I teach AM at a community college and we’ve been planning to add a Fuse 1 to our AM lab since 2017. Last summer, we finally gave up and purchased a Sinterit Lisa Pro. We don’t have a lot of experience yet with the Lisa Pro… because, covid… but it does ok. Quite slow. Not-great product support.
Anyway, we’ve kept the Fuse 1 on our radar and are now planning a major upgrade of our lab. We just got good news from a Formlabs “Enterprise Account Executive.”
Their message to us (as of Jan 20, 2021) says the following:
The Fuse news is EXCELLENT (finally).
– more units in stock than orders placed (but we’re still reaching out to those old 1k reservations to see if they still want their unit)
– production is ramping up every day, we hope to have 0 lead time by early March
– right now an order placed would arrive in about 6 weeks
– the price did jump from the $19,999 number we advertised in 2017
– ‘basic’ package is about 25k, and all the bells and whistles can run up to about 45k
We are doing virtual demos and walkthroughs, and sample parts finally.
So far the customer response has been amazing!
So maybe, just maybe… the Fuse 1 is now a real thing.
I think a lot of small startups put the $1000 deposit already bankrupted or closed in the past several years. No idea they took the deposit back or not… at least there are 3 companies I knew put the deposit long time ago and they are gone now.
@ashtree, there should be a warranty agreement. If not, don’t purchase the machine - but I can’t imagine that Formlabs would offer this product without one. (And, FWIW, our experience with Formlabs’s tech support on our Form 2 printers has been quite good.) You’re probably gonna be fine, if you’re willing to accept that there will be inevitably be some ‘teething pains.’
Good luck, and keep us posted. I’d be interested to know about your purchase experience, the delivery timeframe you’re quoted - and then your actual delivery time. Also, as you get your Fuse 1 up and running, your experience of the strengths and weaknesses.
I haven’t put the order yet. I am waiting people’s feedback first.
It is not cheap like 10k range and it needs a special work space to put this machine. Based on the tank size and material cost, I do have some difficulties to convince myself to jump into.
I mean. The crazy expansion from the HP MJP printer in oversea has already pull the SLS printing cost extremely low now. I think I have a supplier sell me printing service by charging around $0.3/gram for MJP nylon P12 and $0.2/gram for SLS nylon. I don’t think I can beat this cost if I own a Fuse1.
I just need to think about some reasons to convince me to buy this machine.
Yes, I understand. In the AM course I teach, I show a video from Formlabs about the Fuse 1. It is from 2017 and of course they promise that the machine will ship later that year. More significantly, the advertised price in that video is $9,990. It then went up to $19,999 (in our periodic communications with Formlabs since then), and now our quoted price - for only the base machine - is $25k. So, yeah, it isn’t a small purchase.
Your comment about HP’s MJF technology is consistent with my understanding that HP’s tech is a significant competitor to SLS and could displace it. The only thing I note is that, last I checked, the material cost for HP’s PA12 mat’l was lower than that of PA12 for SLS offered by, e.g., EOS. You report the opposite.
There is price discrimination for the material based on your location. The brand may sell you this price since you are in the US but sell it way cheaper if you are in another country that has more similar knock-off competitors. I mean the same thing in two different prices in two different locations.
The MJP has one issue which I am not fully convinced of since they use a heat-absorbing material to bind the powder and then sinter it together, unlike the traditional SLS by using a laser beam to fuse. That may give the print an inconsistency in the material strength side. For example, you may get the parts printed in two different machines but the come out is different.
I don’t mind buying a fuse1 to try later. All I need are some reasons to make the decision.
