What Prusa do here is complete their own R&D and testing, which they say they tested for over 1million hours.

They then send out the first batch of printers that were ‘already made and ready for distribution’ upon launch. There is a delay between this first batch, and the next batch of printers going out (and especially the kits) because Prusa are awaiting customer feedback on any potential issues when printers are used on a wider scale outside of their farm/testing conditions. 

These issues are minimised/rectified and a firmware update (or two) is released to address said issues. This is a bit of a rush job, hence why their engineers work flat out, since the second batch of new orders are then ready to ship. During this time they do not send out kits as they want printers to be built in house in order to eliminate any issues that arise from customers themselves via the self build. 

The kits generally go out last, since they need to be sure everything with the printers is good before sending self-build kits out. That way they know the printer is good, and any potential new issue someone reports could be down to how the customer built the unit. 

That’s how I think it works…….I do agree though - if printers have been damaging themselves, Prusa should put it right. If BambuLabs can send all customers who have purchased a P1P a free camera and LED light kit, not because of any issue, just because, then surely Prusa can supply a replacement part for an issue that came down to their own firmware causing it!

Posted by: @addohm

 

Doesn't make it okay when the product is damaging itself. Should everyone that gets damaged beds be relegated to buying more sheets after they finally fix the problem? No. We didn't purchase a beta product. 

Posted by: @antimix

 

Posted by: @stefan-3

But then, MK4 is advertised with "fan RPM monitoring" and it has a additional thermistor in the heatbreak ...

Why does the printer not recognize this problem on its own?

Simply because the firmware is still unripe. They said that basically they wrote from scratch a lot of stuff, and something cold be still buggy...

Future release of the firmware will surely fix it. They are having spotted issues, so may be that only in specific hardware circumstances, the bugs happen, and if so, those bugs are difficult to fix and will require a lot of user collaboration in github with the developers or with the support team.

Doesn't make it okay when the product is damaging itself. Should everyone that gets damaged beds be relegated to buying more sheets after they finally fix the problem? No. We didn't purchase a beta product. 

Posted by: @stefan-3

But then, MK4 is advertised with "fan RPM monitoring" and it has a additional thermistor in the heatbreak ...

Why does the printer not recognize this problem on its own?

Simply because the firmware is still unripe. They said that basically they wrote from scratch a lot of stuff, and something cold be still buggy...

Future release of the firmware will surely fix it. They are having spotted issues, so may be that only in specific hardware circumstances, the bugs happen, and if so, those bugs are difficult to fix and will require a lot of user collaboration in github with the developers or with the support team.

See around 9:00 on the video - first layer - hot end fan is not spinning at all whereas the part cooling fan is running full pelt

YES!

This is clearly the reason for his clogs! One has to ask why a person with apparently some experience in 3D printing does not recognize this??

But then, MK4 is advertised with "fan RPM monitoring" and it has a additional thermistor in the heatbreak ...

Why does the printer not recognize this problem on its own?

That's a 0.2mm sheet. The first photo is the first dent, I have maybe 5 dents now around that location. The second photo is blistering causes during the very first print - a pla temperature tower. 

Posted by: @iftibashir

I saw this mentioned on the live as well. They said its usually plastic that can be scraped off, and then it heals. You can print over the area with no visible marks seen on the print. I agree with the comments above though - this is more 'working around the issue' rather then admit it is there. This, along with the rattling noise issue they are looking into, could end up delaying the shipping of the kits though? I'm sure I read somewhere that they use the initial purchased batch as 'test' units to smooth out any issues before they will release the kit for shipping?

So much for their million+ hours worth of test printing on the MK4's prior to release! 

So much for their million+ hours worth of test printing on the MK4's prior to release! 

Posted by: @jsw

I'm wondering if there was so much pressure to get the new printer to ship that this was just one other issue that was known but put on the to-do list, kind of like the accelerated print times using the accelerometer as a guide?

That almost reminds me of a video (here?) of some kind of a Pinda issue causing the nozzle to slam hard into the build plate enough for it to visibly deform.

I've never heard of 'baking out' a deformity, and a search here did not reveal anything obvious.  I'm assuming this is to flatten the dent in the metal as opposed to smoothing over the PEI coating, correct?

I wonder if dry ice (or even freeze spray) might work, or might work better.  I know that dry ice is sometimes used to pop out minor dents in automobile bodies.