Aerospace and automotive companies have used Stratasys Fortus 900/F900 industrial FDM printers for more than a decade, taking advantage of its build volume of 36in x 24in x 36in and the ability to print such high-performance materials as ULTEM 9085 resin, ULTEM 1010 Resin, Antero (PEKK-based) and FDM Nylon 12CF. The reliable system produces accurate, repeatable parts with certified traceability as needed. So, can it be improved?
In some ways, yes. In 2023 Stratasys introduced the F3300 industrial 3D printer based on two often-requested properties: faster print-speed and lower part-cost. (There are other benefits, such as improved reliability due to hosting redundant print-heads with automated hot-swapping.) At PADT Inc., we took delivery of one of the first F3300 systems in early 2024. As more features and materials were added, I’ve had the chance to try different print projects to test out the specs, but I hadn’t yet done a specific comparison test. Now was the time.
Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Going head-to-head with the Fortus 900 that lives down the hall from our F3300 seemed like a plan, so I searched for an interesting CAD model as the test subject. Though not quite as dramatic as the showdown documented in Ford v Ferrari, the high-energy 2019 film, the two setups did confirm interesting results.
But first, here’s the part I printed and evaluated, done in two sections. At 32.9 inches long, it would have fit as a single piece in our F900 but not quite in the F3300 (23.6in x 23.6in x 31.5in), so I used the split approach for both to equalize the comparison:
The overall part represents one of the many prototype versions of the front-passenger-door positioning fixture of a Subaru Solterra Trailseeker as written up in a Stratasys FDM case study. The Subaru Accessories Product Development Team chose a Stratasys printer (the F770 for its 39in x 24in x 24in build volume) to quickly iterate the design and dimensions of this tool. The final design came down to this one, printed in yellow ASA, mounted with magnets and used to correctly position the attachment of body side moldings:
Here’s my version. Using GrabCAD Print (GCP) Pro, the build software that handles all five Stratasys additive technologies and imports native CAD models, I did setups for the split parts for both the F900 and the F3300. For model material I, too, chose ASA (almost identical to ABS but with better UV resistance) and selected 18% dense Sparse Infill for lightweighting. I also made sure to use consistent values for contour width, infill angle and body (outer wall) thickness.
Here’s an example of the F3300 GCP parameter setup; you can see at the left I used two trays within the same job to easily create both print jobs.
The Checkered-Flag Results are In
One of the many useful features in the Pro version of GCP is Cost Estimating, so extracting the comparison data was easy. Here is one of the four Tray estimations I exported:
The complete results came out like this:
Comparing the F3300 numbers to those for the F900:
Smaller Part: F3300 printed 40% faster, producing a part that cost 15% less
Larger Part: F3300 printed 45% faster, producing a part that cost 20% less
The larger the model, the greater the savings – toolpath motions on the F3300 are optimized for large parts; also, the automated tool-head change that swaps the model head for the support head only takes seven seconds! It’s very cool to watch.
I know it makes me happy if a part takes 6h 34m instead of 11h 44m (almost twice as fast). This means I can start the run at 8am, pull it off at 2:34pm, do a quick turnaround and get the printer running another job through the night. That’s in comparison to having the job finish at 7:45pm, leaving the printer idle for the next eight hours. That’s efficiency.
The cost savings kicks in because the F3300 uses material spools holding 4100cc (250 cu in) that cost less per-cubic-inch than other canister/spool sizes. These spools are housed in on-board drying cabinets that automatically apply individual temperature and drying settings per material; if you choose to mount two (or even three) spools of the same model material at a time, the auto-changeover function means you are really set for printing long jobs without operator interaction.
The Takeaway
If keeping your printers running 24/7 and producing more parts by the end of each week are key goals for your service or production department AND you’d like to reduce material costs, the F3300 offers good value on top of a simplified operational process (did I mention there are no Calibration Squares?!?)
Of course, we still love our F900 for other reasons, such as the wide variety of material options and the build volume, but it’s good to have options.
For more information, check out PADT’s 3D Printing webpage.
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