Side note… I just had a Fuse 1+ swap done with all the issues I had over the year. With the brand new Fuse 1+ received last week, it is night and day in smoothness on the first print compared to the other that was really “clunky” in its movements.
On my second print however, I had to abort it due to contamination in the print. I knew this was going to happen as I had just went a few weeks without running a print and I still had a half bag of Nylon 12 rolled up tight and in the box but even so, it is tough not to think a small micro hair or dust clinging to that bag as you try and pour the rest into the fresh Sift hopper, is not going to happen.
Even if the bag is clean, “static cling” is a real thing and darn near impossible not to introduce contamination into the system…
I reported this and was told “We did transition to bags as most other SLS powder ecosystems are shipped in this way and we wanted to match industry standards.”
I think it will only change when we all start shifting to another brand of powder that is “not inline with these industry standards”…
Like these
or these
or these
or these
I believe Formlabs reasoning for doing this is for “the environment” as much as I believe Apple when they stopped putting charging blocks in with new iPhones to help save the environment and/or when Milk, motor oil, bottled water, laundry detergent and everything else sold out there in MUCH higher volumes than SLS powder…is still in jugs.
I mean heck…Protein powder is sold in those same plastic jugs at MUCH higher volume and done so to prevent moisture and outside humidity into the powder…
The bags from a usability standpoint just does not make sense in this system…somebody F’ed up…the original jugs were “PERFECT” with no contamination possible!
I do however have hope…that they will see the light of day, when people start finding alternative powder providers.
If we turn to other materialproviders, that will benefit Formlabs even more as we first of all need to purchase the open material license and they don´t have to provide any service for the machines. I highly doubt any of the cheap materials in jugs will be covered in Formlabs “approved” list.
Win win for Formlabs if machines break down and we have to buy another printer.
Again, pure speculation, and yes my faith in Formlabs have taken some serious hits during the past few years.
(correct me if im wrong about the open material license, im tired and its morning here. )
open material mode does not exempt them from taking care of the machine, in fact their claims of limited liability likely wont hold water if ever pressured against The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975. Formlabs has to actually show customer actions were negligent and caused the damage in order to wipe their hands legally, they just count on no one knowing or having deep enough pockets to fight back.
The truth will come to light eventually, I think we all know where the powder is made just no one has a clue of which one is. That or those manufacturers will still benefit from selling to users, but without FL knowing about it.
Just remember that Argyle materials and 3Dxtech supply materials for Stratasys machines, and you can even get the chip reset device. Just a matter of time until someone finds out who is producing the powder and for someone to circumvent the RFID cards. People quit or are asked to leave from companies and who knows maybe one of those people can share the secrets.
Yep.. I checked out your funnel.step, got any pictures of it in the hole? I’m about to cut up an old Sift screen to pre filter these trash bags and was thinking about your funnel with a screen as being perfect. I’ve now had two fails with plastic trash from these dumb bags.
I´ve seen that with the jugs aswell. When you use the lid to open the seal on the jugs you can accidentally loose some bits/fragments into the jugs. Im not 100% sure its from the seal as the plastic bits are quite solid. Im gonna save a piece next time it happens in case Formlabs wants to see what it is. I´ve seen this only recently so not sure if something has changed with the seal. But now im extremely careful when opening them.
I got excited and applaud your attempts but yea….still what a mess.
While working out the issues with our Fuse 1+ after a year, which finally led to a swap to a new Fuse 1+ over the past few weeks, with our first four prints on a brand new machine….two were ruined from a hair making its way into what I imagine is the fresh powder hopper of the Sift as we had just put in the second half of a bag. Could have been just a fiber or hair in the brand new printer through shipping…but leaning on it most likely being from the bag sitting around and the pour….
Because of the down time, this half bag was rolled up tight and in the box but all it takes is one single hair to make its way “onto” that bag before going into the Sift…
My Fuse/Sift system is in its own “closet”….a small 8 foot by 5 foot room in the back of my shop. On the front of this I have hung a fine mesh magnetic screen door. I only pull and start a print first thing in the morning after putting on a fresh clean pair of clothing…. to minimize bringing any dust or hair into that room…. only thing I could maybe do better is shave my entire body or wear a chem bio suit Haha…
It is nearly impossible to prevent a micro hair from static clinging to that bag…. other than you using a “plastic jug”, that you pop the seal on and that fits perfectly in the hole it was designed for in the Sift….
I thought about the mesh idea as well but then you’d need another “Sift motor” to get it in and you are still dealing with an oversized bag of powder that you have to “pinch off" mid stream” (guys will understand how difficult this is)
While dealing with the bad printer, I am told, Formlabs is currently having serious discussions about this bag situation…. guess we will find out soon if they decide to “patch” this problem or go back to the only logical method…the jugs.
Otherwise, the only true way I see is transferring the bag of powder into another container with a nozzle on that container. I was thinking more like a “paint can with funnel lid” concept but again, it will still be hard to prevent a micro hair getting into that can on the transfer….
The original, perfect, no headaches jug method….should have never been taken away from us…
This worked well for me and I am happy with it. No dust clouds, no big powder spills all over the sift work area. Some powder flowed out past the hinges of the grate, but this was minimal.
Step 1: Clean powder cartridge and ensure it is installed and open.
Step 2: Set refresh rate to 100%.
Step 3: Place bag over grate and make a baseball sized hole in the bag. Rotate the bag over the grate aligning the hole with the grate. (This prevents a lot of powder dust escape).
I now not only feel like part of the Formlab team….by acting as a beta tester for their buggy firmware releases all these years…but we can now add “packaging” to our job descriptions
We are at a point…that we are literally “putting the powder back into jugs ourselves”…
)
