Form 2: how much is "a lot of printing?"

General Discussion
1

So how much printing is considered “a lot” for the Form 2? Another lab in our building made a grab at our brand new Form 2, and they’ve been printing nearly continuously for the past 3.5 weeks. Some details:
[400+ hours of printing, prints are 25-47 hours long]
[37,000+ layers @ 50 micron]
[used 3 standard tanks]
[~2.4 liters of Tough resin]

My lab only prints tiny parts, so we’ve logged 40 hours of our own prints. Is there a maintenance schedule that I’ve missed, and what can we expect to [mechanically] wear out? I already had to lubricate the Z-screw after ~20 hours of use.

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2

I would look up the life of the laser used, somewheres around 5-10k hours I believe but could be wrong.

3

Great question, is there a maintenance schedule?

4

Only thing I’ve read from Formlabs employees is to add some silicone grease to the Z axis screw “after a while of usage” but nothing else.

5

I’ve used 33.2L of resin and had to send in the printer for serviceunder warranty since the printing degraded massively. I was ‘told’ the galvos were replaced, but my second support ticket ~8 months after the first said the galvos were not replaced during the prior service. I’m guessing they simply cleaned the galvo mirrors, which I have personally done twice since my warranty expired. (I have to do this again, and I am NOT in a dusty environment, the Form2 at the makerspace lives in sawdust with no issues…)

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