Breakaway Support versus SR-30

While eveyone breaks away SR-30 Support to post process their parts and speed up time in the lye bath it isn't actually considered a breakaway support. The SR stands for Soluble Release/Removal. 

Soluble Support was an "upgrade" from the original breakaway support. Their abbrevitions were Breakaway Support Technology (BST) and Soluble Support Technology (SST). In this industry every upgrade or advantage has a cost but also a downside. The downside of SST / Soluble: it's brittle, shatters and flys everywhere, cuts your hands up, often embeds in the part and needs the bath regardless slowing the whole process down. We are so far removed from BST availability that most think SST is both breakaway and soluble.

Our BST / Breakaway Support: processes using a Soluble eeprom chip and the same parameters as SR-30. It uses the same T12SR30 tips too; use a fresh tip when you switch over. The BST peels away in big chunks, fast: your part is ready to use or ship the same day.

BST is $160 per spool less than SR-30 for huge annual savings, especially if you are a school because Stratasys magnaimity or EDU discount isn't available on Soluble because they haven't any competition, except of course if you know about BST. 

Most service bureaus report the ability to use BST on 90% of jobs. It is easy to swtich back to SST, just unload the BST, change tips to the one you dedicated to SR-30, load the SR-30 canister, tip calibration and done. Or if you have multiple machines keep BST in most and SST in one and fewer support changes necessary. Add up your annual SR-30 spend, calculate 38% and that is your annual savings.

Do yourself a favor and try a spool of Breakaway Support made from High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS). The clean up process is night and day as compared to SST, you could almost call it pleasant. Upgrade :) to BST!