Say Hello to Our ProJet 660Pro

Hey there Internets, my name is Arun and I am one of the 3D Printing Specialist for Microsol Resources. You may have met me while I was servicing the many 3D printers we support in the NYC metro area. We here at Microsol Resources love 3D printing and believe it will change the future, we also feel that all of our clients should be working with this breakthrough technology in some form or another.

As many of you may know 3D printing is a process of additive manufacturing by which a physical model is created from a digital drawing or CAD file. The model is built layer by layer from the ground up and keeps going until it completes the job. There are many different kinds of 3D printers out in the market now and they all use different technologies to create a physical model but we find that we love the output of our 3D Systems ProJet 660.

The ProJet 660 is one of the fastest and most efficient full color printers out in the market right now. It uses the Color Jet Printing technology which has the ability to print in full color (CMYK) at a resolution of 600×540 dpi and a minimum layer thickness of 0.1mm. The build bed is 10x15x8 inches and can print multiple models in the same bed at an estimated speed of 1.1 inch an hour. The ProJet 660 printer doesn’t need supports structures like most other printers because it uses the VisiJet PXL Core build material to support the model as it is being built.

The model or models are built by having the print heads lay the VisiJet PXL Clear binder one slice at a time on top of a layer of Core and then it drops the build bed down slightly and spreads another layer of Core. The ProJet 660 will repeat this process over and over until it finishes with your model and the only thing left then to do is to extract the model, clean it off and infiltrate if needed. Compared to other types of 3D printers, we feel the workflow of the ProJet 660 is a lot smoother and streamlined, and once you’ve gotten past the learning curve (which is very minimal), you’ll be on your way to producing models non-stop.

This is one of the reasons we like the Color Jet Printing process so much, we can go from printing to a ready model in a very short amount of time. Of course it does depend on the complexity and detail of the model but it is a much faster technology and easier to manage then other 3D printers in the market. The Color Jet Printing process is also the most efficient 3D printing technology we have seen with very little wasted materials. The VisiJet PXL Core is both the build and support material, it is re-useable as long as it is not touched by the VisiJet PXL binding fluid and can be reclaimed by the printers vacuum feeder system. The ProJet 660 is also the only professional printer we’ve seen that can print multiple models per build and have a consistent completion time because the print time is based on the total height of the build. This is great for our clients in the AEC industry that have multiple overlapping deadlines and need their projects printed yesterday 🙂

For the most part we have been selling 3D printers to Architectural, Engineering and Construction based firms and they really find that the ProJet X60 series fits their needs. The 3D models of buildings, bridges, MEP systems, etc, all help our clients convey their digital ideas into the physical world and this helps their audience picture the goal of the project more than any digital rendering can. But when our clients can’t print a model themselves they come to us and utilize our 3D print services.

Our printing team can print any model sent to us as long as it meets a few key requirements; like making sure the model is a closed solid, setting minimum layer thickness and exporting the model in the proper format (.STL, .FBX, .WRL, .VRML, etc.). For more information on our 3D printing best practices you should take a look at our file preparation guide on our main 3D printing page. Once we verify your models are ready to print and any changes have been approved, we’ll do our best to get you the model within 1-2 days.

Hopefully this brief overview of our ProJet 660 3D printer and 3D printing services will be helpful to you in the near future. Stay tuned to our blog for more user maintenance and usage tips to help keep your ProJet X60 series printer running smoothly and chugging out prints.

Have any questions? Or comments? Leave us a message below or on our Contact Us page and either Roger Liucci, Dolly Haardt or I will get in touch