Black PEI with IR Sensor?

ShadowX

It should work. I have one on order and will test it as soon as it arrives. FYI. Aliexpress is cheaper.

dc42

I too am hopeful that it will work well - looking forward to seeing your results.

JohnOCFII

Very interested to see how this works for you.

ShadowX

I just received the "Black PEI". First of all, it does not look like PEI. Second, the surface has a texture on both sides. It looks more like BuildTak than PEI. The material is completely opaque and does not transmit light.

The IR sensor had a hard time getting consistent results. The heights would vary from 2.30 mm to 0.9mm within the same height. At times, the sensor would not pick the surface at all and results in an error.

I attached the surface to a clean boro glass. I manually leveled the surface for a print. I was able to get it as flat as possible. The adhesion is very bad. I typically run the temp at around 75C due to the bad thermal conductivity of the glass. Even at 85C, the PLA would not adhere to the surface very well. The edges would curl and the first layer would not even adhere.

In my opinion, this print surface is very bad. The IR has a problem detecting the surface and parts do not adhere to it well. I seriously doubt the material is actually PEI.

otaku521

my 2mm sheet is shiny on both side and which I sand down with a 1000 grit sand paper to make it a matte finish... I was able to make an adhesion on it just fine but I need to baby step it down -1.35
I have put painter's tape on top of my boro glass and sandwich the PEI sheet on top with clip it with binder's clip

as for z offset results it was kind of consistant for the nozzle to home... but when printing, I dont know why (maybe S3D) it homes in too fast and stop too high which result in my baby stepping of -1.35

JohnOCFII

@shadowx said in Black PEI with IR Sensor?:

In my opinion, this print surface is very bad. The IR has a problem detecting the surface and parts do not adhere to it well. I seriously doubt the material is actually PEI.

Thanks for the report. Sorry to hear it seems like a poor product.

ShadowX

@johnocfii said in Black PEI with IR Sensor?:

@shadowx said in Black PEI with IR Sensor?:

In my opinion, this print surface is very bad. The IR has a problem detecting the surface and parts do not adhere to it well. I seriously doubt the material is actually PEI.

Thanks for the report. Sorry to hear it seems like a poor product.

It didn't meet my expectations. I might try to rough it up and see if the adhesion improves. It was surprising the IR sensor had problems picking up the surface. Maybe the matt finish caused the IR light to reflect back unevenly. Every probe had large variations and I set the probe speed to be very slow.

norbs12

I too got my "black PEI" in today. It's terrible. I had a regular yellow sheet before I switched to this and I had pretty decent results with a roughed up surface. The stuff I got feels nothing like real PEI, is much more fragile, visibly expands and contracts from heating/cooling and so far my first test with PETG resulted in no adhesion at all with settings that worked on my yellow PEI. I'm very disappointed and requesting a refund.

Bought it from here, so you don't make the same mistake: https://www.ebay.com/itm/300-x-300-x-1mm-ABS-PEI-Sheet-for-3D-Printing-with-468MP-Adhesive-Tape-29-Styles/332458141503

norbs12

@otaku521 Do you have a link, that sounds like you probably have real PEI. Far different than what I received.

otaku521

@norbs12 sorry I got mine at a localized version of aliexpress (Taobao)
look for 2mm PEI plate or sheet... they dont have a sticky back and I dont think they are purposed to be used for 3d printers, but I got this in hopes of replacing the glass in the beginning not knowing that PEI sheets are very flexible and bows up and down a lot... so it is now clipped on the glass and it does bow up in the middle... so sticking it is more "ideal" IMHO but since IR sensor can see thru it... I dont think it is wise to put on those 3M high temp double sided tape on back

Currently I am removing my IR sensor and put back on my BL Touch and see how it goes.... (but my genuine BL Touch is very irregular in readings which made me to switch to IR in the beginning ARGH!)

norbs12

@otaku521 Thanks for the reply. Hmm now i wonder if it's even worth bothering with the black PEI. I'm getting pretty consistent results with my IR sensor just on the regular yellow PEI that had it's surface roughed up with 200 grit sandpaper.