Yesterday I had to contact the UK supplier of Form2 Consumables. They asked for an email and photos so that they could pass the issue onto Formlabs (Hopefully to the faulty cartridge replaced)
During the last 12 months all the cartridges I have had have suffered from the bite valve being blocked, not an issue though, a few minutes careful application of a scalpel sorts that. One cartridge was supplied covered in leaking resin . That was visible before even opening the sealed bag.
I have followed many people talking on this Forum and Facebook of “Missing Cartridge” errors, but luckily I had not suffered that until yesterday, Its happened!! I join the collective of people who have suffered sensor errors. I was in a rush to get a part printed , so after speaking to the UK supplier I transferred the resin to an old cartridge - that is seen by the machine without any issue so I can conclude that the fault is in the cartridge rather than the printer.
I thought that I would run some simple checks to see if I could see what the problem was. It seems to be a dimensional issue. First the base part of the cartridge can move relative to the top part of the cartridge +/- 0.4mm. in the X and y directions Its the first cartridge I have had like that.
Secondly I checked the position of the sensor in relation to the fixed contacts on the machine, it seems that the gap is up to 0.3mm bigger than all the old cartridges I had. So add the two errors together and potentially the contacts can have a gap of up to 1.1mm bigger than a working cartridge. Whats worse is the fact that the gap can change due to the bottom being able to move relative to the top.
Its interesting to see that the new Form3 will use the same cartridge… So presumably may suffer the same issues.
As I type this I am still waiting for an answer from the supplier who is presumably waiting on an answer from Formlabs.
