The real story behind Stratasys’ end of life notice for the Fortus 360mc and Fortus 400mc. Stratasys has a policy on their web site that states they will support a machine for seven years past the last sale date which for the 360MC and 400MC was February 18, 2016, more than seven years ago. Stratasys and their Resellers: PADT, CATI, GoEngineer, Trimech… are telling their customers the Fortus 360MC and 400MC are End of Life and they need to upgrade to a Fortus 380mc, 450mc or F770.
How long will Pivot AM Service provide Maintenance and Support for Fortus 360MC and Fortus 400MC?
Pivot AM Service is committed to supporting these T Class machines: Fortus 360MC and Fortus 400MC for at least another five years thru 2028. After all the best machine is a paid for 3d printer. You do not need to trade in your old Fortus 3d printer. The 380MC / 450MC have been overly cost engineered and are not as robust as their predecessors. Nor is the Fortus 450mc any faster than the 400mc. We also have the ability to upgrade a Fortus 360mc to a 400mc and all the material options the 400mc has including Ultem 9085 and Ultem 1010. If you keep the Fortus 400mc because it is running fine and bring in a 450mc now you have to manage inventory for two types of Foundation sheets, two types of eeprom chips on the canister. It is the same style of material canister but with different encryption so hence a different eeprom chip which is not compatible with the earlier Fortus 400mc.
Trade in tricks on old Fortus 3d Printers.
If you’re still adamant about getting a Fortus 450mc we have pre-owned systems that are less expensive and we will take your 400mc on trade in just like the Reseller. In fact a good trick to double dip is to get a trade in value from the Reseller. Then have the Reseller change it from a trade in to a discount because you’re going to keep or sell your existing machine. Call Pivot AM and sell us the machine then you get a machine discount matching the trade in credit and you get revenue from the machine sale to us. Full disclosure, we won’t pay the same as the trade in credit because it is artificially inflated as an incentive to upgrade. However, whatever we pay is on top of the Reseller discount.
If you like getting your Maintenance and Materials from Stratasys or their resellers like GoEngineer or CATI you still can based on this info gleaned from www.stratasys.com
Is Maintenance still available from Stratasys on the Fortus 360MC and Fortus 400MC?
Maintenance is available for the 360mc /400mc, HOWEVER, Stratasys is now able to stop providing Maintenance as of 2/18/2023 because it has been seven years since they stopped selling the platform. But as you can see from their web site, while we are past the seven year mark, Stratasys is still offering Maintenance and Materials (the two green Available fields)
| Fortus 360MC / 400MC | 2/18/2016 | Minimum 7 years post End-of-Sale | Available | Available |
What are Stratasys End of Life Policy details?
More of their policy here if you care to read it:
Stratasys might offer service contracts for these “End of Service” printers (after the Technical Support Period). In the case where Stratasys does not offer a service contract after the Technical Support Period, Stratasys does not guaranty the availability of spare parts and know-how for servicing printers after the Technical Support Period.
Prior to an on-site service visit under pursuant to charges for time and material, your Stratasys representative will inform you of the possibility that needed parts and skills might not be available. It will then be up to you to decide how to proceed.
