When I upgraded to the form 3 I was happy to think that the new peel system (low force) would be an improvement over my Form 2’s. But what I have found when I print lots of small parts, inevitably 3-4 of them just rip off the build platform or rip apart, while the other 76+ of them stick and print just fine. This is true across all of my Form 3s (I have 4) and is predictable every time. The same file and parts never fail on my Form 2.
It is especially bad when II print directly on the buildplate. The problem gets worse the more small prints I try to print at the same time. Usually in the range of 80-100 10x10mm parts.
The worse part is it is not always just the part pulling off the build plate, but I have printed an array of 100 parts and 3 of them just separate mid model, every time. I will get 99% success of the parts and have 3 that just shred apart.
This happens with all the materials I have tested, including clear, durable, grey and black.
My most recent fail on the Form 3 is this file, printing 3 simple rectangles. 2 of the parts decided to pull off of the build plate.
I have ran my Form 2’s since they existed and got maybe 3 failures a year, in the last year I have had my Form 3s I get small failures weekly. It is always the same problem. Some parts just get pulled off the platform or pulled apart mid print.
That’s definitely odd.
I’ve printed hundreds of parts, of all shapes and sizes, with all (non B) materials FormLabs has, on two Form 3 printers and never had that issue.
Is the build plate clean? If you shine an UV light on it in the dark, do you seen resin stuck there? If so you need to remove it using IPA and / or scraping because that will make the first layer not to adhere properly.
Other than that, there’s always the scratch trick but that’s something a bit overkill and should only be used on a very beaten build plate in my opinion. Others have a different opinion which is to do it in a new one but experiences vary.
Have you tried the obvious which is a different build plate? That way you’d know if the problem is in the actual plate or not.
You mentioned it happens in four Form 3 you have but are you using the same build plate for all or a different one for each?
Your machine’s build-plate adherence is probably a little low. The parts you print are small, so the bases are also small, and that’s not giving you enough surface area.
What I would do is take a dozen of those little doohinkies (I hope I’m not getting too technical ) and combine them all together in a single STL, which I would then import to PreForm and print as a single “monolithic” object. You get a base that is now as big as the footprint of the array of parts, and I bet they don’t fall off.
In my experience, models that separate from the supports can sometimes do so because the base isn’t really stuck down.
I’d also open a ticket with FL, since there is probably something you can adjust to increase the initial layer compression, which ought to help. Also, it could be laser power, and I think they can check that in the printer’s telemetry data.
But before you do that, you should print the FL test model, since that’s almost certainly what FL will ask you to do when you complain.
) and combine them all together in a single STL, which I would then import to PreForm and print as a single “monolithic” object. You get a base that is now as big as the footprint of the array of parts, and I bet they don’t fall off.