Review: Zortrax M200 3D Printer

3D Printing & Imaging Workshop
Review: Zortrax M200 3D Printer
M42_TestPrints-Zortrax
Zortrax M200 3D Printer: Unique case and lots of extras.
Image from Gunther Kirsch.
42_Test-Zortax-1H2A4467
Zortrax M200
zortrax.com
Price as Tested $1,990
Build Volume 200×200×185mm
Bed Style Heated perf board
Temperature Control? No
Materials ABS
Print Untethered? SD card
Onboard controls? Yes
Host Software Z-Suite
Slicer Z-Suite
OS Mac, Windows
Open Software? No
Open Hardware? No

The Zortrax M200 combines superb print quality with a large build volume, a built-in screen and SD card reader for untethered printing, and requires almost no maintenance. This machine comes with a large variety of useful extras including a complete hot end, two extra nozzles, and a toolkit that includes everything required for maintaining the machine.

All-Aluminum Exterior, Unique 8-Rod Gantry

The build quality of this machine is absolutely amazing. The M200 is made entirely of aluminum, which allows the machine to be both light and rigid. It also has a unique gantry setup that uses four X-axis and four Y-axis rods, which also increases the machine’s rigidity.

The Zortrax doesn’t have auto leveling, instead the bed is equipped with five conductive squares that the M200 uses to level the bed and calibrate the nozzle height, prompting the user to either tighten or loosen the bed-leveling adjustment knobs. These features, coupled with the perforated board, allow the prints to maintain strong adhesion to the bed while printing.

Screen Shot 2015-04-30 at 3.02.14 PM
PRO TIPS
Zortrax owners get reduced prices on filament, lowering each 1Kg spool of standard filament to $19.99.
WHY TO BUY
Auto calibration, easy-to-use software. Great for workplaces where quality, reliably, and ease of use are highly important. An excellent choice for people who need the durability of ABS without all of the warping and frustration.

No Temp Control, ABS Only

The Zortrax software does not allow for user temperature control and is built for printing in ABS only. I’ve always found ABS to be smelly, warp-prone, and generally difficult to work with, but the M200 does a great job of preventing warping by using a perforated bed and raft system that holds the prints down tight.

Zortrax makes two lines of filament, Z-ABS and Z-ULTRAT, both of which are formulated to work well on the M200. The Z-ABS is just standard ABS filament that works well and costs only $20. The Z-ULTRAT has a high hardness and low elasticity level of deformation, but costs $50. We ran the test prints in Ultimachine ABS, which yielded beautiful prints, but I found that support material wasn’t as easy to remove as it was when using the filaments designed for the machine.

Conclusion

I recommend the Zortrax M200 to anyone looking for a machine that can print large, precise, and durable prints without requiring a lot of time to fiddle with settings or breaking the bank.

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Nick Parks is an engineering intern at MAKE, and he’s studying mechanical engineering at UC Irvine. He likes to build and take apart things to make products better or create something new. He enjoys working at MAKE and likes to help other people build projects of their own.

View more articles by Nick Parks

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