Many questions about the quality of Form 1 printing

Support & Troubleshooting
1

My Form 1 came to my place with a failed peel motor (see https://support.formlabs.com/entries/36336837-Tray-tilt-didn-t-come-back-to-level-) but after receiving their replacement this machine was back to life so I started to test it. I sent the same results and pictures below to the customer service (Mr. Jory) but the reply is so slow and did not answer anything so post them here to see if anyone in the community can help me.

Please know I run a 3d printing/3d scanning/3d design company here for over 5 years so I am not a beginner in this field, but first few prints was so disappointing. I tried a 3D scanned head (actually my head) fixed with the Materialise Magics software. Please know this is an industry leading software and we have used it for over 5 years to 3d-print over 1000 models for our customers with no problem, so this file is definitely clean and totally printable.

See the attached image, above is the same 3d file printed with EnvisionTec professional printer and again show you the quality of this file and their printer. Below is 4 tests of my Form 1 printer with Preform 1.1.x at that time… The 1st and 2nd is complete the same *.form files because I printed it again when I saw the first fail print, to make sure the fail is repeatable. You can see half of the face show some uncured patch and peeling, just as some user’s experiences on this forum.

I re-checked and fixed the 3d file again with Magics and put it into Preform and oriented and made supports again and show similar result (The 3rd one. The lack of upper part is due to the insufficient resin on the tank so it’s nothing to do with the issue I mention here)

Then I downloaded the Meshlab and do some repair filter commands as some members in this forum suggested (actually only one of them took effect because the file is very clean after the Magics fixing), then I printed it again. This 4th print is even worse because some supports disappeared and the surface came out with some “extrusion” as the red circles shows.

All 4 prints are setting to Grey 0.1mm.

I searched the forum many times but couldn’t find any reasonable solution. All I know now is this issue seems to be orientation-related, and Form 1’s peeling motor action may play a role is this problem (that’s why the 3rd’s uncured side is different with others because I may put it in a different direction, but replaced the old *.form every time I print so I can’t recall the old direction).

I tried the White resin and got similar results and I found the it’s harder for the support base to adhere the print platform than the grey resin, especially for small models. This is definitely a resin material issue.

to be continued…

2

I sent the question and pictures above to Jory of Formlabs and he told me to send the machine back for servicing (my God!). But at the same time I updated my Preform 1.1.x to the last version 1.2.1 and found the print quality much better than those print results above. Strange lines still visible but the uncuring issue is much improved. So I guess it was a software issue and would be better when the Preform evolve.

So I don’t know if I really should send the machine back as Jory said. Jory gave me a test file (5 Formlabs butterfly icons at four corners and center of the build platform as attached pic) I printed the file and took some pictures as attached. I used number from 1~5 to point out each 5 models as different place of the platform. I guess Jory want me to use this file to check the consistency of the printing quality of each corner. To me it’s a successfully print and the quality is about the same to every models. but I hope to see better result if possible. The text “formlabs” on the model is not visible on my print (Grey 0.1mm) And the quality of this test file doesn’t guarantee the qualities of other models.

3

Pictures continued.

4

Then I printed another 3d file (which with the same details on both sides) and here are the pictures.

First I tried 0.05mm with the orientation parallel to the left-right direction of the machine (so the text on the model is facing front), see third attached photo on this comment. The result is not good, lines are very obvious.

5

Then I tried 0.025mm, but this time I duplicated it and make the second one turn 90 degree to let the text facing side (See the second photo on next comment) this 0.025mm result is even worse than the 0.05mm.  See the photo below.

6

And the one with text facing side is the worst, many defects on the surface, the other side is terrible, and some supports was missing. See below.

7

I don’t believe this is the quality Form 1 should present, can anyone tell me what to do with it to make it better??

8

I have no idea what’s wrong with your replacement printer but it sure looks to me like it needs replaced!

9

someone could print me one piece of evidence? I would like to buy your printer.
are also willing to pay
thanks