Yesterday I started a print with a new tank in the Form 3 and Flexible Resin. Until now the printer just printed durable resin with another tank.
Since the Fill process took forever, I left the office before the actual print could get started.
Today in the Morning, no print was finished but the whole cartridge material was inside the printer.
How can that happen? The resin did NOT overflow, it leaked through the bottom area.
Hey @ENDORAG,
I’m so so sorry to hear about your spill! The best thing to do is to get in touch with our support team here as soon as you can so we can diagnose what might have happened and get you back up and printing as efficiently as possible.
We are in contact with the dealer, but it looks like a minimum 4 weeks downtime without the pro service.
Regret that we have chosen the Form 3. Never had problems with our Form 2.
Definitely not a 100% print success printer as advertised.
But at least the Form3 doesn’t dump resin into vital parts of the machine. Just ensuring that any spilt resin has been removed from the mechanical parts below the tank should mean that the printer can be up and running again?
The end sections of the feedscrew received some resin, I’ll not deal with it to get that cleaned since its not my fault. We use the machine in a productive environment for prototyping, its not my hobby to keep this machine up and running.
Thin, problem is something paranoid! was there a logical explanation for that?
Unless I’m mistaken, the flexible resin is not yet adapted to form 3 ?
https://support.formlabs.com/s/article/What-Formlabs-resins-work-with-the-new-Form-3?language=en_US
Its listed as compatible and neither preform nor the printer itself resisted to use it.
Ok so much for me… the leak comes from the “black” seal against the stretched film or the rigid part of the tray ?
So you would rather loose the machine for 4 weeks rather than a day or so?
OK then
we tried to clean it meanwhile as good as we can. But the bottom part is basically a plastic frame with ribs and a metal sheet. not really able to clean this. The fan soaks resin from the gap in between.
Feedscrew got resin as well, no idea how long it will operate in this condition.
I had a resin spill in my Form 1+ once that got into my leadscrew. Despite herculean cleaning efforts, it still ended up seizing pretty bad necessitating factory replacement.
Curious about pinpointing the leak. I’ve seen the “B” corner above fold and invert upward a fair bit during a print (but checked with Support and it wasn’t enough to cause a problem).
I’m so sorry again for these frustrations. If it’s not too much trouble, can you please DM me privately with the name of the reseller you’re working with?
We’d love to help on our end, but that’s the crucial piece of info.
Hi @ENDORAG,
had the same problem last Friday. The whole cartridge ran empty and all of the resin got inside the Form 3 as you had too. Formlabs replaced the tank but not the resin - the cartridge was almost brand new. With the new tank, I am much more careful now but I think a crack from building parts inside the tank caused the leak. I cleaned it as good as possible but the fan at the bottom is a problem…
I am also using a Form 2 and I am much more happy with it when using the LT tanks. I hope that Formlabs can solve the problem with the Form 3 though!
Thank you Christoph for sharing your experience.
I am about to cancel my 3L order because of this. If they dont even replace the cartrigde its ridiculous. On my side they can track any use of this particular resin before the cartridge got empty.
We are waiting for our exchange printer. It seems even with pro support it takes longer than expected.
So you are getting a replacement printer? How do you ship the old one back? There is still some resin inside, right?
No idea right now. But we could put a big plastic bad around before assmbling into the original shipping carton.
The pro plan service includes a hot swap unit, but on this end theres also silence.
Did you purchase the Pro plan with the printer? I’m confused since your second post says “without the pro service”.
We did not purchase it with the printer but have been told by formlabs that we can purchase it now during the incident to accelerate things.
Anyway, I’ve got the message today that we will receive the new (and larger and better) printer from the competition next week, we will focus on that for now to fill the prototyping gap.
Which printer is that? Love to know what you think of it vs. the Formlabs printers.
