Hi, Thank you for your feedback. We want to explain in detail what happened here. Indeed we have recently switched to producing the side panels from plastic. Thanks to that we have actually brought a number of pros into this simple but important part of eurorack case. We have managed to: – Improve the design by implementing positioning blocks that hold rails in a perfectly vertical position – Eliminate the problem with “rotating rails” during assembly thanks to blocking them in place with positioning elements – The new design went through number of tests and there are no problems with the fact that they are made from plastic. Those panels are carrying almost no weight when they are installed in the case. The weight of the rails and modules is distributed to screws and sides of the case itself. Panels are just holding the rails in proper distance from each other and align them vertically. – We have even tested them to check their temperature resistance and electric conductivity – they hold their shape very good up to even 80C…they hold their shape very good up to even 80C…if you will ever manage to overheat the inside of your eurorack case above 80C degree than side panels will probably be your least problem to worry about �� – Eliminate problems with the non-consistend quality of manufactured by hand aluminium panels – this was a large issue for us. We went through working with different manufacturers but there was always a problem with consistent, repeatable quality. – Eliminate very long production process and delays in re-stocking the aluminum brackets – Last but not least, the material that those panels are made of is actually biodegradable. The entire production process simplified – no more machine cutting and drilling, no chemical oxidizing, etc. So we believe that we have managed also to improve a bit the ecological footprint of the whole production process. All those improvements wouldn’t be possible if we want to keep using aluminum. We love those new panels and they are for sure staying in our store offer. We had a very busy period recently and indeed we have started to send those panels with the orders without changing information about it on the product listings – we work on that now. I am sure you will be satisfied with the new panels. We put a lot of work to make sure that the new panels will be an actual real improvement from the old design.
