Powdercoated Spring steel sheets  

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

Yay, another thread on powder coated sheets

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

Yawn.

Old news.

They sent poor Shane to be the focus of your ire.

Just FYI.

I prefer the smooth PEI. I want the not yet made,ever (that I know of)... Powder coated smooth sheet.

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

Yay, another thread on powder coated sheets

What sheets? /s

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

What a scam

Even though it's kind of frustrating to not get what you expect, your received a the most expensive sheet of those 3 they offer and on top you get a discount once it's available. If you think that's a scam you haven't been scammed yet. Or maybe your a drama queen / king. Hmm

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

They sent Shane because he is one of the coolest, nicest guys at Prusa.

That said... can we buy steel sheets without the fancy graphics? I believe the screen printing was the issue, right? I am totally fine with blurry screen printing or even a straight black sheet.

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

Really? I Thought it was an issue with the coating coming off the sheet?

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

Yeah, I think the screen printing was a minor issue but the main fault was uneven pei coating that wasn't sticking to the sheets.
(possibly a degreasing issue or improper curing)

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

I had an idea for this problem and shared it in the website chat and in a commented on a prusa youtube video. Unfortunately it didn't get picked up.

So lets try again, this is what I commented on that video:

@Josef Prusa : An idea, I saw in a recent blog post that you guys still have issues with the coated steel plates. I quote: " Uneven coating is what we are solving right now and no amount of degreasing helps"

You guys may have considered or tested it allready but still thought I'd share it in case it was overlooked. Did you guys consider using plasma activation before coating? It is an alternative to common degreasing, much more effective and reliable.

I am referring to: https://www.prusaprinters.org/original-prusa-i3-mk3-3-months/
Here a wikipedia article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_activation
A video to get an idea how it works:
An application in a production process (skip to 34 sec): 8

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

It's harder then you think to swap out a bad supplier.

If you find a new supplier you usally need to do a audit of them (economical status, do they have ISO 9001 and so on). That is a 2-6 month process depending on your company structure. After that you can start making orders and general leadtime is 6-8 weeks, sometime it's 12 or even 20 weeks.

When you know your best time estimate is 4 months to change supplier you rader want the old supplier to shape up and deliver what you ask for.

No guarantee that your new supplier won't have issues also....

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

It's harder then you think to swap out a bad supplier.

If you find a new supplier you usally need to do a audit of them (economical status, do they have ISO 9001 and so on). That is a 2-6 month process depending on your company structure. After that you can start making orders and general leadtime is 6-8 weeks, sometime it's 12 or even 20 weeks.

When you know your best time estimate is 4 months to change supplier you rader want the old supplier to shape up and deliver what you ask for.

No guarantee that your new supplier won't have issues also....

I may be wrong but I doubt Prusa cares about ISO certification unless of course they are ISO certified... My guess is this is that Prusa has the sheets in inventory and subs out the powder coating. If powder coating were all I needed I personally could care less about ISO certification, I'd look at the shop to verify they could produce ask them for a sample and if I were satisfied with it I'd cut an order with liquidated damages, not sure how that would work in the EU though. If they were local they'd be seeing a lot of me during initial production and if they were out of my range I'd have a 3rd party inspector pay them visits.

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

That said... can we buy steel sheets without the fancy graphics? I believe the screen printing was the issue, right? I am totally fine with blurry screen printing or even a straight black sheet.

Screen printing causes inconsistent texture on printed part surface. Quite noticeable.

Really? I Thought it was an issue with the coating coming off the sheet?

I'm gonna agree with this. Not 100% sir though.

But you guys have only mentioned the minor problems.

I had a long convo with *** about this. Those are the easy fixes.

I'm not going to be the first to say anything, unless I asked permission to say it.

I will say this.

It's harder then you think to swap out a bad supplier.

That is a 2-6 month process depending on your company structure. After that you can start making orders and general leadtime is 6-8 weeks, sometime it's 12 or even 20 weeks.

When you know your best time estimate is 4 months to change supplier you rader want the old supplier to shape up and deliver what you ask for.

No guarantee that your new supplier won't have issues also....

Lol.
20 weeks in Joe's wet dreams.
Lol.

😆

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

That said... can we buy steel sheets without the fancy graphics? I believe the screen printing was the issue, right? I am totally fine with blurry screen printing or even a straight black sheet.

Screen printing causes inconsistent texture on printed part surface. Quite noticeable.

Very interesting. I bet it fills in just enough of the texture to make it a different surface quality. I wonder if the sheet was black and the logo was just printed in the non-printable front of the bed.

Oh, well. I'm sure they are figuring it out. I'm not worried like some of these guys haha. My PEI is doing awesome until then.

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

It's harder then you think to swap out a bad supplier.

That is a 2-6 month process depending on your company structure. After that you can start making orders and general leadtime is 6-8 weeks, sometime it's 12 or even 20 weeks.

When you know your best time estimate is 4 months to change supplier you rader want the old supplier to shape up and deliver what you ask for.

No guarantee that your new supplier won't have issues also....

Lol.
20 weeks in Joe's wet dreams.
Lol.

😆

Well 20 weeks is extreem. But I have seen it. That time it was a sensor with 20 weeks leadtime (was a "stock" sensor, not custom).

A spring steel plate with a fancy coating sound easy but apparently it is not. Remember it is a custom made part for one specific customer that has never been made i volume before.

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

Well 20 weeks is extreme. But I have seen it. That time it was a sensor with 20 weeks leadtime (was a "stock" sensor, not custom).

A spring steel plate with a fancy coating sound easy but apparently it is not. Remember it is a custom made part for one specific customer that has never been made i volume before.

Nope, that's the easy stuff. I'm sure you could get that with a few months of lead time.

It's more to do with the materials.

Here's a old quote of Joe.

The problem was, that powder coating of PEI hasn’t been invented yet 😀

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

Did anyone else NOT receive an email explaining the situation with the powder coated build surface? I have also not received a voucher for the discount. Have those been sent out yet?

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

I did not receive any particular email from Prusa. The last email I got was a newsletter on March 2nd.

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

I’m not finding the link, but I do recall reading that the vouchers will be issued AFTER the sheets become available in the store. So no one has vouchers yet.

I would guess the vouchers will come with an expiration date, so until they know when the part will be available they can’t set a reasonable expiration time on the voucher... Unsatisfying, but understandable. And this is just my guess; no insider information whatsoever.

As for an email, I’ve yet to receive any email from Prusa except for order confirmations. Envelope when chat support says someone would email me, I’ve received nothing. OTOH, I would be perfectly happy to learn that Prusa has no bulk email capability from their customer database. No spam makes me a happy customer, even if if means I have to regularly check in with the forum/blog/YouTube for news. (I do anyway)

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

I had a note in my printer to not ship until the powder coated sheets were available. They shipped the machine to me. Now, since there is an unknown date for the sheet I wanted to wait for, I am glad they shipped it. HOWEVER, I really would have wanted a heads up from them about it. I was not told anything.

Re: Powdercoated Spring steel sheets

After market double-side Powder coated pei spring steel sheet .

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CXV5W2W