We have had several chambers worth of Over-Sintered parts now that are too heavily armoured to clean up. We noticed a change since the last Firmware update. There didn’t used to be any armouring images on the previous Firmware, just the part profile. Now we see the extra “armouring” image aroung every part. Is there a way to roll back the Firmware to where we don’t get this armouring effect on PA12. It has caused several batches of unusable parts, and we are using 100% fresh powder because I don’t want to contaminate my Sift with this ovebaked powder.
I don’t believe the excess surface armor should enter your sifted powder supply. A FL employee replied to my post here and said that only suitable, reusable powder can pass through the sieve.
What print setting are you running? I have been using Speed Optimized for a while and haven’t noticed an increase in surface armor.
While troubleshooting a separate issue support had me run print bed temp calibrations on both of my printers. While I had not experience issues as you describe, I did notice surface armor was slightly more difficult to remove on one printer compared to the other. After running the calibration prints we discovered I was running hot by 1.5C. After adjusting for this subsequent prints have been really great, used powder very easy to remove. I don’t know if this is your issue exactly but perhaps its related.
Just rollback and stick to the firmware/software that was working, new versions of both can have bugs. I’m still running on Firmware from NOV24 and preform from dec I don’t like surprises and wasted powder.
Hey @3DCINCY, I’ve flagged this internally with our team, but I’d love to get a clearer picture of what you’re specifically having issues with. Could you share more details on what exactly about the surface armoring is making the workflow difficult? If you have any photos of the affected parts, that would be helpful context.
Also curious what print settings you’re using. Appreciate you taking the time to post this.
We noticed earlier this year that our prints were taking much longer to post-process and the powder seemed to be harder to get off of the parts. (especially smaller parts <1”) That’s when I started to notice the extra silhouette on the printer display, around the parts when printing. The last time I saw this was when we were printing in the Nylon 12 GF. Prior to this, the parts would display on the display with very crisp edges defining the part… now we get the extra ~2mm halo-effect around each part. It is very hard to remove this extra layer of material. We are now using only virgin material from the bag. It is getting costly $$ to not be able to reuse powder at ANY percentage just because I don’t want to risk this over-exposed powder to mix with fresh powder.
I have rolled the firmware back to 1.21 and retested. It is still having the same effect. I may need to go back further in Firmware to out-run this issue?
Can a FL employee confirm that “over-exposed” powder cannot pass through the Sift sieve and contaminate the sifted powder hopper? I feel as though Fuse users have not received a definite answer on this topic. For reference, here is what a FL Customer Support Lead told me:
The good news is that anything that fits through the mesh screen is reusable powder. As powder gets used, it sticks to other grains of powder, making it too large to pass through the screen. You don’t want to use that powder.
If this is not the case, I would really like to know.
On another note, @3DCINCY have you run the bed temperature calibration?
@3DCINCY Some surface armor is to be expected. That change was implemented to help with bed cracking and took effect in October 2023. If you’re experiencing extreme surface armor, I suggest reaching out to support so we can identify the source of your issue. We’re always happy to work with our customers to give you the best printing experience.
Hi @3DCINCY – I would recommend you using the Print Settings Editor to reduce the armor on your parts. There is detailed information on this support page to assist you with changing your settings. I would start with reducing the Armor Thickness (XY) and Armor Depth (Z).