My lasers lose curing power

Support & Troubleshooting Form 2
1

Hello good day.

After having bad experience in the repair of my Form1 + and the lack of spare parts by FormLabs I decided to buy Formlabs 2.

It turns out that I have an open ticket to the name of Adrian … I’m again with replacements of formLabs2.

-First Printer Form2 Purchased and Replaced: After 46 hours of printing my pieces did not finish correct, I made falls of the finest parts. The supports always correct but my pieces a Chaos.
-Second Printer Form2 Received
same mistake but this time only at 27 hours.

It must be said that I am an experienced FormLabs user:
-I cleaned my glass with PedPAd & IPA.
-Changed my resin tank when necessary.
-Change or filter my resin when necessary.

Clearly the error is in the printers, my tank and resin have been taken to my friend’s house with Form2 and all success.

FormLabs tells me:
Do not worry, we’ll send you another printer again … but … is this normal? I have this way (2 und of Form1 +) and (2 und of Form2) I am the burner of lasers or printers Form?

I’m even asking the support to give me a technical diagnosis, I’m a technician.
I’m asking FormLabs if I’m doing something else myself or my environment is not suitable … they answer … that FormLabs does not affect anything external.

But I think 2 faulty Formlab printers followed? It’s all very strange.

Since they do not answer if there is an external agent, I ask:

-Is it possible that my electrical current makes failures in the FormLabs? My current is 220v AC Spain, the first that happened was directly to the electrical network the second was in a UPS (protected). (This is impossible, I think that the power supply of the FormLabs are very good, they rectify and purify the current)

  • Is it possible that these failures can be generated by external magnetic agents? It’s crazy but I’m desperate, to say that in the same room I have more electrical equipment such as Prusa printers, other FDM.

Understanding my situation, the third Form2 printer is on its way … it’s crazy …

I print technical cube parts emptied with impressions from 16 hours to 0.025mm from Z.

The Preform has been sent to FormLabs along with the machine name, DashBoard report … and they say new printer … but I am very unhappy with the situation and fear that it may happen again.

Do you think I should take some precautionary measure? I think everything I do well always my last preform and latest firmware.

I also think that if I were the cause of the breakdowns, Formlabs2 is badly designed … but I do not understand it. I know people who do not have any problems.

I think that my Formlabs 2 send a lot of power or voltage to the laser and it ends up burning it.
Degrading and expanding the point.

Clear Standar V4. According to Formlabs the resin is correct according to the reference number.

What do you think according to your experiences ?.

As it happens again I will make a formal claim and return my money. (I no longer dedicate myself to 3D SLA printing) I lost all my clients thanks to the wonderful FormLabs :frowning:

2

Not for nothing but seems I see more catastrophic machine failures to machines shipped over seas vs ones in the states. Could it be the shipping monkeys kicking these around?

3

i think the evidence is plain… Formlabs got one or more shipments of very poorly assembled printers…
Printers with bad parts, over torqued resin sensors, motors or bearings that did not meet proper specifications.

This can happen in so many different ways in this modern world where the company that designs and sells a product is no linger the company in full control of manufacturing the product.

A change in manufacturer can do it- but so can such things as a change in management at the factory- or hiring a NEW group of assembly staff- or the factory that’s done fine all along suddenly having to find a new source for a handful of critical parts… or even, the purchase of new, supposedly better, tools.

I have had entire containers full of product have to be sent back, simply because the Vietnamese vendor the Chinese manufacturer bought lacquer from decided that no one would notice if he watered down the 50 gallon drum of lacquer to make a few more dollars on the deal.

This is made even worse if the factory or Formlabs does not capture enough information in the production chain to readily identify exactly what or where the quality problem originated…

if its ONE worker who works one shift on tuesdays and thrusdays- and only the machines HE worked on are faulty- but all the other ones are fine- how can you separate those machines from every other box in stock at ten different resellers warehouses? ( assuming you can even figure out its just the one guy )

Formlabs is discovering which units are faulty by users buying them and trying to run them. As more units are returned they will glean more info about how or why the units are bad- and perhaps better be able to prevent the issue.

But think about it… ONE company that made airbags caused a massive number of recalls for four different car manufacturers who bought their airbags to install in the cars they made.

If Formlabs is willing to persevere and keep replacing the faulty units, eventually you’ll get a good one.

Mine was replaced less than two months after purchase.
So far, the replacement has been running without issue.

1 Like
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Thank you very much for your interest and help.

Is there a key to know that the next printer is incorrect?

one thing that I’m amazed at is:
In the two printers I had to clean my glass with IPA and Ped Pad, it was dirty, I made scratches in my pieces, since cleaning I stopped making the scratches, but then the real problem arrived at 46 hours.

Conclusion: As you comment, I understand that FormLabs is receiving a series of defective printers … I think they should be transparent with us, the support does not give me information or explanations.

I do not see it right, I can understand that its external manufacturer is doing a bad job but they should be clear with the customers and if they know they have problems they will take a pattern to know if the customer received a defective unit.

They must be clear and that way I do not get angry but if they do not say anything I lose a lot of time until I finish opening a support ticket.

We trust them to deposit our money, why do not they trust us?

Thanks for your help.

Any data is important.

5

You mentioned voltage. Are you sure you have a steady 220vac and not something higher or lower?
I have never had success printing at 25 microns. I have probably 99% success at 100 microns. Try printing at 50 or 100 microns and see what happens.

6

@SPSpain, two faulty printers in a row is pretty surprising to us! We hope that your replacement printer is up to spec and are happy to help if you have further issues.

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I bought my form labs 2 precisely because I needed layer heights of 0.025mm Z.

Formlabs has these specifications. After buying such expensive equipment, are you going to tell me that impressions are not successful at that point?

I use my Printer for high MODELING PRIZE I do not want stripes, I want perfection, and I think that Formlabs has it.

I have a question:
In my place of work where I have the printer the 220V AC electric current is correct.

How important is the ground line for these equipment? Of course I have land line but I do not know the status of the quality of this.

These knowledge should not worry me because we interpret that formlabs printers are perfectly designed.

But on the one hand, it is amazing that it is the third replacement printer.

On the other always the same symptoms.

And finally for more than inform the person who treats me the ticket, he replies that the error is in the printers.

But I think everything is very strange, I’m not doing anything wrong.

My case is a clear example that is for whatever reason.

Or I have an external problem and it affects my printers (this means that Formlabs 2 has possible bad designs to certain factors)

Or the printers are arriving damaged.

The breakdown is the following I am a technician:
The point of the laser is not perfect, it is not a definite point, you can see a point and degradations around it.
(this has been possible to see thanks to a tankless print in open mode and with a very expensive slow camera) (at my friend’s house the laser pointer is perfect) (same test)

The supports always come out correctly but my pieces fall or they do not get to cure at all. (the laser pointer does the journey) but has no strength to heal, this is due to:
-In our Formlabs printers the supports make them at a higher voltage than our pieces, this is the reason why I have the supports and not my parts.

These tests have been carried out at my friend’s house with his Formlabs 2 no longer under warranty.

I use resin Clear V4 0.025mm
Firmware: RC-1.16.8-19
Preform: 2.15.1

I try to get to the problem, I want to talk with Formlabs technicians and they will not let me.

Can you help me find a solution? This is not normal.

Best Regards

8

So the third printer does not work either?
I would take that printer to your friends house and see if it will work there. If it doesn’t, it’s a bad printer.
If it does, there is something at your location that is making it malfunction.
That’s why I suspected voltage. Get a volt meter and check it just to be sure. Maybe get a power conditioner for it. Like you would use on a computer.
It seems strange to me that 3 printers in a row do not work
Good luck!

9

Hi mate, thanks for the response.

Sorry, I’m still waiting for the third printer, from the Formlabs support they confirm that it must be printer error.

The electric current is correct, it has been measured with my polymer, it is stable.

I have also tested it with a UPS protection unit.

I will tell my experience when my third printer arrives.

I comment all this to ask if there is anything that could affect these printers. Just for precaution, I am taking these measures.

Although I insist something that happens in my room environment would mean that the FormLabs have a failure so they should solve it in all to avoid.

I have a question, my friend’s laser is 4 threads black red and yellow blue.

Mine I do not know (I’m not going to open it of course.

What’s the use of the 2 extra yellow and blue threads?

Some time ago I read that lasers must be protected by those threads … what if the printers I received is what happens?

Any help comment, is well received.

It would be interesting for internal Formlabs to participate.

We are the best testers of your machines.

Thanks friends.

10

I can’t help you with the wires, I have not had mine open. Hopefully the third one will work. If it doesn’t work with your 25 micron part, I would try something at 50 or 100. I know that is not what you want but it will tell you if the machine is working or it is just having problems with the small detailed part.

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Thanks ScottBarbour very good idea.

regards

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