Saturday, July 27, 2024

Plate Lab - Building Plates Letter Soup - From Engineering to PEI to PEZ to Lightyear to Garolite to FR4...

3D Printing + Plate Lab

Engineering High Temperature Smooth Textured PEI PEX PEZ PEY Cryogrip SSS Polyurea FR4 GS10 TK99 Honeycomb Cube Wham Bam Lightyear...

My god! It's enough to drive one crazy! So, I've ordered a few different ones, and have been scouring the Internet for more information. And to be perfectly honest: it's a confusing mess.


Known and / or tested plates

In the coming weeks months years I'm going to look into all those different plates (well, not all, only those I can afford 😏) and will post my findings on this blog (and use this post as an overview).

I don't have the money and the time to test them all! If you think this little investigation deserves yet another plate, then contact me. Send me plates and filament... and time 🤣 Once I've looked at a plate I'll add a post and a link, where relevant.


Some of the vendors I have (and haven't) tried:

  • 3D ManufacturinG
  • Bambu Lab
  • Begrint 3D
  • Bigtreetech
  • Darkmoon
  • Holden Enterprises
  • Juupine 3D
  • Lightyear
  • VPS Data


Will be continued. The list and links above will be updated whenever I find something interesting and affordable, or when I've learned something new.

Note: I'm using a Bambu Lab X1C, but all this building plate related stuff pretty much applies to all models and brands. You won't hear me talking glass and kapton tape and the like... It's 2024 and we're past that 😁


Warning!

For X1C / X1 / P1P / P1S / A1 users.

A warning about the use of after-market / third party plates: Make sure the 'head cleaning' area has a gap matching those of the official plates, and that the head cleaning area flexes enough to handle the head cleaning operation,

When in doubt compare it with how much a Bambu plate bends in this area.

If you use an aftermarket plate made of thicker or stronger steel, or one that has this area covered with a film or fiber based material, then you could damage your printer!


Here's how a well used plate looks in that area:


Film / Powder coating / Spray coating / Non-coated

There are two different ways to add a surface to a plate: either it's directly 'sprayed' onto the plate, or it's a film glued upon the plate.

Most smooth surfaces are films (stickers). You could buy new stickers and replace old (damaged) ones, but prices have gone down far enough that it might be cheaper to simply buy a new plate. Smooth PEI, PEO, PEY, and Kapton and the like are examples.

Most textured surfaces are powder coated, but the materials may differ from product to product, in nature, quality, or height of the material. Some are sprayed. Structured PEI is always powder coated.

PEZ, Polyurea and Cryogrip are sprayed, not powder coated (it's hard to get info on this), but the effects are the same: they have a kind of structure, and when the surface is damaged you can't repair them.

I'm not sure how Epoxy Resin is applied, but I suspect it to be sprayed.

Here's an example image, showing a carrier (Spring Steel Plate) with a smooth, glued-on film (PET.Carbon) and a powder coated Textured PEI:


Marketing

Some of the mess surrounding plate surfaces is deliberate (read: marketing). Some of it is the typical 'sell cheap no understand question' attitude of the average AliExpress seller.


Do you need more than one?

Maybe. Well, yes, though you don't need tons of 'm. You're probably fine with one Textured PEI, and one Smooth PEI. That's it.

But they're not expensive, so there's nothing wrong with having a spare plate, or a plate for a specific purpose. You could buy them directly from the manufacturer of your printer, from independent suppliers (Lightyear, Wham Bam), on Amazon, or through AliExpress. Some are pretty cheap, others... not so much.

Be aware though! The same thing may go for hugely different prices, driven by name, platform... or perhaps even the direction of the wind, who knows?

You probably want...

  • a (golden) textured PEI plate
  • a smooth PEI plate
  • for fancy surfaces maybe one of those PET / PEY / PEO / whatever plates
  • for difficult / low temperature prints a PEZ / Polyurea / Cryogrip plate (not sure)
  • those going for exotics may consider TK99 / FR4 / Wham Bam / Lightyear

So, 2 to 3 plates for the majority of us, and the experts should perhaps have 5 or 6? Maybe?


Note on cheaper plates

Although the plates may look the same (at first glance, anyway) they may be made from a different material, be less durable, have a different structure shape or height, or the spring steel sheet itself may have a different thickness, or contain less iron and thus harder to hold on the bed, or they might have sharp edges...

And for Bambu X1C owners: cheaper plates often don't have the plate Aruco code.

On the other hand, there won't be that many manufacturers, so the cheap plates might be perfectly fine.

Anyway, I hope to provide you with a little resource over the coming weeks. To wrap this up, here's a little example of how hard it is to make some sense of the specifications - if there are any - or get straightforward answers from your average (AliExpress) supplier...

(These are just two examples, and they're both funny and sad.)


AliExpress

Epoxy Resin Surface

I found a new type of plate with a (quote) "Epoxy Resin Surface". But no description whatsoever. So, let's ask...

Talking to a vendor on AliExpress is always an interesting experience. Part of that is the language barrier, and part of it is the most capitalistic attitude I ever encountered: "We have your money, so what's your problem?"

Here's an example of your typical AliExpress customer service chat... Let's try the Begrint 3D Store:

Vendor - Hello. Welcome to the BEGRINT 3D Store. Nice to serve you. If you have any questions, you can leave a message first. I will reply to you as soon as I receive it, Thank you！

Me - You have a new product, https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/01234567890.html, an epoxy raisin plate. The description is unclear. Is that a sheet of FR4 or similar glued to a metal plate? Or is this something different? Are there any specifications?

Vendor - No, epoxy resin is a new material, which has been optimized in all aspects, such as easier to take off the model, etc. We have introduced it on the details page. The main reason is that this product is very cost-effective.

Me - So, it is an epoxy layer on top of a metal plate? What are print / bed temperatures and advantages / disadvantages? How to clean it? How does it compare with PEI textured? Thank you for your answers

Vendor - Sir, you can buy a piece and use it in person. The price is not expensive.

Sorry. What? Just tell the customer to buy it and figure it out him / herself?

How difficult is it to write down the specifications in your add / product description? Damn it, do you think your customers don't want to KNOW what they are going to buy?!?

Vendor: You can refer to Creality latest PEI, which is the same material.

Seriously?

Okay... PEI <> Epoxy Resin, but we'll give it a shot. Google leads me to https://www.creality3dofficial.eu/products/creality-epoxy-resin-build-plate-235%C3%97235mm, and there I read:

The black textured PEI has high adhesion to prevent the model from warping while printing.

Wait. Sorry, again? So now it is a simple (black) PEI plate with a different name? Call me confused. And of course, no specs.

Let's try the Creality store https://store.creality.com/eu/search?q=epoxy+raisin+build+plate.

No Epoxy Resin plate listed. So, what is it? I suspect it's just a black PEI plate, one side spray panted, the other side a film, and that's probably it. I have no idea. Creality doesn't tell me, and neither does the AliExpress vendor.

(Actually, the plate is in, and it definitely isn't standard PEI.)


BIQU / Bigtreetech

Apparently, BIQU and Bigtreetech are the same company? Oh well. Tell me, Bigtreetech, what is the difference between a 'BIQU SSS Super Spring Steel Sheet'  (which is more expensive on Ali Express than on the BIQU website) and a regular Textured PEI plate?

Let's have a look at it on AliExpress: the Bigtreetech official store (of which there is more than one?) sells these plates. Here is a nice collection.

So, they sell both a gold dual side textured PEI plate as well as a black SSS plate. But what's the difference?

After trying to contact Bigtreetech, and unable to figure out which one is the real Bigtreetech (I found several official shops on AliExpress, and one website which looks like a factory outlet) and dropping my question on all those sites I didn't get a single reply... Which is a petty because Bigtreetech seems to have an interesting range of products.

Let's see what actually arrives on my doorstep... will it be the nice plate with the squares, or the ugly new version with either the blue or red text along the side?

Will be continued...


Links

Some links (may be outdated, wrong, or even annoying) but they also might provide some info and touch upon a specific subject.


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