Glass plate

Vertex 3D Printer Vertex - Your printer, creations, and ideas for im
1

Hi,
What’s exactly the purpose of the borosilicate glass plate. Is it bacause of the temperature change (heated bed) or the impact restistance or something else?
Can I use hardened glass too or is it the same?

Thanks

2

Borosilic glas can usually take up to around 1100 degree C it is also called ceramic glass. Hardened glass or Toughened or as it can be called tempered glass is just as good for this i think. It is just a glass that is hardened it can withstand about 400-500 degree C it depend a little. The diff is the price… hardened is a lot cheaper then boro glass.

// Marlark

3

The huge thing with borosilicate is its very small expansion coefficient, hardened glass might just explode by colliding with the print-head while hot (making it expand and build up more tension).
I went to my local glass dealer and ordered 3 panels of “Borofloat” which is a type of glass produced by schott more info HERE and has the huge advantage of being SUPER flat. Another type U could look for is Oven/Furnace glass schott has this under the “Robax” name but this has some minor drawbacks over Borofloat.

Kind Regards!
JeAfKe

1 Like
4

Is some of the reasons also why i bought 2 Borosilic glass plates for mine. As i understod it. It have todo with how the glass is cooled down. Hardened glass is pritty much impossible to get flat due to the way it is cooled with air. I didnt know about that it could explode if a concentrated heat point was applied to it until i talked some with my local glass dealer here where i got them and he informed me when i explained to him what i was going to use it for. However it is possible to use it as long as you dont intend to calibrate the Z axis plate under heat to both bed and nozzle. But Borosilic is the best i think and worth the extra money into it.

5

Thanks for your replies. Especially the characteristic ‘Super flat’ is very important so I will go for borosilicate.
I need a plate 289x268 mm and it costs about 50 euros. Is that a common price?

6

That sound fairly normal i think. You can probably find a better price but dont forget to get the corners faced off so you dont have sharp corners. They tend to take a fee for that.

7

I had an inquiry for my plates and this was the following
2 pieces of borofloat 240 x 240 x 3,3mm 17€ per sheet so 34€ for both
2 pieces of borofloat 240 x 240 x 3,8mm 24€ per sheet so 48€ for both

In my opinion the thinner the plate, the faster you can start printing, and the 3,3mm plate handle pretty well, I eventually bought 3 of them and didn’t break any so far… But 50€ seems on the high side? IDK maybe you inquired for a 5mm thick plate which I can imagine costs way more… Btw the prices include the shaving of the sharp edges. Which costs more apparently…
I ordered mine at Glastec bvba @ Olen - Belgium website http://www.glastec.be

BTW, Does 289x268 mm even fit? doesn’t it hit the steppers on the right side? And why so big? or did you find a way to use those extra millimeters? If so please post a picture! I’m constantly thinking about expanding the buildarea but don’t really see a decent possible way so far.

@marlark - Exploding by applaying concentrated heat wasn’t actually what I meant, I meant the following: By heating your plate and clamping it down it gets under more tension… Tension isn’t really an huge issue. But dropping let’s say a nozzle on the plate can cause it to break and by under this tension cause a “explosion” not the big C4 explosion, but your heart rate will go up considerably :stuck_out_tongue: (I Broke a custom tempered glass window once, FUCKING HELL i’m getting sick thinking about it once again :p)
BTW, thermoshock is another thing… Drop a ice cube on your scorching hot tempered plate can cause it to break
https://youtu.be/rxh6qqcBo20

Kind Regards!
JeAfKe

8

He is making a larger printer by expanding it on all axels.

9

Haha, Marlark has inside information :slight_smile:
Just got my new lasercut side-panels out of mdf, but busy with other things now, so it takes a while…
Primarely I wanted to print higher, but thought I could rather easily enlarge the horizontal sizes at the same time too. X and Y + 50 mm; Z + 200 mm.

10

Jeafke i know what you ment about “Exploding”. I didnt mean C4 grade eather. As i got it explained to me is that as a worst case senario you can get splinter parts flying but they wouldnt cause more then surface dmg at best. So if you are working as a super model like many of us do :wink: we would not have a great day at work.