Reasons to use cool plate or engineering plate?

I only used my cool plate the first few times before my high temperature and textured plate were delivered. And never used the engineering plate.

What are some reasons to choose the cool plate or engineering plate over the other two?

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I only use the engineering plate for TPU

Is that because it is too likely to damage the other plates because it’s so sticky? Even when using glue on the other plates?

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Correct, TPU is super sticky, basically ruins any other build plate I have used it on. I prefer the gold PEI plate with the liquid glue, for everything else.

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For small nylon parts i used the engineering plate. But all extra hot filament goes on my Qidi now. Heated chamber! :wink:

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I print TPU on the textured pei, Wham Bam, and Lightyear plates with no issues.

I have used the engineering plate for PC a few times. The cool plate I just don’t see the point of. Coming from a printer that had a glass build plate I was done dealing with glue sticks. I have been printing on various high temp plates for the year I have had the X1 and never had a heat creep incident causing a clog, even on long multi-day prints. I just don’t see a need to compromise and use the cool plate with glue stick.

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Why do you use the engineering plate for nylon?

On the reverse of my Enginering Plate is the Hot Plate (or smooth PEI). If you want a smooth belly and no glue, that’s the one to use. I thought I’d give it a try since I’ve been using the textured PEI (gold) for everything. I happen to like the texture on it for most top and bottom prints. The smooth PEI gives a slight frost look that matches most of the prints I’ve been doing. And there’s no post-processing because of the glue smudge marks.

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I keep thinking I should try the cool plate, but I’ve yet to. I mainly use the textured and smooth PEI plates. I use the textured plate for TPU prints. I do use the engineering plate though for PC, and I like it a lot for that application.

I have several of those plates now and I’ve been thinking I should get some PEI stickers to replace the cool plate sticker.

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What is better about the engineering plate for PC?

I was thinking about doing the same, replacing my cool plate sticker with a high temperature sticker. But wanted to figure out if there is an application where I would want to use the cool plate.

Engineering plate … well it works better with engineering type of materials w/ glue.
It’s a smooth plate with (supposedly) a more robust coating than smooth PEI.

Smooth PEI can be easily damaged.

(re: pc and the engineering plate) It just worked for me. It’s the only one I tried, hahaha, and it worked! The parts stuck well, but weren’t like welded to the plate, so when the print finished it was easy peasy pulling the parts off too. I’m honestly not sure if it really is that easy or I just got some incredible fortune.

I printed it all on my X1C, made sure it was enclosed and all that, on a warmish day so the surrounding environment wasn’t fighting it. The only time I had issues was when I forgot to close the front door on the X1C, and I got some warping.

The smooth PEI plates are my favorite. The textured PEI plates are easier to use in a way, but when I do more fiddly first layer stuff, or tall thin models, that smooth PEI plate is where it’s at. I don’t use glue, or alcohol (I’m sick of sharing the good whisky with a bunch of ungrateful plates), I just rub it down with a microfiber cloth before and after each use.

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It’s what is recommended on my engineering plate.

And it works good for me. Even tho I haven’t printed nylon/PA on the X1C in over eight months.

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100%

I considered getting the replacement PEI “High Temp” sticker. The used to sell them in 3 packs but it seems they are only in singles now. Have you tried the new “dual sided” PEI plate? Is it the same as the “High Temp” one?

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I have all the Bambu plates and a handfull of third party ones. I tend to prefer the Cold Plate for anything PLA that doesn’t need a textured surface - simply because I can keep door & lid closed and dial the chamber fan down (or off).

They are the same, except you can’t currently buy a replacement sheet for one of the sides lol.
Actually I also can’t tell the Cold Plate from the Smooth PEI (except for the text). I suspect they are the same material, just with different QR. (this is not the case)

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I defiantly would use the smooth plate for lithophanes. I have the materials to do it. I just haven’t had the time to print one yet.

For everything else I prefer the textured PEI sheet.

I read somewhere someone mention that the cool plate was like Buildtak, but then looking them up, and they say their sheets are PEI, so I’m not sure. I was under the impression that it wasn’t PEI, but that it was some type of surface that was particularly good at sticking to PLA, thus the need for a glue stick. Everything I’ve seen about the cool plate without a glue stick, is the PLA ripping the surface up.

I was giving a bit of a search on google and found a reddit post with someone saying they use the engineering plate without glue for pla.

The engineering plate is far superior works just as good as a pei plate, I do not understand why Bambu say it’s not recommended for pla, just change the filament settings on pla to heat the plate to 55c and boom perfect adhesion and release every time. No glue stick and no funky texture. Plus then the lidar actually works perfect

Feeling like some test are in order.

Re: The Bambu PEI single vs double sided. Yeah, they’re the same. Different QR codes though! The flip side of my double sided PEI sheet is constantly dirty with finger prints and whatever. Not a big deal or anything, because if I flip it I can just wipe it down, but it’s always a little amusing to me because of how well smooth PEI shows stuff like that. Makes it feel impossible to keep that plate completely fingerprint free!

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The cool plate is not PEI, but some kind of PC material. Directly from the Bambu wiki “The cool plate sheet, made of PC, has a smooth surface”. Introduction to the Build Plates | Bambu Lab Wiki

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I use the cool plate (with BL liquid glue)for very long pla prints that I might want to pause (but not for fragile parts). I used to use the engineering plate for tpu, but have recently switched to the textured plate without issue.

If you pause a print on a cool plate, does it have no negative effect on that layer? How long could you pause it with no negative effect?