Just filled the Sift for the first time using the new bags and I really just don’t understand who thought this would be a great idea. It actually feels like you’re wasting powder…
Why Formlabs doesn’t offer both options to its clients? The bags for people who want higher quantity and the jugs for the others. In my opinion, it’s not fair to impose this solution to everybody.
Yea it is a mess but I would not expect the option to go back to jugs. This was obviously done for increased profit and/or easier manufacturing and packaging.
Since Nylon 12 obviously is the number one material, I’d assume if Nylon 12 GF and the other types actually increased in demand you’d see those switch to the “garbage bags” as well.
I wish I would have kept some of my old jugs as I would be doing what CarLayers is now doing…
Has anyone noticed that chinese brands are selling the same 10kg bags on the very same boxes…
The same happens with filaments same packaging, reel, bags and it turns out that there is one supplier for 5" different brands" of materials, all the same only “different” brand or colors availability.
It’s well known that FL produces machines in china, as well as many spare parts, to my knowledge the only thing produced in HQ are resins…
And I can confirm bags are terrible, the last one I received was punctured and there was nylon all inside the box.
Wow, how did you track down that manufacturer? There are so many similarities between the Kings and Formlabs powder specifications and packaging. I wonder if either company would ever confirm that Kings is the supplier.
A wild post on linked in point me that way 
I found the exact same image of this hand splint on Formlabs website. I wonder if Zongheng is just using Formlabs photos to market their SLS printers/material or if there is some underlying supplier connection…
Here are some more images that can be found on both sites.
I guess that considering the fact that only resins are being manufactured in Formlabs HQ and that we have seen Hexagon, artec and even zeiss rebranding chinese products the chances are high that any of the chinese suppliers you can find are actually the same manufacturing all powders and spareparts. Take a look at the Raise 3D SLS ecosystem being suspicious similar to the Fuse. That sift unit 
Does it matter who manufactures or produces the media as long as it works?
Not at all, it makes no difference if quality is maintained. This discussion started because some new packaging has been leaking since the bag material changed (and potentially the supplier?)
I also just thought FL should know that a company is using their (?) application example photos.
BTW Kings 3D does have some end users in the US but no distributors. Their price appears to be nearly 1/3 of Formlabs but who knows where that ends up after shipping.
Wow. Thank you for flagging this. We’ve become aware that some manufacturers are using Formlabs product photos in their marketing materials, and have reported the issue. To clarify, Formlabs is not a supplier to these manufacturers, nor do we have a partnership or supply relationship with them.
You can also try monkey powder, however it cost almost the same as FL material. Not sure if it’s an option.
Chinese brands are available for like $20USD per kg, so you can imagine the massive profit, because it’s even cheaper to produce in bulk.
Other than the bags being a mess and the extra possibility of contanaments making their way into the process over the original jugs, my concern is the introduction of humidity added to the powder through shipping, storage, etc before making its way to my climate controlled shop.
I am writing this as I grab another box/trash bag of Formlabs Nylon 12 from our warehouse here in the south east it is currently 100 degrees and 70%+ humidity. So, anything shipping to me is traveling through that before getting to my 70 degree/30% humidity controlled shop.
The jugs being in a solid plastic container that was sealed up until the point you “pop the top” was a sure thing but these new bags…we have already seen leaking bags from users…
The Sinterit powder at least comes in sealed cans with funnel attachment…
The trash bags were a terrible idea and definitely took this Formlabs Fuse process “downhill”.
I recorded our guy loading the sift with Nylon 12
Do you think Formlabs will ever listen to customer feedback and return the pitchers or will they try to maximize profit and our words are just a “cry in the dark”?
I would like to think some FLs engineers and employees are pulling for us. However, I doubt FLs will switch back to the jugs. The bags are likely more cost-effective for them (packaging and shipping) and have an environmental benefit (reduced plastic waste by 83%). This gives them both a financial and ethical incentive to keep the bags.
With that said, I think there’s a packing option out there that would satisfy all parties involved. Smaller bags (5/6kg) with an effective and resealable spout could be a good middle ground.
Let’s keep these threads active so FL knows we’re all not going to give up on this. We need a better solution!
The bag goes to the trash, is unusable after empty, the jugs can be repurposed you can wash them and put anything in there they can last for years before they really need to be discarded.
Many have stated they still have the and now treasure them for material management. I have a hard time believing the bag really reduces plastic waste by 83% beyond that the statement itself.
They are indeed a cry in the dark. Formlabs don´t care about our handling process as they are out to maximize profit, as any company would do.
Did they lower the price on powder when they removed the jugs and replace them with bags? No, cause they want to maximize profit and they jumped at the chance to make more money.
Willl they reintroduce the jugs? No, cause that would be a loss for Formlabs and only way to mitigate that is to raise the prices on powder. (and prices are insane as is) If they raised the prices, you can imagine the backlash that would cause and they don´t want to risk that. All they are hoping for is that this will blow over and we will shut up after a few months of crying and moaning about the bags.
I completely agree with this analysis; however, I think Formlabs will be forced to make a change eventually if their Fuse users continue to communicate their problems. We should keep sharing our experiences and try to prove the packaging change has resulted in more print failures.
I’ve had 2 prints fail due to contamination in the past week and have had about 5 prints total fail for the same reason. In a year or so of printing with the jugs, I never had a print fail due to contamination.
I can’t definitively claim this is attributable to the packaging change, but it absolutely seems to be correlated. Furthermore, the bags are more susceptible to damage during shipping. I’ve found three 10kg bags with a significant number of holes leaking powder.
We have found several small chunks of plastic in our Nylon 12 tough bags. Thankfully, most are too big to fit through the mesh on the bag funnel, but if there are big ones… I’m sure there are smaller ones.
