Form 2 LT tank gone weird after ~500ml of prints

Hi, I’m relatively new to this but I’ve been printing without issue for the last 3 weeks.

Recently I’ve had issue with my LT tank and black resin. The print failed and left bits in it.

Steps I took after -

1 emptied the LT tank, completely scraped (scraped) away all resin and made sure there was no resin left it in.

Reloaded the tank and let it fill with fresh resin and did the butterfly test print.

The test print failed - image below.

When emptying out the tank this time I noticed that the whole PDMS layer was cloudy/translucent.

And for comparison, an equally used tank containing durable resin.

What has caused this issue? I have only run about 500ml worth of prints and I have never used the middle or left side of the tank!!

What did you use to scrape the resin out? The new LT tanks are not PDMS and are very sensitive to contact. From the looks of it, seems like you used something to scrape in the right-left direction of the picture you have posted.

Did you use solvent to clean the tank after you removed the resin? That might also damage the coating.

I used the scraper from the form finish kit to gently release the cured resin stuck on the bottom and then used it to help empty the tray out.

No solvent used, just poured fresh resin straight back in.

The coating on the LT tank is very sensitive. I think the general consensus is that use of the metal scraper in the finishing kit is not a good idea. Best to use something very soft for material remove - some use their hands. I have used a soft (and dull) plastic spreader.

If I were you I’d open up a support ticket.

The LT tanks use FEP film, i believe.
If true, then you can get away with somewhat cloudy (to the eye) FEP as it’s actually transparent once wetted with the resin, so in that case, i doubt the cloudiness has something to do with the failure.

Additionally, the new opaque black resin tends to leave a filler behind too, that makes the PDMS look cloudier than it is too (unless you scrape it out really well).

I’d suggest asking support, but my 2c is the cloudiness likely isn’t the cause (or an issue).

Hello there!

I would highly recommend you get in touch with our support team and we’d be happy to get to the bottom of things with you.

Please feel free to submit a ticket at the link below and someone from the Customer team will be in contact within 1 business day(usually much shorter) to get you back to printing!

Thank you all for the help. Got in touch with support and it turns out my machine has had an optics failure. Currently being replaced

This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.