uPrint SE Plus

The UPrint Plus is a top of the line printer, however, is quite pricey.  The major thing I don't like, is the overpriced cost of material, which is at least 5-times more expensive than other printers. ($205 per roll vs. $40 per roll for other printer's material).

In the four years we've had our Stratasys Dimension uPrint SE Plus in the university lab I supervise, it has been more reliable than our other FDM machines (Makerbot, Flashforge, RoVa3D, Stratasys 1650), on par with our two uPrints (which build in ivory-colored ABS only). It differs from the uPrints in that the SE Plus has a larger build tray and can use color ABS. Unfortunately, Stratasys only allows their materials, which are way over-priced.   One tip is used for ABS model material and the other for soluble support, which does not allow us to build multi-colored or multi-model material products. The soluble support feature far outshines single-nozzle FDM/FFF devices, allowing us to build tiny detail, assemblies, and internal structures otherwise impossible.

The CatalystEX software is a breeze to use, but again it does not allow customization that you might expect if you've used Simplify3D, or even Makerbot Desktop. The layer resolution of .01" and the selection of only three different densities are drawbacks. You can't change the temperature settings, but then, since you can only use Stratasys material, that's not an issue.

We extrude our own custom filament, and while we can replace expensive Stratasys material with ours and it works, it means that we can't use that Stratasys material we've taken off the spool because the EPROM knows how much material has passed through it. Our machine is long out of warranty, and I would not recommend using third party materials on a machine in warranty.

We get about 1 failure every 40 builds using Stratasys material, often requiring head maintenance that we perform.  Tip replacement is done about once a year. But then we cycle through about 100 new students through using this each year, and that's hard on any machine. We use the support cleaning apparatus, which works well, though the alkali solution forms a toxic precipitate inside the dried models, even after rinsing. The build trays are a lot more reusable than we were led to believe, and the only time we use virgin ones is where there is a build with a large surface area contacting the tray that might pull off from the glazed areas on a used tray.

Like I said, the SE Plus is my top choice among our FDM machines.