It arrived today but...

For the most part I am happy with what I received from Shapeways. The designs are very clever, thanks Frank and Yanying.

I would however like to draw attention to the inadequate packaging the models arrived in. For a start they models were held by a plastic sleeve which might be fine it a model is solid but as the models I ordered were not, they have been squashed out of shape by the plastic. I have tried to manipulate them back to the proper shape but it seems they are stuck like this for good.

Compounding this issue is the fact the box was squashed during shipping and the poor design of the box means that the force was directly applied to the models. Surely there is a better, safer way to ship fragile items around the world. I suspect had the models not been made from white, strong and flexible then the result would have been much worse.

I'm not after a refund, the models will still serve their purpose, just thought you should know what happens to a package after traveling from The Netherlands to Germany to Dubai to Thailand to Singapore to New Zealand. Pic's attached.

Hi!

I am happy to read that you like the parts, and thanks for the compliment! It is really sad that they are deformed. It is not a good idea to ship parts like these compressed under a plastic sleeve like shown on the picture! The problem is that although the material is "flexible" it changes its shape when it gets deformed for a longer time.

Something like this already happened to me (and in this case it was my own fault). I stored an older version of the "flexmesh" in a box under several other, heavier things. When I took it out after some weeks it was flat like yours. Only good news: it also works the other way round (not totally, but at least a little bit). I put it over a tube with a slightly bigger diameter than the inner diameter of the part and left it stretching there for 2 or 3 days. Afterwards it was not perfecty round, but a lot better than before.

I hope you will have a lot of fun with the parts, and hopefully you can bring it back in shape.

Frank

I recieved a package of nocturnals today, and it was packed in exactly the same fashion. There was no damage for me, as the pieces are fairly flat.

However, I should point out, that this is the first time I have ever seen Shapeways package items in this fashion and I have been ordering a lot from them.

Is it a new method? I was concerned when I saw that there was no cushioning material as I am accustomed to seeing in the Shapeways deliveries. As I said, my pieces were not damaged, but there was potential enough that I was worried when opening the packets.

-Whystler

Hi,

Yes, we are using new packaging. We did some extensive tests with them before releasing them for production use. But of course flexible or fragile objects should not end up in this type of packaging.

Thanks for the feedback.

Dan, can you pm me your order number? Then we send you reprint. This is definitely not Shapeways quality.

Best regards,

Robert