Hi! Could you please help me with my problem. The printer was purchased 3 weeks ago, we used only transparent plastic. At the beginning the parts were normal, then printing defects began to occur and at the moment the printer does not print, the cartridge was changed to gray but this did not help. The resin tank fills up, the printer tries to print something, the printing process looks normal from the side, but only some kind of clots appear on the build platform. What could be the reason?
Is the tank fogged? The PDMS layer on the tanks wears out and if too foggy will block the laser from exposing the resin causing similar failures as you see there. What you have is the base layer that uses more exposure than the rest of the layers to get it to stick to the build platform. A worn out tank will inhibit the rest of the layers from properly exposing and the results are similar to what you see.
Hi KenCitron,
it was the new tank.
Chronology:
- first print. clear Resin. 3-4 part were printed perfectly. After this point we have a problems
- part was 99% good
- part was falling down during print
- part was not printed, but support was. I used the same model as I printed first to be sure that model is correct
- I have cleaned the resin tank (with Novus) and tried again the grey resin. I received the bad result (see picture above) - no support, nothing, just some kind of clots
- I tried to use some Z-axe tuning - no changes (with negative offset - nothing, no prints, with positive - the same result as on the picture above
Now I’m waiting for the new tank and we will see is it a tank degradation to exclude this root cause. I can see some liiittle scrathes, but Im dont thinking that it is a reason.
But for me is interesting: why fails happens with clear resin (before resin change), with the new tank, new printer and just a few printed parts? is it normal to replace the tank each 4-5 prints? Can it be a hardware problem?
No- if you have your dashboard online setup- then it will show you burn maps for each individual tank and you can assess how bad the tank might be.
The type of resin is immaterial.
First thing is to take a fine tooth comb and drag it thru the resin in the tray- once you have had a part fall off the platform, there is a high likelihood that some bit of semi cured resin debris is in the tank… this would prevent the platform from getting close enough to the tank floor for the resin to cure properly and it could explain how a relatively new tank might have scratches in its surface as the peel and wiper actions drag debris across the tank.
Very thin layers of clear resin can be stuck firmly to the tank floor and be invisible… you will have to drag a spatula across the floor of the tank to see if you can ‘feel’ them.
second thing to check is how you are handling the printer trays- make sure you are not touching the clear window on the bottom of the tray. fingerprints can cause print errors.
Third thing to look at is the optical window. Is it smudged, discolored or got dust on it? Beyond that, look down into the optical bay and see if you see any debris on the mirrors.
And if none of these pinpoint the problem- open a support ticket with Formlabs - once in a while they ship a printer that is defective- mine was- and you will have to jump thru some hoops with them diagnosing the problem before they will ship you a replacement printer.
If you haven’t already. Request support from Formlabs. My printer was less than 4 months old and they had to replace the laser because I was not getting enough power. There was a noticeable difference in the part feel after. Much harder, I did not feel like I needed to cure it. Here is my thread:
Hi,
I tried new resin tank - no changes 
It seems to be hardware problem
Now I wll request the support from formlabs. I hope they will help.
How much time it will take?
Hey there! Typically you should expect a reply from our support team in less than one business day. You can find the link to contact us below! 
https://support.formlabs.com/s/contact-support?language=en_US
Hi,
some News.
Printer was sendet back to Formlabs. I am waitng now for the new one.
I am very impressed with Formlabs Support. 
They help me with diagnostic and shipping and I just want to say thanks.
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So, I am still waiting for the printer. One month I can’t print something
Today I received a link from the support to track the parcel with a new printer. It turned out that yesterday the parcel stuck in a nearby city because the sender had entered the wrong address. I contacted the mail but they say that they cannot change the address because of my words and I must contact the sender and provide him the correct address. Then the support wrote that it was impossible to change the address because of the rules of mail. Now the whole way will be re-run. another new printer has not even been sent yet, it has just been ordered today. It is very disappointing that the printer is so close, but it will last forever until I get it. I do not understand how you can make a mistake with the address when you send such an expensive thing and why support did not see yesterday that there was a problem and how can it be that you can not change the address without canceling the parcel!
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