Almost nothing appearing on the build plate; sludgy resin

Support & Troubleshooting Form 2
1

Hey, all - I’ve had a Form 2 for the last week or so, and not had a single fully successful print. Print quality degraded across attempts; chunks of the first model were missing, only the supports printed the second time, then nothing was appearing on the build plate but flat ‘flakes’ of resin which partially peeled away.

My initial suspicion was that the laser may have been underexposing the resin - but support confirmed that it’s operating at full power. The optical window has been cleaned inside and out, there is no dust on the galvo or larger mirrors, and the build plate is cleaned between prints. I am now on my forth batch of fresh resin poured into a cleaned resin tank, and this is the most that I’ve managed to get out of the printer (Formlabs’ own test file): https://puu.sh/BIuA5/c28132bbe0.jpg

While Formlabs are being quite helpful, sending out fresh resin and a new tank, it’ll be a good week before they arrive and I wanted to get your impressions of what this issue could be. Given that everything appears to be functioning mechanically and optically, how likely is it that this is a resin issue, and not an issue with the printer itself?

Thanks!

2

P.S. - there are no ‘plates’ of resin cured to the bottom of the resin tank which would suggest simple delamination. The resin ends up lumpy and sludgy, full of small chunks of half-cured resin left floating around, making it very difficult to filter.

3

Could you post a picture of the tray.
Hard to get the full picture without it.
What resin are you using? Resin looks very foamy. (wiper working?)
My first thought is the tray if the laser is working.
Do you see the laser doing its thing when its trying to print?
Is the trays PDMS layer clear?
My next thought would be your platform height when you start your first layer.
If its not set right you will cure that layer and not be secured to the platform & when it wipes that layer would just fall into the resin. it would then do that over & over leaving chunks in you tray.
Just some thoughts.

4

I have the same issue right now. I through out one resin tank an now with the new one i am having the same issue. any answer would likly help. thank you

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