UK servicing machines.

[JulianaA]

I just ran a pattern test at 1:40pmEST, did a heads cleaning wizard and ran another pattern test at 2pm. See images attached. I think the support (left) has two definite voids. The right head (model) many but they’re spread out. There is definitely a difference between before and after the heads cleaning wizard. I think I ought to run that about 20 more times…! What do you think? Thanks, Juliana

[JulianaA]

Thanks - it’s hard to beat 99 pounds ($129US) each! I have wasted at least that much and more in my time. I’ll send them a note and see if they can do this kind of thing. Thanks for the link. -J

[JulianaA]

Yes, please: Thank you for the private message.

[JulianaA]

Thanks for the input. We half-tried the alcohol but the job wasn’t monitored and the alcohol dried up while it was soaking (bad but maybe not catastrophic). We re-hydrated with more alcohol, reinstalled the heads and I’ve been doing head cleaning and pattern checks. I haven’t run a weight test (aka load cell calibration) yet but it’s on my list of things to do. I just found a video on line for it; thank you YouTube! -J

[snrp]

I’ve been running an Alaris30 since 2010, and only had to replace one head this calendar year. Since I only run VeroWhitePlus, I can’t speak to the Durus materials, but my practice has been to more blot with a denatured ethanol dampened cloth, with about a 30 second soak against the heads.

When the one head failed abruptly following a crash, I tried to resuscitate it by flushing it with alcohol, after removing it from the machine. This was not successful, and actually demonstrated a negative result. Consider trying the the ‘solvent’ they sell for long term storage. It’s actually a base like the support, without the curing agents.

Good luck!