The Fortus series of 3D printers, or additive manufacturing machines, is in no way designed for the everyday consumer. Instead Stratasys has positioned each of these machines as a high end industrial solution for manufacturing. Basically these machines are competitors to full fledged machine shops and injection molding machines. If their marketing videos do not make that point clearly one look at the material list does. The Fortus 900 can spit out parts in 5 different ABS blends (including a PC-ABS material). Additionally ULTEM, a flame retardant high performance thermoplastic, is also listed as a material. For a point, back when I worked for an injection molding manufacturer, our ULTEM blends were stored separate from other materials and in a clean room thanks to the hefty price tag attached (up to $250/lb).
Stratasys also has a more consumer friendly series of printers, called the Idea Series. These are the desktop versions which compete with other low cost printers. If 3D printing is truly the new “industrial revolution” the transition is more likely to first make waves in the existing industrial world and is thus the reason that the Fortus series are shown here and not others. Stratasys is a large organization and they hold some great IP that pertain to printers, their position in the industry and ability to sell to large scale manufacturers is certainly their strength.
Previous in the series “10 Unique 3D Printers”: Iris by Mcor
Next in the series “10 Unique 3D Printers”: M-Lab by ExOne
Read more about 3D Printing on 3DEngr