Bad resin tanks and now i am very angry about the support

Not sure how any resin would creep under a tank like that. The viscosity would have to be the same as IPA in order to do that.
Even water doesn’t creep under the pdms nor the yellow magic I use to wash them out with.

I am wondering if there is a problem with too much pressure or maybe the wiper is causing the pmds to buckle or distort? Seems more of a mechanical issue rather than a material. No?

I think he said he was printing in Open Mode, so no wiper.

Maybe the exposure is too high and the resin is sticking to the pdms causing it to lift?

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That’s most likely the case–I find that other resins usually cure faster than Formlabs resins and so it could be sticking more and pushing the PDMS as it slides the tray during the layer separation process.

I bet having the wiper would have actually helped the prints succeed. Maybe with his particular resin the PDMS just needed that repeated oxygen exposure?

Zachary, I routinely experience a problem when I print something where the Base occupies a high percentage of the build platform. Usually the last few layers of the Base. The print does not separate during the peel. The stepper motor pulls the tray to the right, wracking the build platform and pulling it to the right, too. After a few mm motion the tray and platform snap back to “home” and the cycle repeats.

I’ve had prints where it took 5+ cycles to finally break free and peel successfully. Repeating on each of the last 5 or so layers of the Base. Multiple times with prints in the same resin tank. Never had a PDMS problem, or a problem of any kind with the resin tanks that experienced this.

Based on my experience I don’t think any amount of resin curing will result in the PDMS peeling off the bottom of the tank. I think there are only two possible explanations - defective resin tank or incompatible resin.

The problem for the OP is that there’s just no way to tell…

If one of your theories is true, what might be, then i ask myself why the tank problem also exists with other resins, like for example original castable resins!
AND also why, have so many other users using this resin not that problem when they use older tanks and problems with the newer tanks only!

and WHY, please aks yourself the question, has not had one formlabs employee written here a comment where he said: no we did not change the pdms, or no, we did not change things on the tank, in over 10 days since this thread is open!

I also have to say that i fairly do not understand why the bluecast resin guys only write with PM to me via whatsapp or facebook, but not here. I guess they don´t wanna make themselfs enemys and wanna sell their resin. What i completely understand.

But i don´t wanna fight anymore. I am tired! I am happy, VERY happy ATM with my decision and i am just too excited with the 5 year old used and refurbished solidscpae printer for 23000bucks. No supports, cutting knife hard n sharp edges and details, no curing, no problems with casting, no problems with nothing. But only for jewelry and i am a jeweller, so…

now I am just not sure what i will do with my form 2

Thanks for all your replies and opinions. maybe you guys are right, but after all and after talking with many other users, i am still pretty sure this is a formlabs bug! I just wish all of you luck that there will never sutch a problem for you guys and that maybe resin will run into the printer itself. Sorry but i just don´t trust this whole machine anymore…

have a nice day everybody!
Chris!

Keeping the machine open and accessible to 3rd party resins is important to us as well, but we can’t make guarantees regarding the safety or efficacy of these materials.

I know you’re concerned that there might have been a change made in the materials or process used to make tanks and I can confirm for you that this isn’t the case. In addition, our support team keeps a close eye whenever we make a change to a process or release a new material to make sure we don’t see an uptick in support tickets. If we do see any increase in ticket volume, we work to escalate it to the appropriate team so that we can inform customers and get it corrected as quickly as possible. I want to re-iterate that we haven’t made any changes to the current tanks and haven’t seen an uptick in this sort of issue.

We have consistently noticed that some 3rd party resins do put excess wear on the PDMS and in some cases cause the PDMS layer to detach. While we want to support customers in using 3rd party materials, it’s unfortunately not possible for us to provide replacements or free repairs for parts that have been damaged and used with 3rd party materials. We’re unable to thoroughly test these 3rd party materials and can’t provide support for components that have interacted with them.

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Hi Frew!

Thank you for your reply (suddenly…) -

I have searched for over 1 hour now but now i give up. I know there was a thread, where someone of the formlabs team said, that there have been made changes to the PDMS layer of the resin tank and they have problems with it and yes it was about the form 2, not the form 1. What a pitty i can´t find it anymore. Could bite myself in the ass at the moment!!!
I really hope gatto and stephano from bluecast resin can help me out, cause they know this thread too.

Now all of a sudden you write: "I want to re-iterate that we haven’t made any changes to the current tanks and haven’t seen an uptick in this sort of issue. " - well…the other guy said something differnet and / or you guys have sorted the buggy ones out. Hopefully!
Also the producers of the bluecast resin say that you have changed a thing on the PDMS! So one of you guys is lying. I dont know who of you and i am happy to say, i don´t care anymore!

Have a nice day!
Chris!

Hey Guys.
I am on my Handy and i dont know how to post a link here with my handy. I just saw on the facebook / formlabs experts site, that there is a problem for some users with a crack on top and also for some a problem with resin running in between the pdms and the glass of the tank. In some cases the resin got into the printer. Its getting more and more. People report, that they wait for an answer from formlabs. Sounds very simillar to my Problem.

Take Care and have a nice evening…

Chris.

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Here I am having the same problem here, the PDM peeled off, only different is, it turned out to be a cracked tank… lucky the leaked resin is not that much it didn’t damage the machine or the mirror underneath. I am guessing because I tested 3rd party resin with it, it doesn’t matter it’s cracked or not and I won’t get any compensation… even tho I received the machine 2 days ago… and strangely a Form2 bundled with an extra Form1+ build platform… :confused:

Otherwise, I am quite satisfied with the printing output. and the tank is just too expensive as a consumable and for expected life of that silicone of 1 -1.5L of resin…

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If you notice a damaged tray before you use it then make sure to contact support about it,

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@cfrank78, if you look at the BlueCast documentation, they state very clearly that the resin is not to be stored in the tank, and recommend filtering the resin and putting it back in the bottle for storage. It even states in their documentation, “[Do] Not leave the resin for more than 24 hours in resin tank.” They also warn the user to “check the resin tank before every print.” In many PMs on Facebook, they haven’t mentioned the PDMS issue, so I can’t help you out with that.

So I am also one of those users with BlueCast, but I know that I bear some responsibility for using another company’s resin.

Before I ever purchased BlueCast, I did have a Formlabs tank crack while using the Formlabs castable resin, and Formlabs was extremely responsive. The castable resin is apparently rougher on the tanks. It did spill on the surface outside the tank, but I was able to clean it up and the printer works fine.

However, now I don’t store any of the castable resins in the tanks, and I never store a tank with resin on the printer for more than a day. I take the time to drain the tank and filter the castable resin into a quart storage container if I know I’m not going to print for a day or two. Is it a little bit of a hassle? Sure. But I really don’t want to have to clean up the printer like I had to.

I agree with @Randy_Cohen on this one…it sounds like a “standard business practice.” I have an MBA with a focus in Customer Loyalty and Services Marketing, and I can tell you that Formlabs’ Customer Service is on par with other high-tech companies with world-class customer service. Having worked for Apple as a tech and customer service trainer, Formlabs’ response is pretty standard for a tech company. If a customer had contacted Apple and said their motherboard was fried by third-party memory (RAM), the fault was not with the manufacturer. Inevitably, the customer ends up stuck between two companies, but this is a risk taken when people choose to use third-party stuff. And it always stinks to be the customer service person on the other end telling someone that they voided a warranty and that damage isn’t covered. Believe me, it’s not fun.

And as a customer, I’ve been caught in situations like yours, and frankly, it sucks. We’ve all been there. And I’m pretty attached to my printer. When the tank cracked and I thought I’d irreparably damaged the printer, I was devastated. But I cleaned it up and now it works fine.

When I first looked into BlueCast, I checked the Formlabs warranty before making a decision to purchase the third-party resin:

"This warranty does not apply: a) to damage caused by use with non-Formlabs products including third-party resins; b) to damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, flood, fire, earthquake, or other external causes; c) to damage caused by operating the product outside the permitted or intended uses described by Formlabs; d) to damage caused by service (including upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not a representative of Formlabs; e) to a product or part that has been modified to alter functionality or capability without the written permission of Formlabs including the refilling of resin cartridges even with Formlabs resins; f) to consumable parts, unless damage has occurred due to a defect in materials or workmanship; g) to cosmetic damage, including but not limited to scratches, dents; or h) if any Formlabs serial number has been removed or defaced. "

I’ve also included a couple screen shots of the documentation I received when I purchased BlueCast. It states specifically that they are not responsible for damage caused to the printer…although the warning about leaving the resin in the tank seems more like it’s about damaging the resin than the printer. Nonetheless, I store it back in the original bottle as recommended by the company. I do keep my clear resin in the tank, but always store the tank on the box. I never store any tank on the printer anymore.


So this response is only to give clarification from the perspective of a BlueCast user who’s had great service from Formlabs…they really do stand by their products when they’re used as intended. But I’m also very thankful that they’ve opened the system up so that we can experiment with third-party resins, but with that comes responsibility on the part of the user…a chance we take.

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Thanks Cat for you long reply!

I knew all that and Stephano also mentioned to the data sheed before i used it. nevertheless he said, that the bluecast resin is much less agressive than the standrat castable resin from formlabs. Just because of the chemical formula! I told him, the Giorgio from formlabs, a guy from the berlin support team wrote me, that you can let every resin in the tank as long as you leave it in the orange tank with the black cover on it prefered in a dark place where no sunlight comes to it. But there is never any chance that the tank itself or the PDMS can get damaged by any resin. Thats what me made wonder!

My point here is, that it was obviously NOT the resin. That is now prooven. It was the tank and i was only so honest (stupid) and wrote that i had this problem with the bluecast castable resin. I now allready had the same problem with the castable resin from formlabs like many others. Also with a brandnew tank. Like you i now check every tank before i use it. The castable resins i empty the tanks every time when i am done with printing any my grey and clear tanks i allways check. All in all i am allways VERY frightened when the printer works overnight and i allways prefer to print now when i am beside the printer. Not THAT reliable as i hoped when i bought.

In my opinion, when the resin tank cracks and resin comes on the glass or even worse in the printer, formlabs has to take the responsibility and get the printer and clean it and make a full service to it and also has to give you a free printer in the meanwhile even when you don´t have a pro service plan! 7 weeks ago my car did not drive anymore. An error from a mechanic when the car was at the service. That error did damage my transmission. Mazda took my car, paid the price for towing the car, paid the new transmission and also i had a brandnew mazda cx5 for that time for free as a rental car. Because it was their fault. As simple as that. Not 1 word i had to argue with them. It was self-evident. Their fauld, their problem.

Ok i had a blue cast resin. But i had not read one story from a guy on the formlabs expert timeline or here, where formlabs acted like the mazda team when that happened with a “standart” resin. Only when you had a pro service plan! And THATS what makes me mad!

Now, here, it is prooven that bluecats was not the reason, it is, at least in my opinion, prooven that there is something buggy with the printer and/or the tanks, and formlabs does not take responsibility for it! At least thats how i see this! And that makes me feel dissappointed, because i like the formlabs guys and their products really a lot, even thow some of you might not believe me this after my sentences!

I have my other Form 2 now serviced in berlin cause i wann have checked it all over and other CNC and 3d machines here, but this is the point, that i cannot forgive - be responsible for a bug and not making the correct service! But i have understood that some of you see this in a different light. At least this is the service we are used too here in germany and austria most of the times :slight_smile:

Have a great weekend and a happy fathers day :slight_smile:
Take care - Chris!

If you had the issue with Formlabs resin then you can get support for it, but if it was third party resin then there’s no way to prove that it wasn’t caused by the third-party resin.
If the printer gets damaged because of their own faulty products then they’ll take care of it (short of sending you a temporary replacement printer since that’s a huge cost for them), but you can’t demand support when you do something that’s outside of the warranty.

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