With the introduction of the new Frosted Detail and the re-appearance of Silver, our production facilities have been pushed beyond their limits. As a result, some of you may experience a delay in delivery of your items. Let me take a moment and talk about the specific issues that we’ve run into and what we’re doing to solve them.
Frosted Detail
I think it’s fair to say that we’ve never seen a material introduction that has been as successful as Frosted (Ultra) Detail. Just within the first few days we received the same number of orders as we usually do in one month for the regular Detail materials and they are continuing at the same rate. At this moment, our printers are running 24-7 but it’s not enough. We’re adding more printers this week to match the demand. We should be back on track in two weeks from now, but until then you may experience a delay of up to 10 working days.
Silver
We’ve offered Silver a couple of times before in the past, but its current popularity is unprecedented. In addition, people are no longer designing small objects (like rings), but also beautiful larger objects of up to 10x10cm. It seems like silver has been discovered by a new breed of designers!
While this is fantastic news, it also places a heavy burden on our wax printers (which can take up to 70 hours to print a large model!). We’re working hard to add additional wax printers early next week and solve the backlog by the end of next week. Until then, you may experience a delay of up to 10 working days.
Detail
As if the sudden growth of orders in Frosted Detail and Silver was not enough, our Objet printer has broken down. We’re busy getting a new one – hopefully early next week. Once its in, we should be up to speed again in 4-5 days. Until that time, Detail orders may be delayed up to 10 working days.
What about your order?
As soon as we see that your order is delayed, we’ll get in touch and keep you informed of the progress. If you have ordered parts in multiple materials, we’ll ship the each part as it’s ready. Of course, if you have any questions you can always contact us at service@shapeways.com.
We’re sorry things are taking longer than you’ve come to expect from us, and we’re all working hard on a solution. Thank you for your patience!
Yeah i got an email today from Christel that my ultra wont get shipped this week.. but the detail will be sended this week!
Really sucks cause i have a trade fair saterday and would have loved to show the new material to a big audience!
But theres nothing we can do.. so i’ll just wait patiently
Thanks for being open and sharing the information, even if it is sad. However, Yay that more and more people are experiencing 3D printing and Shapeways!
I guess this means the Frosted materials will be a permanent addition to the lineup?
I hope everything sorts itself out quickly for all of you – you’re doing things the right way. I’ll hold off on ordering Frosted parts for a couple weeks 🙂
LOL! GWMT do not make them lazy! Just order away, will find the capacity 😉
That’s the spirit! I’ve got an idea for something made from Frosted and Frosted Ultra that I’ll finish designing before I order. I’ve got some concerns about WSF that are illustrated here:
http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=5136&start=0&
Oops! 3.1.1 is by me – I was logged out.
$200,000 in shop payments.. here we come!
On a serious note, take your time.. get the prints correct.
Is this having a ripple effect on other orders with stainless steel?
Glenn
Hi Glenn,
I should not think so – these are different processes/printers.
Bart
More machines to get your items to you as soon as possible.As we communicated in a previous blog post we have been inundated with orders since the relaunch of Silver and the trial introduction of Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) and Frosted Detail (FD) that h