Bought this to put on the bed of my 3D printer to help hold a glass plate in place and help with heat transfer to the glass. I planned on covering the whole bed (220mm x 220mm) to maximize heat transfer since only using a few smaller squares would not have much surface area in contact with the heated bed. The 0.5mm thickness made it very difficult to get this material to lay flat and not get bubbles under it. I held it vertically from the top corners and tried to slowly lay it down across the bed in a slow, even motion to minimize the bubbles trapped under it. That initially looked OK, but after a minute or so there were many little high spots that showed up due to air trapped under the pad. The pad also stretched quite a bit under its own weight, so the last edge to lay down was quite stretched and out of shape. So, next I tried using a little soapy water on the bed, placing the pad on top and squeegy-ing out the air bubbles. This works well with decals, but not so well with this stuff. The pad is quite soft and I could get the bubbles to move towards the edge but then the pad would bunch up and stretch. In one case my finger put a hole in the pad when it bunched up. Using some soapy water on top of the pad helped with this but didn't eliminate the problem. I spent over an hour trying to get the pad to lay nice and flat on the bed without total success.
After all of this I thought I would try the printer with this pad on the bed anyway. The material is thin and I thought the glass on top would even out any small imperfections that were still there. I found that wasn't really the case. The glass only stuck to about 30-40% of the surface area of the pad and the first layers of the print showed there were high and low spots. When it came time to remove the glass it was very stuck to the pad and the pad partially peeled off the heated bed. I decided not to fight with it any more and just removed the pad altogether. I have plenty left over and may try again with just some smaller squares in the corners.
The concept of using the silicone thermal pad on my printer bed still sounds appealing to me. I think a thicker material would be easier to get to lay flat without bubbles under it but at the expense of some heat transfer. As others have mentioned this material will hold your glass bed without the need for clips, but if you cover the whole bed it will probably peel off when you try to remove the glass.
| Brand | Uxcell |
|---|---|
| Item model number | a11121700ux0155 |
| Item Weight | 3.87 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 11 x 9.7 x 0.1 inches |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 11 x 9.7 x 0.1 inches |
| Manufacturer | uxcell |
| ASIN | B007PPEW52 |
| Date First Available | March 29, 2012 |
