A new Printer this year??? Ultimaker 6? Ultimaker S5+?

[Belezeebub 9]

I was considering a S5 Pro for this summer but I started thinking isn't it about time for Ultimaker to release a new model? or some improvements?

Figured I would ask the worse they can do it nuke my post.

 

[ahoeben 2,011]

Obviously the Ultimaker lawnmower is long overdue.  It has been rumored since forever:

https://community.ultimaker.com/search/?q=lawnmower&quick=1

[nallath 1,124]

it's been in development for almost 7 years now. It's going to be the lawnmower to end all other lawnmowers

[neute 16]

FWIW and aside from all the joking, I think Ultimaker is long overdue to upgrade its hardware.

 

Just last week I had my company's S5 drop its linear rods and belts all over the build plate (again) because a tiny grub screw came loose. Of course it had to be just hours before the end of a 36h build job and not, say, during a 30 min quickie. I'll admit that the machine is not the single most well maintained of all machines, and I took the opportunity to clean and lubricate everything. Unfortunately, design decisions such as clipped-in rods in plastic bearing blocks can't be corrected by some maintenance.

 

This is to say that while the Ultimaker motion system, that has basically been around since the UMO, was a very powerful kinematic and definitely served its purpose, it is time to move on and catch up with current designs (maybe even leapfrog the status quo a little bit?). Machines like the E3D toolchanger, probably the upcoming Prusa CoreXY machine or heck, even my Voron which consists of a few aluminium extrusions and a bag of printed plastic parts, jump leaps and bounds around the S5 - mainly due to a stiff and light motion system based on linear rails (which don't even have to be the best of the expensive, since we have rather small loads) and precise filament control, which is achieved through light and powerful direct dual drive extruders. 

 

All of these machines cost roughly a third of what UM is asking for the S5. I'm not saying that UM should offer such a machine at this price point, since that is probably not possible due to overhead, the vast amount of software development that also goes into the UM ecosystem and some more economic reasons that are beyond me; 

As an industrial customer who is somewhat invested in the UM ecosystem and the FFF market in general, I'm just saying that the 6k€ price tag on the UMS5 hurts a lot when I compare it to other machines such as the above mentioned, because *IMO* the hardware is not worth it (any more), even considering the ecosystem.

 

If a future UM machine would feature a rock solid and fast motion system, a precise extrusion system (could be 2,85 mm, could be 1,75 mm), optionally a Material Station that also works with, say, PVA and/or fibre reinforced materials - along with all the great ecosystem features and Cura 5.x with a smooth interface and arachne slicing engine - the machine could cost 10-15 k€ and still be a great deal for industrial customers. And synergies in development and sourcing could trickle down into a new prosumer device at 3-5k€, comparable to the current S5/S3 lineup. 

 

long story short, circling back to the first line of this text, I'm sure that something like this is what is actually going on behind the scenes at Ultimaker. Beside all the ranting I'm still mostly a fan and excited for what is to come.

 

best, Niklas

Edited February 8, 2022 by neute

[nallath 1,124]

No worries; We see pretty much the same issues as you. But as you might understand, people within Ultimaker can't say anything about what the next products or steps will be outside of official communication. That is also the origin of the lawnmower joke; We can't say anything less we risk that people read too much in other things that we say.

[Belezeebub 9]

I own and have owned many printers I always come back to Ultimaker, are they perfect NOPE!, but to me they are like my Old 79 Jimmy they just work, they don’t let me down, rain or shine they just work, sure nothing fancy like power windows but they always get me where I need to be and back. None of my ULtimaker printers have ever failed a print that wasn’t my fault for not keeping the bed clean or forgetting to close the bed clips,  and I have never seen half a good print in the morning only to come home from work to half a print with a Bob Ross hairdo.

I have owned two CB printers and if the CEO of CB sent me their new flag ship printer hand delievered by the Swedish binkini team they could stay but I would refuse the printer.

My Taz 6 is rock soild (as long as I keep the touch point clean)

All of my Ultimaker printers if the first layer has issue they always have issues, they don’t change they are just stable. All of the Sub 1k printers I have will very depending on their mood, so are of just no use to me, if I know model 18XU597 needs a tweak to the first layer I can make that tweak if I have to tweak it differently everytime it is of no use to me.

So I don’t mind paying the Ultimaker preinum price.

Sure I would love faster, bigger, or more nozzels, or a more robust movement system, heck I would pay an extra three grand if UM had a tool changer with out even complaining once.

[GregValiant 1,409]

Sadly...it's true.  We here at Muppet labs have been secretly working on the UM lawnmower project for several years.   A little known clause in our contract is that we can reveal some of the design studies that were discarded along the way.

 

This is the UM G1.  We put this design forward as an effort to combat global warming by staying away from fossil fuel use.  It turned out that goat droppings are a major contributor to greenhouse gases.  The operators didn't care much for the design either.  The main complaint was that it was only workable when going downwind.

 

Back to the drawing board and we came up with this alternative to the G1.  This is the prototype of the UM-Anti-Thesis.  It seems that the wide turning radius made it impractical.  The nickname of Anti-Christ may not have helped.

 

 

In an effort to shorten the wheelbase (and this post) we have here our most recent failure (it was Beeker's fault).  This was proposed as the UM All-In-One.  We had thought a retro look reminiscent of Auto-Union race cars would garner us some support.  We were wrong.  Again.  Everyone thought the chrome push blade was a nice touch but it just wasn't enough to "push" (clever pun eh?) it into production.  Unfortunately the creeper speed of 100kph made it impractical as stopping at the end of the driveway was problematic.

 

We thank you for wasting time reading this interesting post,

Dr. Bunsen Honeydo

Head Mucky-Muck

Muppet Labs