In the beginning 😇 Bambu Lab was shipping the X1C with random plates. These days they all seem to come with the gold colored textured PEI plate (at least here in NL). A sensible thing, as it's one of the easiest to use 😏
Textured PEI doesn't just make sense for Bambu Lab owners... they make sense for every 3D printer with a heated bed.
Textured PEI
Welcome... to the working man's plate!
Textured PEI plates - regardless of printer and model - are typically powder coated steel spring plates. The offer good adhesion for a multitude of materials, and are tough enough to withstand the rigors of materials such as PETG and ABS. If you want to print Nylon or PC things get more complicated, and you're probably going to need glue.
Summary
Quick preview: There are some differences, but you shouldn't be too afraid of the Textured PEI clones on sites like AliExpress, at least not if you have a P1 or X1. I could find some differences, but all the textured plates I tried (with the exception of the Bigtreetech Panda SSS plate) worked as expected.
That's not entirely surprising, as (in the end) most one- our doublesided Textured PEI plates are manufactured in the same factory... Still, a vendor could have picked a bad batch, do poor quality control, or opt for a thinner product. Let's see if I run into any of those...
What texture?
I've dedicated this post to textures, and how (I think) they work.
The (Initial) Candidates
From top to bottom, left to right:
First column:
1. Textured PEI / Smooth PEI - Juupine
2. Textured PEI / PET Carbon - 3D ManufacturinG Store
3. Textured PEI - Juupine
4. Textured PEI / Smooth PEI - 3D ManufacturinG Store
5. Cryogrip (Polyurea) - Bigtreetech
6. Textured PEI - Bambu Lab
Second column:
7. Blank plate - Twotrees
8. Honeycomb Pei - 3D ManufacturinG Store
9. Epoxy Resin - Begrint
10. Textured PEI Black - Begrint
11. SSS - Bigtreetech
12. Textured PEI - Bigtreetech
The resulting prints
Some work better, some worse, and they all leave different patterns on your print. Which textured PEI plate leaves what kind of pattern may be more defined by the production batch than brand or type, with the exception of Bigtreetech's Panda plates. I would steer clear of the Bigtreetech Panda SSS plate. It's not worth the effort.
To my susprise, the Epoxy Resin plate worked well. I'm not sure yet what to think of the Polyurea / 'Cryogrip' stuff. Except for some power saving I'm not sure I see the advantage.
From left to right (opposite of the video above): Bambu Textured PEI, Bigtreetech SSS, Polyester Resin, Smooth Pei:
- From - where I found it, purchased it, or the brand
- Color - obvious 😉
- Weight - the weight of the plate including coating / sticker / film, if any
- Thickness - the thickness of the plate with coating / film, and if possible without
- Holes - if it included the holes like the original plates (do they have any use?)
- Head wiping section - details on the head wiper section of the plate, if relevant
- Magnetic hold - I don't have tools to measure this, see note below
- Aruco - if it includes a code
- Cleaning - cleaning instructions, if known
- Note - other remarks
- Printed - materials I printed on the plate (will update as I go)
- Full test - did I run a dedicated printing test on this plate (for most: no)
- Link - possible source (you might want to look for alternatives!)
Thickness
The structure and thickness of the surface coating depends on the used coating, and the way it is applicated. Although there might only be a few factories where these are made - and so different products might actually be made at the same place, often from the same materials - I did spot a few differences between the textured PEI plates from different suppliers.
Head wiping section
You want a flexible nozzle wiping area, preferably without coating. If this area is made of glass fiber it will wear down your printer's nozzle.
Magnetic hold
The item 'Magnetic hold' describes how well the plate held on to the bed. Note that I don't have a way to properly measure them, so this score is completely subjective, and compared to the one and only original Bambu build plate I own. It's also strongly affected by the thickness of any film or coating. On top of that, the magnetic hold may vary by temperature, and the flexibility of the plate will influence my perception. In other words: this is totally subjective.
I use the Bambu plate as a reference, ie. 0. Plates that are worse get a -1 or -2. Plates that are better will get a +1, etcetera.
I haven't had any plates that were unusable due to low iron content, but there certainly is some difference - something you should take into account when printing large, strongly warping objects.
Aruco
Aruco codes are of interest to Bambu X1C users. You can ignore that if you use some other brand / model. See also here.
Cleaning
Easy. Check out this page. If you hate doing the dishes you're in troubles though 😎
Glue
Glue is only used on textured PEI as a release agent. You won't need it for PLA, PETG, and ABS. You will need it for Nylon and PC.
Links
As for the links: I make no money on any, don't endorse the links or suppliers (unless I explicitly state so) and if anyone sends me a plate I will be bloody honest about it.
Printed / Tested
I'll update this page as time passes. I'm still looking for a decent set of test objects to print, to check adhesion, detail adhesion, smoothness, and accuracy... Will be continued, but for now I've added some placeholders, just to remind me.
General quality
Sharp edges, diagonal cuts, wrong sizes, poorly glued films, wrong type of glue, bend or damaged or broken... Everything is possible.
I haven't seen any serious problems on the plates I bought, but I might have been lucky.
Things I can't test or don't know (yet)
Flatness
Are expensive plates flatter than cheaper ones? I don't know. It might not matter much with textured PEI, but it might make a lot more difference when it comes to G10 and FR4! Now our Bambu X- and P-series have automatic bed leveling, but still...
Durability
How long will a plate last? I just can't print 10000 prints per plate, so I don't know. Sorry. Maybe brand plates last a 100 times longer? Or maybe it doesn't matter... if a cheap plate lasts 10000 prints, and an expensive one 100000, but you only print a 1000 objects...
Fumes and other... euh... 'shit'
There's no telling what vendor 'random' threw into their spraying / coating mix. Perhaps the plate is releasing very toxic chemicals as you are printing. That's impossible to tell (and brand vendors that buy stuff from China, as as an OEM product, or just as materials, run the same risk).
Maybe they torture fairies to get a decent coating. I. Don't. Know. (Members of the Fairy Liberation Front who have undeniable proof should contact me.)
1. Textured PEI / Smooth PEI
- From: Juupine (AliExpress)
- Color: gold (textured), gold (smooth)
- Weight: 242 gr
- Thickness: 0.75 / 0.45 mm
- Holes: no
- Head wiping section: coated / blank
- Magnetic hold: -2
- Aruco: no (I added a sticker)
- Note: lower magnetic hold
- Printed: PETG
- Full test: no
- Link: Juupine (AliExpress)
Coating seems similar to Juupine Dual Textured PEI.
Not all textured plates are created equally. I own several single sided Textured PEI plates (where the opposite side features a PET.Carbon or Smooth PEI film), and some are all just a little different.
This is a thick, tough plate, but it contains less iron than some other plates. Most likely this isn't inherent to all Juupine products (see their other plates) and is this simply the batch from the factory they cut and / or resold.
2. Textured PEI / PET.Carbon
- From: Juupine (AliExpress)
- Color: gold (textured), black (PET.Carbon)
- Weight: 245 gr
- Thickness: 0.8, 0.4 (wiper area)
- Holes: no
- Head wiping section: coated / film free
- Magnetic hold: 0
- Aruco: no
- Cleaning: only use water / soap for the PET.Carbon side
- Note: none
- Printed: some PETG and PLA, no issues
- Full test: no
- Link: 3D ManufacturinG Store (AliExpress)
The PET.Carbon is another PEO /PEY variant, see here.
Coating of the textured side is similar to Juupine single sided plate, though the color is more shiny.
3. Textured PEI (gold)
- From: Juupine (AliExpress)
- Color: gold
- Weight: 277 gr
- Thickness: 0.65 / 0.7 mm
- Holes: yes
- Head wiping section: coated
- Magnetic hold: 0
- Aruco: yes (new textured PEI)
- Note: none
- Printed: ABS, PLA, PETG, no issues
- Full test: no
- Link: Juupine (AliExpress)
The structure feels a little finer, and the coating every so slightly thinner than the original. The plate worked fine on multiple PETG prints, though it seems to have a tiny bit less grip than the original plate. (Some smaller objects worked their way off the plate, but it simply might be a case of not cleaning properly. I've learned since then 😁
In general, a good backup for the original.
I'm a little puzzled by one claim on AliExpress, regarding the thickness:
If you claim your plate is 'thickened steel plate' and you explicitly show it is 0.8 mm, then why do you ship one plate of 0.65 and one of 0.7 mm? Let's see if and what they reply.
I compared both plates (I have two of these, ordered on different dates) and noticed a slight difference in color. The weight difference is just 2 gr which doesn't explain the difference in thickness. Perhaps an ever so slightly different coating?
4. Textured PEI / Smooth PEI
- From: 3D ManufacturinG Store (AliExpress)
- Color: gold / gold
- Weight: 242 gr
- Thickness: 0.7 / 0.4 mm
- Holes: no
- Head wiping section: coated / blank
- Magnetic hold: -1
- Aruco: no (added the sticker myself)
- Note: none
- Printed: textured: PLA, ABS, PETG, smooth: PLA, no issues
- Full test: no
- Link: 3D ManufacturinG Store (AliExpress)
Though the same color as the previous plate, this coating feels way different - much smoother. I added an Aruco sticker and used the PEI side to print some PETG without any problems. To be fair, it even had better adhesion for PETG than the default plate, probably due to the smoother structure.
The plate itself has a gold color on both sides (also on the non-structured, flat side). The applied PEI sticker is transparent.
I haven't tried to print anything on the smooth side yet.
Magnetic hold
I suspect all the cheap vendors get their plates from the same manufacturer / factory, and that differences are mostly due to different batches. In this specific case this plate is a little thinner than the nearly identical one I bought from Juupine, but its magnetic hold (if still a little weaker than the reference Bambu) is better.
That was a bit of a surprise. To make sure it wasn't my imagination I did a blind test, and picked 9 out of 10 times this one as the one with a better magnetic hold. Interesting... Does the iron content fluctuate? Does one plate bend more easy than the other? I don't know.
5. Cryogrip / Polyurea - Bigtreetech
- Color: grey
- Weight: 278 gr
- Thickness: 0.8 mm
- Holes: no
- Head wiping section: flat but coated
- Magnetic hold: 0
- Aruco: yes (Old Textured Plate)
- Cleaning: only water, no chemicals
- Note: none
- Printed: PLA
- Full test: no
- Link: Bigtreetech
This isn't PEI but Polyurea, and it's sold by multiple parties under different names (PEZ and polyurea). Some make bold claims, but I've compared a no-brand Plyurea plate with the Bigtreetech plate, and they are identical, up to the printed text. (Yeah, Bigtreetech didn't even take the effort of printing their own logo on it.)
Most PEZ / polyurea plates have a slightly different size than the regular build plates. The plyurea plates typically have a slighly bigger 'handle' area.
Here's a size comparison between regular build plates and the Cryogrip plate: (they're not wider, only deeper)
Someone on AliExpress figured out that there are different colors of pulyurea, and now sells a blue one... assuming it's a real product.
Darkmoon sells a similar plate called the 'ICE plate', and they claim it's their own custom composition of polyurea. Their plate does look different, but I wouldn't be able to say if the coating is any different... Frankly, I doubt it, as there's only so much you can do with polyurea. I can't afford the additional costs of getting plates from the states into the Netherlands (nearly doubling the price due to taxes and shipping) so I'm not able to check if there is any difference in usage.
Still, if the images on the site match the actual product then they do use a different manufacturing line (look at the shape of the handle, where the 'Darkmoon' text is printed).
6. Textured PEI (new, gold) - Bambu Lab
- From: Bambu Lab
- Color: gold
- Weight: 275 gr
- Thickness: 0.7 mm
- Holes: yes
- Head wiping section: coated
- Magnetic hold: 0 (reference)
- Aruco: yes (new textured plate)
- Note: used as reference plate
- Printed: PLA, ABS, PETG, no issues
- Full test: no
- Link: Bambu EU Shop
This is the plate that's by default included with the X1C here in the Netherlands. It has a golden color, some Bambu Lab markings, and an Aruco code. Thus far this plate has served me well, printing PLA, ABS, and PETG, all without problems.
For users of the X1C and related machines: I use this plate as a reference.
Note that the original Bambu plate is 4 (four!) times as expensive as the clones. That's... a bit much.
X. Textured PEI (old, black) - Bambu Lab
- From: Bambu Lab
- Color: black
- Aruco: Old Textured PEI
- Note: no longer for sale
I don't own this one.
It's supposed to be similar to the gold plate, just an older version. The coating is rumored to let loose after a large number of prints. The Aruco code is a little different from the golden variant.
7. Blank plate
- From: Two Trees
- Color: none (blank metal)
- Weight: 216 gr
- Thickness: 0.35 mm
- Holes: no
- Magnetic hold: -1
- Link: Begrint (AliExpress)
I included this plate merely for reference. I'm planning to make my own G10 / FR4 plates, and that's what this one is going to be used for.
The magnetic hold appears to be a little lower than the original Bambu plate. Not unusable, but definitely noticable.
It's surprisingly hard to find blank plates, even on AliExpress!
8. Textured Honeycomb PEI (gold)
- From: 3D ManufacturinG Store
- Color: gold
- Weight: 262 gr
- Thickness: 0.5 mm
- Holes: no
- Head wiping section: coated
- Magnetic hold: 0
- Aruco: no
- Note: none
- Printed: none
- Full test: no
- Link: 3D Manufacturing Store (AliExpress)
A textured PEI plate where the PEI is partially raised by an underlaying hexagonal pattern. Printing on this one is going to be interesting. It clearly isn't a film (like the PEY / PEO plates), so may actually work for other materials as well. I haven't tried this one yet, waiting for the perfect project / victim - I mean, test subject 😁 - though I expect it to behave like any other PEI plate.
Note that the pricing of these hexagonal plates is all over the place.
9. Textured Epoxy Resin
- From: Begrint
- Color: black
- Weight: 279 gr
- Thickness: 0.6 mm
- Holes: yes
- Head wiping section: coated
- Magnetic hold: 0
- Aruco: no (I glued a sticker to the plate)
- Cleaning: as a regular textured PEI plate
- Note: none
- Printed: PLA, PETG
- Full test: no
- Link: Begrint (AliExpress)
This isn't PEI, though it is sometimes sold as. It will give a finer texture to everything printed, though it doesn't release printed objects as well.
I've printed PLA and PETG without glue, but I suspect you'll need glue for TPU and ABS. I'm not sure you should print PC on this plate, and would be careful with temperatures above 90 degrees.
The Darkmoon Satin plate surely looks as if it is using the same material. If Darkmoon thinks theirs is different and better, then they're free to send me one of their plates and I will give a honest comparison 😏 Perhaps Darkmoon's plate is a slighly different material withstanding higher temperatures? Who knows, but it looks pretty much the same thing to me...
10. Textured PEI (black)
- From: Begrint
- Color: black
- Weight: 274 gr
- Thickness: 0.7
- Holes: yes
- Head wiping section: coated
- Magnetic hold: 0
- Aruco: no
- Note: none
- Printed: some PETG, no issues
- Full test: no
- Link: Begrint (AliExpress)
I suspect some other manufacturing process was used for this plate. The coating used was altered in some way to make it black, and that alteration may have affected not just the look, but also the feel of the plate. It's supposed to be just a different color, but the texture feels different to the touch. It appears the texture has about the same thickness, but the ridges are a little smoother.
X. Textured PEI (black)
- From: AliExpress
- Color: black
- Note: wrong size, couldn't test
I accidentally bought the wrong size, so I haven't used it to print anything. When I touch the surface, I can detect a different kind of material and structure when compared with the golden Bambu Lab plate, even more so than the Begrint black Dual Textured PEI plate. This one is even more 'plasticky', for a lack of better words.
I'm not totally sure this one is actually PEI.
11. Panda Textured SSS Building Plate (black)
- From: Panda / Bigtreetech (AliExpress)
- Color: black
- Weight: 223 gr
- Thickness: 0.5 mm
- Holes: no
- Head wiping section: coated
- Magnetic hold: -1
- Aruco: yes (new textured plate)
- Cleaning: see here
- Note: It's hard to get decent answer from Bigtreetech / BIQU
- Printed: PETG, poor adhesion
- Full test: no
- Link: Product / Bigtreetech Official Store AliExpress / Bigtreetech product page
Here's a page fully dedicated to this 'marvel' of technology...
I can't think of a reason to buy this one, instead of a regular cheap double sided regular textured PEI.
Go Gold!
Did you know this plate has a golden sibling / successor? That one does appear to be a PEI variant - that is to say, it passed an early print - but the plate itself is just as thin.
12. Panda Textured PEI Building Plate (gold)
- From: Panda / Bigtreetech (AliExpress)
- Color: gold
- Weight: 223 gr
- Thickness: 0.5 mm
- Holes: no
- Head wiping section: coated
- Magnetic hold: -1
- Aruco: yes (new textured plate)
- Note: It's hard to get decent answer from Bigtreetech / BIQU
- Printed: PETG, no issues
- Full test: no
- Link: Product / Bigtreetech Official Store AliExpress / Bigtreetech product page
Same plate as the black SSS, but this time in gold. But lo and behold! It's not the same material!
Though this plate appears to use the same metal core (total thickness 0.5 mm) the coating - if quite smooth - is definitely something else. It might even be PEI...
Links
- Golden textured versus aftermarket - Reddit
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