just what IS the stratosys support materal..

So, I have this vintage Stratasys Prodigy+ - been using it for over a decade, it still produces prints far and above anything I've seen from a consumer machine.. it's awesome.
But it's about to die. It quits often (old tired proprietary controller, linux-based software on an imaged drive, parts getting scarce and VERY pricey) The company was pushing it to recycling and I rescued it. It was replaced with a HUGE Fortus running polycarb

I got a bunch of filament carts with the prodigy.. some model and some support material. The support material makes a support that is quite brittle and very easy to remove. I want to run it on my ROBO. But, what is it? I was under the impression it was HIPS but as I read about that stuff, it doesnt really matchup with what I see...

anyone know what the support material is that is used in the Stratasys Prodigy? it's not the same as the Fortus machine (which is the devil to remove)

 

From what I've heard it's a proprietary blend of HIPS and *something*.

Wish I could be more helpful.

 

ya, me too when removing it, it's real brittle (which makes it super-easy to remove).. doesnt really fit the descriptions I've seen for HIPS at all..

it makes seriously good parts. even the prints I have from 12 years ago are light-years better than I've ever seen from consumer machines. It's got a super-simple head - the design violates everything that E3D preaches yet the result cant be denied. But, as of March this year Stratasys wont even talk about it anymore..
I've been toying with gutting the controls and installing a Mach3-based system to see if I can bring it back from the dark side.. sorta like a heart transplant If that works I may just scratchbuild one copying everything they did but make it bigger..

 

If you send me a sample of it I have a GCMS i can run it in. Might be able to get an idea of what is in it.

 

yeah it's a nice machine. Though we only run liquids in it so I'd need to figure out a good way to solve it down as to not damage the machine.

edit: talked to one of our chemists. Not possible to analyze polymers without ruining our machine, so nevermind!

 

I did find this MSDS page: http://www.stratasys.com/materials/material-safety-data-sheets/fdm/support-materials

Should have your material on it.

 

Now THAT is valuable intel...
Stratasys P400 support material - 99% Butadien-styrene copolymer. whatever that is.
It sounds like it might be HIPS afterall? the wierd thing is, the MSDS and Stratasys say it's off-white in color, but the stuff sitting in front of me right now is a deep brown.

 

It's WAY off - white.

Black is just a very dark white.

 

Really? For some reason I thought it was a Translucent brown pla. It is brittle. There are nasty chemicals that melt it away.

 

Yes, that's what it is.. Stratasys provided some nasty stuff to dissolve it that turned out to be mostly ordinary lye. I buy that stuff by the barrel since my wife uses it in her soap business, and I put it in a heated ultrasonic cleaner. But most of the time it just breaks free.
I have a few carts of it but would love to know if it's available on the market somewhere....

 

I know this is an old thread, but this info may help people searching on google (robo won't let me post links for some reason, says it's spam)

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Hello all, I've been reading through some Stratasys patents recently, and came across this


it dictates that the stratasys water dissolvable support material is primarily a polymer called "poly(2ethyl-2-oxazoline)"

This is sometimes known as polyethylene oxide, which is a form of polyethylene glycol, past a certain molecular weight.

The trade name for this is Aquazol, and is used in 50,000mw, and 200,000mw

In addition, they add an inorganic filler (probably sodium chloride aka table salt), and an inert filler (probably calcium carbonate), an alcohol based plasticizer (probably ethylene glycol), and whatever a "polar wax" is.

The composition is MOSTLY PEO, with that other stuff sprinkled in to give it slightly different properties.

As it turns out, this stuff is very similar to the stuff that coats the liquid-gel pills that we ingest all the time! However, I would not suggest trying to eat your support material.

The document says the stuff extrudes at around 180c, which is right about the extrusion temp for PLA.

Experimentation with different formulas could yield a very good, much less hygroscopic, alternative to PVA as a soluble support material. However, the price for poly(2ethyl-2-oxazoline) is astronomical (probably why the Stratasys cartridges are so expensive). Here shows the price for 500g as 105.50, that means 1kg of the stuff is 211.00!!!!

If someone had access to a cheap way to get this stuff, I could see it being extruded at home on our home extrusion machines and used in our stratasys, or reprap machines.

 

Brilliant work bob. Thanks for the info!