Quoted from rubberducks:I'm not sure if you're trolling or actually serious. Stern will never say what happened, at least not with any element of truth.
I'll explain very simply:
1) You are seeing 'ghosting'.
2) What is ghosting? The insert is either rising or falling in its insert (usually rising out of), applying pressure to the layer of clearcoat over it and turning it opaque in the process.
3) But why doesn't the whole insert go opaque? Because as the insert rises or falls, the clear in the middle of the insert and the clear on the playfield around the insert don't have additional pressure placed on them. Around the edge of the insert is where the force is exerted on the layer of clear.
4) So why does this happen? For the insert to rise up out of or drop down into the playfield, the playfield must be moving, warping and expanding and contracting. Usually if it happens at all on playfields it's due to many years of often hard use, the adhesives eventually breaking down that hold the insert in place, and storage in poor conditions. The triangular inserts having more issues or going first is due to 'pinching'.
5) So why is it happening so quickly? Most games are coming out of their boxes fine (a few exceptions). If the adhesive used to hold the insert in place was seriously faulty or not set, then more games would be coming straight out of the box with ghosted inserts, as the constant vibration during transport would make everything ghost. Most of the ghosting is occurring after the game has been set up, and within hours and sometimes minutes of play beginning. During the normal course of play, there will be larger forces placed on the playfield by the player moving the game, coils and mechs firing etc etc than during transport or assembly. This will cause some movement in the wood. Historically this has not been a major issue, as the wood is old enough and hard enough that it doesn't move and warp enough to cause immediate ghosting (and then serious playfield and insert damage) within the space of a minute percentage of the game's expected life. As the wood is very soft and very young, we see the recent problems with Stern.
6) So why are they doing this? One can only speculate, but softer younger wood is cheaper wood ...
Any questions?
I'm not sure why you feel the need for a dissertation here. Total waste of time and I'm not going to bother reading an essay on an enthusiast forum. You don't know the cause of the Stern playfield issues, but can speculate on possible causes, which young cheaper wood could be one, agreed. However, this isn't proof that this is what is causing the delamination of the clear coat from the plastic inserts, or the chipping of clear coat in the shooter lane for the Stern playfields in question. You're trying to present your opinion as fact, and I'm calling it out. This doesn't make me a troll.