Curing Prints Directly to Print Bed

I was wondering if anyone can help with this issue. As part of a project to reduce the amount of physical interaction in the whole 3D printing process, I came up with a way to wash the part and cure it under LED light without taking the part/s off of the print bed, just move the bed from one station to the next. I’ve been using the print bed as a sort of lid for the cure box, where the printed part would be upside down inside it while it cured, so its surface has been exposed to 405nm LED light quite a lot. I havn’t used this print bed for a while, but recently used it for a print and tried to remove the part by hand, I found it quite difficult to do so. The support base came off in pieces as if very brittle and I had to scrape off whatever couldn’t be pried off with the tool. I’m curious as to whether there’s some sort of coating put over the print bed to allow relatively easy part removal and it’s been badly affected by the constant exposure to a wavelength meant to cure printed parts. Any ideas as to why the part was difficult to remove? I’m quite certain its the bed at fault as the tank was brand new out of the box and there was fresh White V3 resin put in.

The issue there is that when a part is printed the resin is not fully cured, so when you remove it after printing (before post-curing) then the part will be a bit flexible which can help when removing the print from the build platform. So when you cure it with the print on the platform it’s curing more securely to the platform which makes it difficult to remove after, there’s no special coating on the platform, it’s just a flat metal surface

Not a half bad idea but my concern is are you submerging the build platform in IPA? if so then you risk it holding some IPA that may leak into clean resin after. The build platforms are not water tight.

Another concern is part removal while parts are green as Zach points out makes them much easier to remove from the build platform. Fully cured parts may be tough to remove and may shatter when removed.

Thanks for the replies. I’ve found that curing the part while still attached to the bed actually makes it easier to remove, it just pops off, I think it might have something to do with thermal expansion. However, my issue was when the part came right out of the printer (I should have clarified), I tried removing it from the bed then when the problem occurred. I havn’t cured parts to the bed for a while now, and I’ve been using a different print bed, only recently I went back to the original bed which is why I suspect LED exposure might have affected the platforms surface.

I’m not actually submerging the bed in IPA, it’s put in as far as the platforms surface, just covering the printed part and its support structure, then the IPA is agitated a little so it can wash any little gaps or cracks. Havn’t had problems with IPA contaminating resin either.

UV exposure won’t augment the platform in any way that causes parts to over-adhere. It’s possible that consistent use has caused small scratches and imperfections in the bed that increase part adhesion. You might try sanding the platform a bit with 100-200 grit sandpaper to see if that corrects the over-adhesion.

What you could try is increasing z-offset in preferences of your printer. Especially tough resin is very brittle when uncured.

The bed is quite worn actually, I might try sanding it like you said Frew, thanks everyone.

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