I have been printing without any issues almost daily since last December when we first got our Form2, mainly white v2, but also a few prints in Dental SG, every single print a success.
Three weeks ago I started to notice small cured skin flakes (<1mm) on the base of the models, some of the flakes sticking half-cured to the outer surface of the models.
I checked the surface of the tank, still looked fine running on its 2nd liter of resin (we print almost everything in 0.1 mm and do small dental arches, so very little wear on the tank). Previous tanks have run 3 liters without any issues. I still decided to change the tank, I ordered two new ones from our supplier.
When I received the tanks, I noticed the first one did not fit smoothly at all in the printer, I had a very hard time pushing them in and I missed to hear the small “click” I usually noticed when the tank fits in its position. Also the wiper made a horrible screeching noise and pushed the tray with its movement far towards the right side of the printer. Never had this issue like this with another tray before either. I tried fitting in the second new tank, exact same issues. I did not want to damage the printer, contacted our support and they told me they could not replace the tanks without me doing a print first.
I had a lot of trouble starting the print with the non-fitting tank, the tank was not recognized as a new tank in the software, prints did not load, printer would only show as busy and would not fill the tank. So I manually filled the tank with some resin, loaded an old print directly from the printers storage. Started to print, but failed after a few layers, the resin was just hardened on the tank, some layers floating around cured in the tank.
Our supplier then agreed to exchange the tank, I inserted a new tank, also a new cartridge was necessary in the meantime, cleaned the glass surface of the printer carefully and started a test print. The print came out worse than ever, semi-cured layers and flakes all over the models, the resin left inside the tank looks like it is dissolving itself … I*m running out of ideas what to do …
In the meantime, Dental SG with an old tray works fine, prints come out very well defined, no flakes, no visible layers, but Dental SG is too expensive to use for study casts.
I am starting to think there is something wrong with the settings of white v2, or maybe the cartridges?
The white v2 cartridges are arriving in a new package now, I do not know if the resin itself has changed too (Lot: 20170131). Older versions working without issues: 20160721, 20161006, 20160829.
I also vaguely remember a firmware update around the time the prints started failing, but I cannot link it to a certain date (sorry! Is there a way to check?)
I appreciate any feedback.