Hello everyone, during the last start of the printing process in our Fuse1, the seal of the Build Chamber melted. Has this ever happened to you? What could be the cause of this?
woah, never seen that before. Overtemp in the printer? Could the humidity in the room have something to do with it? Probably a longshot. Could be a faulty seal. Might be the most possible cause. Keep us updated as this is quite interesting. Thx
I took a closer look at it and realized that there is no seal at that spot. It’s probably melted powder. The problem now is that the plate can’t be moved anymore.
Open up the chamber and see if you can get it loose. Should be be able to save the chamber.
Hi @KuemmeMl ,
Réka from Formlabs Support here. This looks like perimeter melting. Please see possible causes and troubleshooting steps in the article I linked. Just to be on the safe side, please also open a support case here with some pictures and your printer’s/BC’s serial name, my colleagues will be able to help you further.
Here’s a quick update on the Fuse 1:
After the material had melted, I gave the printer an especially thorough cleaning – and that’s saying something, since I’m usually very meticulous anyway. I then reset it to factory settings and installed the latest firmware. The next print completed without any issues.
Unfortunately, I haven’t yet had time to take apart and clean the build chamber.
I have now disassembled and thoroughly cleaned the build chamber. The seal was completely covered with melted powder. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures. Removing the melted powder from the chamber walls was quite difficult.
In the meantime, I got in touch with David Simon from the support team, who analyzed the log files. According to him, the air heater had failed, which caused the heating lamps to ramp up their output. That’s why the powder only melted around the edges.
However, I find this explanation hard to follow, as I’ve already completed two more print runs since then without any issues.
I’ll continue to monitor the printer for now and will only decide whether to replace the air heater after that.
I’ve had two perimeter melting. Initially thought it was something I had done like not vaccumed the build chamber felt properly. But as the powder melted everywhere. Currently trying to clean off the burnt powder and melted felt which is super tricky. Using heat gun scraper and scotchbrite.
I’ve ordered a new build plate. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the felt separately. The melted material bonded too much with the felt, making it impossible to clean.
Yeah it is just one whole assembly. Formlabs think it is the fuse’s build chamber socket on printer that has caused it. I have 3 build chambers 2 are now unavailable due to waiting on spare parts. One of them is quite new now trying to get the burnt on plastic and felt off using heat gun, scotchbrite and scrapers. What did you use @KuemmeMl ?
My initial assumption was that the air heater was defective, so I ordered a replacement. However, on the support page, I read that the issue can also be caused by dirty contacts on the build chamber. After I blew them out with compressed air and vacuumed them, everything started working as usual. The air heater is now sitting in the cabinet waiting for its turn.
I cleaned my build chamber as thoroughly as possible using a screwdriver and a scraper, then sanded the remaining residue with sandpaper and Scotch-Brite. It takes some effort, but it works well.
Yes, I read that so I did what you did then few weeks later it did another chamber. we have 2 fuses 1 was down due to a broken heater rtd sensor. I replaced it then other printer went. Did you remove the melted plastic on lip of chamber between volcano seal? The aluminum is so soft it was left with gouges on lip where I was trying to free build chamber platform. I take it the felt seal still works.
Hi everyone,
I wanted to provide an update on the temperature-related issues we’ve been experiencing with our Fuse 1, as unfortunately we still have not found a permanent solution.
Over the past months, we have already replaced both the heater element and the heater fan, but neither of these measures resolved the problem.
Most recently, we adjusted the temperature offset to -1.5°C. While this seemed promising at first, we started noticing poor layer bonding between printed layers. The parts became noticeably weaker and did not achieve the required mechanical stability. Because of this, we first changed the offset back to 0°C and later increased it to +1°C.
Unfortunately, the latest build resulted in a much more severe issue. It appears that the entire build chamber overheated, causing the powder to melt extensively from the outer edges inward. The complete build was lost as a result.
What’s particularly interesting is that this occurred in build chamber BC-FS1-230V-HL3NT, which is different from the chamber involved in our previous powder-melting incident. This makes me believe that the root cause may not be specific to a single build chamber.
At this point, we are continuing to collect diagnostic data and are working with Formlabs support to investigate further. I’ll post another update as soon as we learn more.
I’m curious if anyone else has experienced similar symptoms, especially:
- Significant temperature fluctuations
- Poor layer adhesion when running lower temperature offsets
- Powder melting around the perimeter of the build chamber
- Recurring temperature-related issues despite replacing the heater element and heater fan
Any feedback or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
What material are you running. I have thousands of hours on 12 tough and there were issues with the settings where it would overheat and parts would melt in the flipper but never to the effect of the build chamber. I also had poor surface finish due to overheating and really strong surface armor compared to regular PA12.
I was running 12 tough with a -5C offset and have not seen issues with adhesion or strength however I haven’t done formal testing on the strength.
In terms of “Fluctuation” depending on packing density has changed how parts and prints come out but in terms of hardware fluctuation I haven’t experienced much issues. Also from time to time when i see significant changes they usually tell me to get rid of the recycled powder and start fresh. The refresh rate you use can also slightly effect the temperature and strength but I assume you keep that consistent.
One thing that might help would be lower the global temperatures but increase the laser power on the part and/or surface armor so that your parts are still getting good adhesion but there is less heat in the entire build chamber and printer. These printers print as close to the melting point of plastic as possible so while you think it has huge fluctuations it may actually be 1C or 2C different from a global meltdown to a great print. This means that one thing like Laurolactam build up in the camera cone or some other slight thing can be the difference.
I know different materials can act differently and have their own problems as well as packing density and parts.
I see that you replaced the heater element. Did you have an instructional guide or manual on how to replace it?
We are running PA12 GF.
How can you increase the laser power? Is that something that can be adjusted by the user, or does it require Formlabs support?
So if I understand your theory correctly, you suspect that the entire build chamber became too hot overall, which then caused the powder to melt at the edges?
That would actually make sense considering what we observed. The powder did not only melt locally around the parts, but large areas of the powder bed appeared to have overheated.
Based on your experience, would it be worth trying a lower temperature offset while compensating with higher laser power to maintain layer adhesion and part strength? That sounds like an interesting approach and could potentially explain why we are seeing either poor layer bonding at lower temperatures or powder melting when increasing the temperature.
Thanks for your input.
Formlabs provided us with a service guide for the replacement. We followed their instructions step by step, and the heater element replacement itself went smoothly. Unfortunately, replacing the heater element did not resolve the issue, as we are still experiencing temperature-related problems.
Could you clarify what you mean by the service guide? Did they send you a PDF manual, a link to their standard online instructions, or something else? Or were you on the phone with a technician walking you through it?
Also, regarding your previous comment—you can actually adjust the laser power in the print parameter settings now. Formlabs recently unlocked this option.
We received a PDF document with instructions for the replacement procedure. We were not guided by a technician over the phone.
Thank you for the information regarding the laser power setting.
I have seen a lot of people and you may be one of them that complains about GF settings on the forum. I would take time to look through some of those and see if people gave insight.
You can create your own custom profiles under the “create or import custom settings” link next to the “4. Choose print settings” There is a long list of parameters you can adjust with a small description of each one. Typically the laser power is turned all the way up already for speed but if you slow down the laser it would melt the part more. There is already 2 settings from Formlabs on GF so you may compare the 2 and make slight changes. Also in their you can change the temperatures on different heaters. I adjusted the bed temperature set point to be lower.
*As mentioned my problem and material were slightly different and their are risks with doing custom settings so proceed at your own risk.