Certain old industrial 3D printers can remain usable even when their manufacturers stop supporting them.
That’s the opportunity being pursued by OpenFilament, a US company offering an interesting collection of hardware and software products for owners of elderly Stratasys FFF equipment.
Back in 2015, we wrote about Argyle Materials, a Canadian company selling alternative filament cartridges for Stratasys equipment. At the time, this was somewhat controversial because the machines used proprietary cartridge chips to control material consumption. Argyle apparently worked around this restriction, offering compatible cartridges at prices reportedly up to 38% lower than Stratasys materials.
There was a risk, however. Using third-party materials on expensive industrial equipment could potentially compromise warranty coverage or manufacturer support. And then there was the issue of part qualification: some printed parts absolutely required using original materials from the manufacturer to ensure part quality.
Eleven years later, things have changed considerably.
OpenFilament takes the concept much further. Instead of selling alternative filament, the company sells tools that allow operators to use materials from almost any filament supplier.
The company’s products fall into four categories.
The first is a US$200 EEPROM programming kit for older Dimension and Fortus systems, including the Fortus 250mc, 360mc, 400mc and classic 900mc. The kit allows operators to reset material cartridge chips, change material identities and reuse cartridges with third-party filament.
Here’s how it would work: the operator takes an old filament canister, inserts a new spool of, say, ABS filament, and then resets the canister’s usage counter. Then the spool is completely usable on an older Stratasys 3D printer.
The second is a US$150 cartridge refilling kit for uPrint systems. This similarly resets material quantities, although there’s a curious restriction: the cartridge must be reset before its remaining material reaches zero, or its chip becomes permanently locked.
Third is a series of preprogrammed EEPROM chips for newer Fortus 380mc, 450mc and F900 equipment. Priced at US$299, these chips provide up to 10kg of material capacity. Currently listed material options include ABS-M30, ASA and ULTEM 9085.
Finally, OpenFilament offers remote software license upgrades for classic Fortus systems, starting at US$600 per material. These are about unlocking specific material capabilities. Stratasys equipment at the time typically involved restrictions: this machine could print only ABS and PC, but not ULTEM, for example. You would have to purchase an “unlock” from Stratasys to enable printing those materials.
The license upgrades from OpenFilament unlock additional materials, including Nylon 12, PC and ULTEM, while a full unlock starts at US$2000. There’s even an option to unlock additional build volume on the Fortus 360mc. Similar license upgrades for newer Fortus Plus equipment are in beta testing.
These are quite different offerings from the alternative filament cartridges we encountered in 2015. OpenFilament is effectively providing ways for operators to take greater control over machines they already own.
The company claims material cost reductions reaching 90%, although actual savings would depend on the materials and suppliers selected. Operators producing qualified parts would also have to verify the performance of alternative materials, and of course they would not pass qualifications for parts requiring specific Stratasys materials.
But there’s another aspect to this business that I find particularly interesting.
Many of the targeted Stratasys machines are quite old. The Fortus 360mc and 400mc ceased sales in 2016, while several Dimension and uPrint models ended sales in 2017.
Stratasys now lists service contracts as unavailable for these older systems, although some materials remain available and service may still be provided on a best-effort basis.
Meanwhile, the machines themselves may remain perfectly functional.
Industrial equipment can have surprisingly long working lives, particularly when organizations have invested heavily in acquisition, financing, training and established production workflows. Replacing a functioning industrial 3D printer might require an entirely new capital expenditure approval, and that can be extremely difficult in some corporate situations.
An older machine might be technologically obsolete, but economically it can still make perfect sense to operate it.
OpenFilament’s products address precisely this situation. Once a machine is beyond its original lease, warranty or service arrangements, operators may have considerably more incentive to experiment with alternative materials.
There’s a qualification here: OpenFilament also supports newer equipment, including Stratasys machines still receiving manufacturer support. Its approach isn’t entirely confined to retired products, and software licensing or contractual restrictions shouldn’t be assumed to disappear merely because equipment has aged.
OpenFilament doesn’t appear to offer a complete mechanical maintenance service, either. Its specialty is overcoming material and software restrictions, with technical support for those products.
Nevertheless, we’re seeing an interesting evolution of the third-party industrial 3D printing market. What began as cheaper replacement consumables has developed into an aftermarket offering tools to extend the useful capabilities and economic lives of expensive equipment.
There must be hundreds of older industrial 3D printers still capable of producing good parts, and services like this could make them last quite a bit longer.
Via OpenFilament
