Brittle filament and jammed extruder

[Downtown Tinkertank]

My shop just received our roll of PLA Filament Copper today.   We put it into our Makerbot Replicator Z18 to do a test print.  The filament was incredibly brittle and broke off into our Smart Extruder -- the extruder is now broken and needs to be replaced. We were looking forward to utilizing this product for a large upcoming project.  We hope there is a way to quickly resolve this issue.  Lot #: 2-13-17-Cu-PLA.

[Bradley D. Woods]

Hello Thinkertank,

First, we'll ship a replacement immediately. This problem is not spread across that whole lot number. We think we are having a temperature issue during shipping causing this problem. We are trying to re-create this issue in the lab here. Filamet™ will always be more brittle that pure plastic, but it has, by far, enough strength to handle and make it through your extruder without breaking. A Thought: Is there a chance that it was very cool when you were sing it? It needs to be at least room temperature.

Will you please send some identifying information to Ord...@theVirtualFoundry.com so we know which order was yours? Order number, email address, address will get us there.

Regarding the Smart Extruder. We have people using them, but we don't have one in-house presently. We don't have anything specific to offer at this moment. I can say that clearing a clog from Filamet™ is no different than any other PLA filament. It can and has been done.

Keep us posted and we'll ship a replacement the moment we receive your order info.

Sincerely,

Bradley Woods

The Virtual Foundry, llc.