Hello everyone,
We are a jewelry manufacturing company in Europe and have been using EnvisionTEC Perfactory printers with EC500 resin for many years.
We used EC500 for direct investment casting with extremely high reliability and virtually 100% successful results in production. The process was fully optimized and repeatable.
Since EC500 is no longer available, we are testing PowerResins Dark (Zero Dark) as a replacement.
Our current investment is R&R Plasticast.
The issue we are facing is not ash residue or incomplete burnout. The problem is that very fine sections of the investment break during burnout. Small and delicate details that survived perfectly with EC500 are now occasionally breaking with PowerResins Dark.
Our burnout cycle:
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Ramp to 150°C in 1 hour
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Hold 150°C for 3 hours
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Ramp to 800°C in 3.2 hours
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Hold 800°C for 4.3 hours
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Cool to 630°C and hold until casting
I understand that PowerResins recommends a different burnout cycle, and we will test that as well.
My questions are:
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Has anyone successfully replaced EC500 with PowerResins Dark?
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Did you need to significantly modify your burnout schedule?
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Has anyone experienced investment breakage with Plasticast and Dark resin?
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Is there another resin that you found closer to EC500 in terms of casting reliability?
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Does anyone know of remaining EC500 stock anywhere in Europe or elsewhere?
Any experience from former EnvisionTEC / Perfactory / Aureus users would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Martin