We have been using the durable resin for a handful of small PP type parts for a few weeks, and it works well. However, we have used about only about 200ml of resin, yet the tray is ready to throw away, the silicone is cloudy and the part quality deteriorating.
I know this stuff is slow to print, presumably this means that the laser is on for longer and thus there is more wear on the PDMS, but really, only 200ml?
That makes this resin WAY expensive.
Anyone had similar experiences?
A tank should not be clouded to the point of unusability after 200mL of resin. It is possible that printing in a small concentrated area for 200mL of resin clouds that area specifically, but much of the tank should remain usable. Can you upload pictures?
OK, I found out some things. Mainly that it is really difficult to photographs cloudyness. Here are my attempts. I also drained the tray to try and get a better picture, so I weighed the cartridge, to see how much resin actually used, and it seems it is about 300ml.
You can see that the prints have been spaced out to use all the area, and you can see the outlines of the supports of each print that has happened. Even the thickness of printing a support base is enough to cloud the tray. Unless you want to print a tiny part and can get it into the clear gaps between the clouding, this tray is now dead.
I have found that the durable resin does visibly cloud the PDMS faster than some of the other resins, but I have been able to print on the clouded surfaces without much deterioration. The only effect I have observed is on the surface finish. What sort of part deterioration are you seeing?
We saw the normal degradation of surface quality and thin webs of material that is associated with cloudy trays as in any other resin, except it happens after 300ml instead of 1500-2000ml. The part quality of components made in the cloudy areas was not useable, they went in the bin.
We run 2 Form2 machines here almost 24/7, so we are all experienced and familiar with the normal issues. This is perfectly normal tray degradation, just too fast.
I have only used durable once or twice, so I don’t have any additional useful insights here. Perhaps others from the community can comment, or you could reach out to support to see if they have any suggestions here.
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