If Formlabs is against going back to the thing that made the most sense…the jugs…I guess we could use the Sinterit Nylon 12 or at least ask them for or “acquire” one of their “Cans with Funnel attachments” to transfer the Formlabs powder from the bags into.
However, Sinterit cans are also 6kg (as this is obviously the perfect amount for the current Sift Hopper) so you would still be trying to “pinch off the bag” before it overflows and creating big dust clouds in the process.
This may however be, easier to transfer powder into (the big can opening) versus us trying to funnel a 10kg bag back into the original Formlabs 6kg Jugs… or the Sift.
I really hope though…that whoever had the brilliant idea to save a buck and switch from the jugs to the garbage bags of powder…can suck up their pride and just go back to the logical solution.
The 6kg Jugs
The fact that all the other material types are still being sold in the jugs…still gives me hope that we will roll back this decision
I don’t care what contraption you have in mind… but dealing with an oversized 10kg bag of powder when the hopper will only ever need half of that at a time…you will still be trying to pinch it off mid stream and be dealing with dust in the air from that process while possibly be introducing additional contaminants into the mix before using the rest of the bag a second time.
At that point, I’m sure adding a built in “dump valve” or anything else to each bag…will offset the buck or two saved from going from jugs to a bag of powder… so I’m sure the solution will be something “we have to print and stab/install into the bag”.
It would be one thing if we both were saving money from this change from 6kg jugs to a 10kg garbage bag…but I am not seeing a big cost savings and the process and mess is definitely not worth it over the perfect old jug process.
Out of all the advances in printing technology we could be talking about…I can’t believe this is even being discussed and thought over…just put the material back in the jugs or switch to a can and funnel system like everyone else! (in 6kg) Haha
Excellent, I’ll pass this along. Could you clarify the location and quantity of the holes you found in the bag? Were they concentrated in the spout area, or along a particular edge? This info will help our supplier to track down the source of the problem and get it resolved.
It was a bit difficult to get an exact count of the holes, as there are quite a few and they’re particularly small—especially since I can only see the ones exposed near the top after using some of the powder. That said, I’ll provide a rough estimate.
I’m not sure which holes were actually responsible for the powder escaping, as the entire bag had powder clinging to it when the box was first opened.
Most of the holes appear to be concentrated on the face opposite the spout and along the seams (as shown in the first image). I counted roughly 60 in that area. On the face adjacent to the spout (second image), there are an additional 5 to 10 holes.
If you’re responding to me, I wasn’t clear. I made funnels that fit the cartridge so you can dump it back into jugs. Honestly, with how messy the material is, the easiest way to transfer it into jugs was to fill up the fresh hopper, fill a cartridge with fresh powder then transfer the cartridge to the jug.
Just happened to open this thread. I’m a Form 3 Early owner. This Fuse 1 powder packaging/handling issue is just one more reason why I will think long and hard about buying any other printers from Formlabs.
I discovered that the 10kg bags are perfect for the blast hopper. The bags are stiff enough to free stand and the best method I found for dispensing the new powder also makes it the best method for accepting the waste powder. I tried this today with great success and zero mess.
That said, the bags I have appear to be mildly higher quality than the ones I have seen in this thread.
I have now made the switch back to the original cover in the Sift.
Not only does it look better this way, the flat surface also makes it easier to store our component boxes and the surface is easier to clean. My OCD needs that.
We have now ordered extra new powder containers, which we fill with the powder from the bags using a funnel.
Yes, this creates a slight mess and the workflow is not quite as clean as when the powder comes directly in canisters, but it’s not particularly bad either.
We now always order our PA12 in 20 kg increments, i.e. 2 bags. If we then fill both bags directly into our own canisters in one go, there’s no need to store half-full bags somewhere in between.
We have used 3L canisters here. They are slightly smaller than the original Formlabs canisters, but are very handy and easy to use and fit in the shelf or drawer due to their lower height. Otherwise, 5L canisters might be more suitable.
Because of another recent purchase, I realized again how unwieldy such canisters can be when disposing of them. The advantage of the bags is that we can now order 20 kg of powder and, when compressed, they take up much less space in our waste disposal system than 20 kg in canisters.
