Form 3 Resin Availability Update

#1

Hello Everyone!

We want to share more detail on how and when you can expect the various print settings to roll into PreForm. While the Form 3 uses the same cartridges as Form 2, each material, and each layer height require development and validation of unique Form 3 print settings.

Our goal is to make as much of the materials library available as quickly as possible. As such - we will initially roll out only one print setting for each material, selected as the most frequently used setting (e.g: 100 micron settings for Grey, Clear, White and Grey). You can expect other layer thickness options to be made available soon after.

Please refer to this support article for the latest timeline and information.

A few things to note.

We will be developing settings for the most current formulations of each of our materials. Legacy formulations will not have settings developed for Form 3 printers even if they are still available in the store. (e.g: High Temp v2 will be available to print on the Form 3, but not High Temp v1).

We want to thank all of you for your patience and understanding while we work hard to bring you these resin settings as efficiently as possible. The Form 3 is a printer we’re really excited about and it’s important to us that these materials work as well as we know they can.

#2

Hi,

When the Form 3 is shipped will it have available “Open Mode” to allow use of any of the profiles of resin as they become available for use, or will its use be restricted strictly to Formlabs resins? In other words NO OPEN MODE

#3

I can’t say I’m thrilled about this, I don’t remember seeing anywhere when I ordered my form 3 that I would only be able to use one setting for the basic resins at launch. I really hope you stick to those dates, because I am going to be really frustrated only being able to print at 100 micron.

#4

I agree… I was expecting to be able to jump in and use the new machine on waiting projects. Finding out they had not put it through the paces and refined the settings before launch was a bit of a ‘gut-check’ I am still deciding if I should keep my pre-order or not.

#5

This is the kind of product release I expect from a company kickstarting their first product, not an established company releasing their 3rd iteration of a product. Had they been honest with what the state of the Form 3 would have been at release I’m honestly not sure I would have pre-ordered and instead waited to see it released.

#6

As far as I know, the printer doesn’t ship until September, and based the resin information timeline, with only 1 or 2 exceptions, by the time you get the printer, it should be capable of printing all the resolutions.

All this is assuming Formlabs sticks to their timelines, which is something they have haven’t done that well with n the past.

#7

When I pre-ordered mine in April I was giving a July date for shipping, now I haven’t fully expected to actually receive it in July with pre-orders being how they normally are.

Have they already pushed back shipment dates for earlier pre-orders?

#8

I think the earliest is July, when I ordered last week it said August for my order

#9

Gotcha, yeah I checked and I ordered end of April and had a July delivery date for mine. I noticed if you order today it looks like a September delivery date.

#10

If the options are receive printer with most resins ready in July vs. receive printer in Sept with all resin fully ready, I choose July. I agree that they should have been up front with that though. The assumption when purchasing is that it is fully functional…

#11

Forgive me if this has been addressed, but I’m not aware of any confirmation of the existence of Open Mode on the Form 3. Has there been a definitive answer from Formlabs about it?

#12

Hey All,

Thanks so much for the feedback. We definitely hear you on resin availability, and we don’t anticipate needing to change those timelines much.

As far as the printers themselves shipping. The first units ordered(on April 2nd) should be shipping out in the next couple weeks.

After that, it’s a rolling lead time, so while a printer ordered today may not ship until August or September, there will still be printers going to customers who placed their orders before.

#13

No comment about open mode…

Edit: it’s coming.

#14

Open mode was recently mentioned here: Form 3 Unboxing and First Impressions!

#15

thank you! comment edited to reflect the update.

#16

Open mode is horrible to begin with, hence there are now cartridge hacks. I’d like the company just to allow third party resins with a blank cartridge system, but considering how much money they are making off resin I doubt that will happen.

After 2 years with the form 2 we are really starting to see some massive limitations that require going to third parties for resins that have lower viscosity and are much stronger than anything formlabs offers.