Material Station only increases issues.

[Ferd 0]

In our company we run  two S5 printers and one 2+ printer, pretty much all the time for the last 2 years. (We had an Ultimaker 2 before that, and before that the original Makerbot, so I know quite a bit about 3D printing).  In the beginning these machines worked flawlessly but over time they start to fail more and more. They are still excellent machines but I want to express my thoughts on how to make them better. The key issue for us is 2 things.

 

1- Reliability. The machines must NOT fail. The more I have to fiddle with them, the more we are talking about getting rid of them and buying in a more expensive 3D printer. Even after changing the print heads and flow sensors(which seem to fail often)  the printer still fails now and then..

2-Reel changing. This is a constant pain for us and waste of our time. I tried the Material Station to help solve this problem, but it just increased the complexity of the product and I had new types of failures happening... My suggestion here a very simple one. Sell BIGGER reels. 750g reels are not commercial. Why not sell a reel that will last all week. This keeps the product simple and minimizes reel changes..

 

Some questions:

Is there a solution for bigger reels?

Is the Method printer more reliable?

 

Note: we print in PETg with breakaway support material

 

Any help appreciated

 

 

[gr5 2,178]

I love big reels.  Many vendors sell 5kg spools.  There is no reason to use Ultimaker filament on an Ultimaker printer.  Go for it.

 

I put the spools on the floor and put the printer towards the rear of a table.  I've built spool holders but now I usually just put them on the floor such that as the filament is unspooled, they roll towards the wall.

 

I also have a UM2go on a shelf with a spool holder on the shelf below.  That works well also.