40mm wall parts (materialise-onsite.com)
I tried a new company for the wall prints called materialise-onsite.com. I chose the PolyJet VeroWhitePlus @ 16µm as I wanted the maximum detail possible so the 45 degree slopped side would be super smooth. In had spoken to the manufacturer of the Polyjet (stratasysdirect.com who also to a print service but a little more expensive), and I was impressed by the sample images they sent me;
This print is 35mm from end to end. The PolyJet can handle details as small as 0.025mm!
So I ordered from materialise-onsite.com with confidence as I knew the quality I would receive. However what turned up was not what I expected, for £91.15, plus another £10 is custom duty, I received these;
As you can see this is sub-standard and nothing like the picture I was sent. This is as rough as a bag of spanners. I contacted both stratasysdirect.com to ask if this looked like something their printer should put out, and materialise-onsite.com to complain.
Perry, A Senior Project Engineer from stratasysdirect.com got back to me and said this is not printed at 16µm or 32µm. Cheryl, my account manager from materialise-onsite.com asked her CAD/ printer team and they said it was printed at 32µm, and they do not do 16µm! She kindly offered to redo the prints in an alternative method.
We shall see how they turn out.
Looking at the picture, I know that Shapeways Frosted Ultra Detail (the material the floor parts are printed with) are 29µm, and the wall parts look far worse. I would not recommend getting PolyJet VeroWhitePlus prints for miniature masters from materialise-onsite.com as they cannot handle the detail and do not do 16µm regardless of what their website says. Very disappointing and I hope it is not going to be an expensive (£100) mistake.
I'll wait to see what Cheryl comes up with, before I think about trying another manufacturer. I want to give them a chance to put this right. If they can't I may try stratasysdirect.com next, as they make the PolyJet and have confirmed they can do 16µm prints.
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