Stratasys announced a milestone that shows something important about how 3D printers are used.
The milestone was the announcement that they’ve reached their tenth anniversary for their flagship FDM device, the Fortus 450mc. This device was introduced in 2014 and has been shipping ever since. The company announced a new variant of the machine that can handle fibre-reinforced materials, full access to the entire Stratasys materials catalog, and a one-year license for professional GrabCAD software.
The Fortus 450mc is a true production 3D printer, able to reliably run for very long periods, producing large prints in its vast 406 x 355 x 406 mm build chamber. It includes the ability to automatically switch to alternate material canisters during printing, enabling near-continuous operations.
But I’m sure some Fabbaloo readers are a bit skeptical about this machine. Why would anyone want a ten-year-old 3D printer? Machines of that age from most other 3D printer manufacturers would basically be junk at this point, if they run at all.
The answer is that Stratasys is occupying a different space with this machine, one that’s very unlike the typical 3D printer operator.
These machines are pricey compared to most of their competitors, and typically Stratasys customers would acquire them via lease instead of an outright purchase. This allows the business to write down the machine’s cost over a period of years instead of all in the purchase year. That reduces the effective cost significantly, and therefore the cost of parts produced on the machine.
Another feature of the machine is the consistency of materials. Stratasys provides specific materials that don’t change over long periods. This allows a customer to certify a part’s production using the machine and a certain material once, and then produce it over and over for years.
This is indeed reflected in the announcement from Stratasys. They say:
“Over the past decade, the Fortus 450mc system has earned its reputation as a reliable, mid-level FDM workhorse, with 92% of installed systems still producing parts.”
That’s because most of these machines are on leases that might be up to ten years in length. Operators would run the machine for the length of the lease, and then replace it with another device.
There’s also the fact that these machines are quite reliable as production equipment, and therefore they typically last for that length of time. In fact, in my workshop, we still have an even older Fortus 400mc that is still perfectly operational.
The market space occupied by the Fortus 450mc is very different from the typical “buy a new machine every two or three years” customer. Instead, it’s “buy once and run for a long time”.
Congratulations to Stratasys on the highly successful Fortus 450mc!
Via Stratasys
