Please contact your local reseller for details on Studio System™ 2 upgrade pricing.

Studio System™ 2 is backwards compatible with all previously released materials. The existing materials that you have can still be used and purchased. Fabricate allows both v.1 and v.2 materials to be used with the system, each material will be guided through the correct workflow. Like sintering different materials, sintering cycles are separate for the new materials. 316L v.1 and 316L v.2 will require separate sintering cycles. You can run a 316L v.1 sintering cycle on Monday and a 316L v.2 cycle on Wednesday, but the different materials cannot be combined in the same sintering cycle.

316L stainless steel is the first v.2 material launching with the Studio System 2. Additional materials will follow. Specifically, 17-4PH stainless steel v.2 and D2 tool steel v.2 are the next materials that are planned to be released in 2021.

The Furnace upgrade allows for the new sintering cycle including thermal debind to be performed for the v.2 materials only. The ability to directly sinter a green part is made possible by the new binder system used in the v.2 materials. Existing (v.1) materials must still be processed in the Debinder through a solvent debind phase.

Similar to solvent debind times today, the sintering cycle for v.2 materials is part dependent. Binder must be removed from the part in a controlled manner, from the outside of the part in. To manage the length of this thermal debind process, fabricate performs calculations on the geometry to determine the length of the “thermal debind” portion of the cycle time. Based on the thickness of the part itself, the chosen shell thickness, and other settings, the thermal debind time is automatically calculated and shown when the part is prepared for printing. Thermal debind on Studio System 2 times are in the same range as solvent debind times today, often between 24 hours and 84 hours.

2 and v.1 materials must be kept to separate printheads. Since v.1 and v.2 materials contain different binder systems that print at different temperatures, we keep the printheads specific to the generation of material being printed. A printhead that is currently being used for v.1 materials will be designated by the printer as a printhead that will only be used for those materials. A new printhead is not assigned to a material generation. To assign it, simply take a printer that has the correct material loaded, and insert the new printhead. The printhead will assign the material generation to the printhead, and you can begin printing.

Approximately 850 - 1400 Liters of gas at STP is used each cycle. The exact amount of gas (no.1- 3%H2/Ar) used depends on the length of the cycle. Similar to debind times with v.1 materials, Fabricate will determine the correct length of sintering for v.2 materials in order to effectively remove the binder from the parts being sintered.