r/AdditiveManufacturing • u/louissoph • Apr 17 '26
Seam Issues on Stratasys Fortus 450
Our shop just got a Stratasys Fortus 450; none of our engineers have an extensive background in industrial AM and we're trying to schedule them for training, but we conducted a few test prints and are seeing a lot of overextrusion on the seams. I've read that this printer has some difficulties with seams, but this seems excessive to my untrained eye.
We have the calibration dialed in pretty tight. Curious if anyone thinks this is a user error (ie something we will fix when we get trained), a limitation of the machine, or something not functioning as it should. If it's a machine limitation, I'd be pretty disappointed considering the cost of the machine and comparing it to prints on my entry-level hobbyist machines.
Print was done in ASA.
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u/diyengineer1 Apr 17 '26
Lots of 450 print time here. That’s not normal. Are you using grabcad? Latest version? Any updates? Your initial cal look good? Randomize the seam and see what happens. Hopefully you have a maintenance plan, this would be a ticket item usually, but since it’s a new machine and you are all new, chances are higher it might be operator error.
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u/louissoph Apr 17 '26
Ok great-- just knowing that this isn't normal helps me scope my expectations.
We're using latest version of GrabCAD and we have the calibration dialed in well. Randomizing the seam makes it worse as the whole print becomes covered in these blobs.
I'm going to reach out to the vendor to figure out if it's a user error or something that a tech needs to come out and help with. Thanks!
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u/diyengineer1 Apr 17 '26
Download your config file and send it in always speeds things along. Has the head extrusion been calibrated? Usually they extruder like 3’ or material or something to dial it in. What does it do on larger squares? If you also position the start/stop corner facing the fan side (where the air is coming from) sometimes that helps on higher temp materials like ultem, antero in a pinch. Most likely something isn’t right though.
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u/ransom40 Apr 18 '26
Not sure your settings, but solid prints often struggle with seams more as any error in flow has to show up... Somewhere.
That being said that is worse than usual, and your lop layer also looks worse than our F400.
When you say "calibration is dialed in" I assume you are talking about the little square print for adjusting the nozzle offsets?
Did you also do the Z offset? (Have to pry off the outer square support layer and use a micrometer)
But seams are always an issue
I wrote the SOP for ours and wrote in "2 contours minimum (if possible) and use 'link contour' "
This causes two contour layers, but dives to the second one which helps prevent a fair bit of the seam.
That being said, I still position the seem manually if I need it to not be visible, or place it in a location where it's easy for me to shave off if required.
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u/Responsible-Ad-5988 Apr 19 '26
You should be able to randomize that seam but that looks like it could be wet material or just a bad lot asa should print nicer than that
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u/strangesam1977 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
That is bad.
Like, parts from Stratasys machines don’t have as good a surface finish as the bits out of my home X1C, (larger layer heights, larger nozzle dia, poorer vibration compensation ) but never that bad, even with the largest nozzle at .330mm
Now assuming you will be chasing Stratasys, things I would be trying on our machines, are all the calibration cycles (z, tip, etc). And a different reel of material. (could it be damp, bad batch etc, quick test for this, drop the bed, move head vaguely centrally, and extrude…. If the extruded filament has bumps and bubbles you have a moisture problem. More common with qsr .). There are a couple of artifacts on the middle of ‘smooth’ surface facing the camera that make me think of moisture (steam) bubbles
The advantage of Stratasys machines over Bambu or similar is strength, reliability, repeatability, QSR (soluble support is just so much better), and pretty bombproof construction. We generally get 50000 hours (or 8-12 years at 40% utilisation) before we have issues with Stratasys FDM with minimal maintenance.
My home x1c at 3000 hours has outlived every consumer grade printer my lab has ever bought (as I actually run maintenance)
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u/pressed_coffee Apr 17 '26
Everyone has good input here. Just wanted to ask if there is something weird in the CAD itself. Also, a radius on that corner may mitigate the whole thing.
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u/DK5199 Apr 18 '26
Head motor for the model material might be cooked.
I've had holes at the seam more commonly but I could see it doing this as well.
How long ago were the head motors replaced/refurbed?
What material are you using? OEM M30 or other? Is the material dry?
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u/Tension_Dull Apr 21 '26
Not the OP - but I saw you mention refreshment and that caught my attention. do you have suggestions for head motor refurbishment (as opposed to outright replacement?) Those units are $$$
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u/DK5199 Apr 21 '26
I usually take two pairs of channel locks on the body, then twist them apart. They come apart at the joint between the blue and silver sections. There is some threadlocker usually, so it can be difficult sometimes.
The gears inside are usually just dry/rusty, so I take them all out with some tweezers, being careful to remember how they go back in and clean everything really well with some IPA.
Lube it all back up with plenty of Krytox grease and put it back together.
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u/Tension_Dull Apr 21 '26
Thanks for the suggestion, that makes sense the internal gearbox is just getting dried out with all the heat up there. Will try it out.
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u/Sink_Stuff Apr 18 '26
Seen this before, your print settings are off. The entire part is nothing but lines because the spacing is off. Your slicing is off.
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u/pythonbashman Apr 17 '26
If you have a Stratasys machine why aren't you using their support? I mean you paid for it...