I have never worked on a 4500 for long time but I know the 660 may be the most reliable printer 3dsystems has to offer. However if you plan to produce very fragile parts it will be better with the 4500 than the 660 as those parts are Solid when finished printing. Removing excess Core from the build on a 660 can cause damage and or take a very long time to finish. I hope you find that helpful.
We have had a 660 for two years and never had a failed print. Always kept in clean and maintain and printed like a dream. Never use the 4500 as colours were not vibrant enough. Happy to help if you want some test prints done. Isodo3d.com 3
You are experiencing the 4500 cyclone death spiral. I had a few clients that had bought this unit from 3ds and they had nothing but problems. 3ds would not own up to it but they recently cancelled the product. The 460, 660 and 860 are good products and very reliable. If you will contact me directly, I may be able to get you one at wholesale prices. I am a 3d dealer and printing services business in sc. We use the 460 in our operations and it is the most reliable printer I have. My office line is 888 914 7476. Good luck
The 660 is a good machine. You will get your share of errors so be prepared to learn the in’s and out’s of the machine. The powder machines require regular upkeep and experience pays with this equipment. Lots of benefits once you get it down in speed, volume and color If you do not need color or speed switch to an FDM machine from Stratasys. It’s all application dependent.
Thanks to everyone for the advice, even those who don’t seem to own the printer! It seems we are not alone when it comes to our 4500. We have a range of errors, rarely the same and most seem to be caused by changes of the design between the 660 and 4500. IMHO, it seems the 4500 took a step back, rather than forward. The cleaning station is more basic, positioned badly and fails easily, due to spilled powder. There was a bad error in the original firmware which allowed the machine to overfill itself and block the vacuum. The head is fragile and ours became damaged very early on, unlike the 660 which costs buttons to replace, the 4500 is thousands. We are currently trying to get 3D systems to replace this on warranty, but we may be in for a legal fight on that one. They recently updated the firmware and now we constantly are having Binder Level Low warnings, when clearly there is plenty. This one seems to be model specific and presumably caused by a bug in the firmware. Add in the problems with Blacks and the cost and problems with the powder and I think we are at the point of giving up on the machine. I could go on, but to cut the story short there, the 660 seems the better choice!!!
