Hi Community. Apologies if the topic has already been covered. I did find a thread on the plate maintenance but not specific.
The problem I have is we are printing off covers for a product we make and use the textured plate for the nice effect that will be on the lid face. Up until now the actual (PLA BLACK) prints have been spot on but lately there has been staining and patches on the face (textured face). We run 6 of the X1C and the issue is cropping up on most of them. I thought is may have been a temperature related issue but surely not with all of them. We did was them with washing up liquid and dried them off thoroughly too.
Have tried removing the prints when warm, cold and even stright after prinitng but the marks on the prints are still there. In your pro-opinions are we looking at just using a different cleaning agent or could this be a more techincal problem?
Thanks in advance for the help. Based in the UK so may be a delay in replying depending on which side of the pond your are.
It could be ware and tear on the plates and they are just starting to come off on the prints a bit. It could also be from another filament that gets printed on the plate that is leaving behind residue or if you use anything to help with adhesion or releasing it could of built up in the texture.
How old are they and have they seen a lot of printing?
How often and how do you clean them? A good scrub with hot soapy water and a scrubbing brush then a wipe with iso alcohol may help.
Have you recently started using a different filament on these plates compared to usual or have any of the filament suppliers changed their makeup of their products?
Would you be able to post a picture of the staining of the part and of a couple of the plates?
Thanks a lot for the info. The plates are only a few months old as we purchased a new one for each of the printers. Have cleaned them a few times with dishy soap and recently tried ISO prop. too but possibly not as much as we should? We only ever use the Bambu branded filaments as we’ve had not issues with them at all (printing and AMS etc). Volume wise, they do a steady production but they are normally quite long prints with a minimum of around 3 hours plus per print.
I guess I will try a good dishy liquid on them and give them a good scrub as suggested and will get back with feedback on the results.
It looks like it is marking on the surface from where the same print has been printed in one spot on the plate, do you use glue or hairspray or anything like that? If not using something to create a layer over the plate may help to stop it transferring, also doing this from new can help stop the problem.
I haven’t tried this myself before but i know people use very fine sandpaper or a green scotch bright pad to clean the plat surfaces, have a look into this as it may help also.
Try using a plastic or steel scrubber pad and dawn dish soap on the plate. Use hot water and scrub the plate, rinse with hot water, towel dry, then add a bath with 91%+ alcohol and allow to air dry. Try not to touch the surface of the plate as you install it back on the bed. Some filaments leave a thin layer of dust on the plate. Once heated the dust hardens into a light film. Scrubbing it takes the film away.
Hi again and thanks for the replies. Apologies for the weekend delay but we got the plates thoroughly scrubbed with dishy & hot water which had not effect at all.
I’ve attached a post cleaning pic showing random patterns that appear when printing. It’s almost like ‘hot spots’ rather than grime or contaminant?
If we print the same box again the marks will be different which surely would point to a possible heat / over heat problem? This is rediculous as there’s no way we can produce these with a show face like this. BTW it is the same on all of the plates / X1C printers.
Do you think it would be worth opening a support ticket with Bambu?
Once again. All Bambu fillament, hardware etc and we used to have perfect prints every time then this started happening. (possibly after an update)
I guess first is the obligatory build plates are consumables and are said to need to be replaced occasionally as the surface wears.
Beyond that you didn’t say what bed temperature you run at that I saw. With PLA the highest I go is 58C and so far that has worked well.
With textured PEI you’re supposed to let it cool before removing the parts. I do fairly warm pull a few minutes after the print completes but have only seen the issues like what you posted when using silk filament and it was stuck down hard. Didn’t use glue or other release agent, though.
Not sure how glue will affect the surface finish from the textured PEI but it should get you a more uniform effect.
Yes the plates are approx. 3 months old from Bambu and have not had too much use. Purchased 6 of the new version. The plate temp reaches 55 tops. We’ve tried removing the parts cold, warm and still hot but we still get the patcing.
as mentioned, it’s all Bambu stuff and black PLA matte Bambu filament.
So I’m a bit lost for answers as it doesn’t add up. We’ve also tried swapping the 6 plates between the 6 printers too.
I wish I had something else to try but that’s it for me. This isn’t a common problem I think but this isn’t the only thread like this. Might do a search and see if others got resolution.
There was another thread here where a user had a heat issue on their print bed from a manufacturing defect that left cool spots on the build plate. They used an optical IR thermometer first and then IR imaging to spot the temperature issue. If you have access to one of those optical thermometers you could check uniformity across the plate just to eliminate it.
Might also spring for a new plate and see if that changes anything? Good luck though.
No worries, as Mzip mentioned try and see if it a problem with the heating on the beds with a laser thermometer or a thermal camera if you have access to one. I might also suggest buying a new plate to try and see if you still have the same issue as this will eliminate the plate. Also I’m not sure if it’s possible or not but if the problem started after an update to the firmware try installing a previous version from before the issue started on one of the printers to see if this helps. I’m afraid it’s probably going to be a trial and error exercise.
I had a similar problem, but since I started using this cleaner (AprintaPro, PrintaClean) I’ve hardly had any problems anymore. Like you, I’ve tried different detergents. I suspect it’s residue from the previous print and greasy hands. Maybe that will help you too?
These residues are from previous prints.
That can happen with and without glue on the plate.
I prevent this by washing the plate with warm soapy water and a sponge before any vital print.
After that the usual IPA wipe.
If you use a white, lint free cloth wet from soapy water you often see how much filth is left on the plate by prints…
Hi.
We print a grill shape on these plates, which leaves thin lines, the marks we are getting are random large patches so are not ralated in any way to residue. Also we do regularly clean the textured plates.
