Standard Resin Black - V4

Good Morning Community,

unfortunately we have new problems with a Formlabs product.
This time i am talking about the black resin-V4.

When the resin tank is not in use for 1 or 2 days the resin starts to precipitate - as you can see in the pictures attached.
It is not precured resin!
On the bottom of the tank you can find a thin film of white material which you can scrape with the spatula. It#s consistency is more like marzipan or wax.
So we have to filter the resin cause a good print is impossible to make.

Has anybody have the same problem?
Is there something wrong with the resin?
Same problem with dental material and others.

Best wishes from Germany
Peter

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I have noticed the same problem, My facility is not going to use the black resin anymore I have seen more issue with the grey material also. I am wondering if Form Labs is in “Cost Savings” mode sacrificing quality

Yes

Not with the resin you have, but with Black in general and some other resins too. My understanding is that Black is very pigment-heavy and these tend to settle at the bottom of the cointainer over time.

I have stopped using Black because of this, although I have used 3 to 4 different cartridges in a 2months time-frame, and that was more than 6 months ago… so not a very significant statistic. Same thing with White.

We have the same issue with other resins like Grey Pro and Rigid. but it’s less dramatic. I do not filter the resins when I have settling issues because I believe the exposure settings of the laser are tuned to the ammount of particle within the resin and altering that may change the output of the printer… Instead I mix with a silicone scraper until reasonable homogeneous and launch the print.

You should be able to mix that stuff back in, don’t remove it because that would remove pigment and affect how the resin will cure.
If it doesn’t mix in properly, then I’d contact support.
Something interesting though, on the older V1-V2 resins I had that kind of thing happen if I hadn’t used the resin for a bit, but I just started using the V4 grey after not printing for some months and it didn’t really look any different–no noticeable pigment separation or white stuff, though I still went ahead and mixed it for a bit. Prints fine.

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I stopped using the black as well. I had other issues in addition to the clumpy stuff. The stuff separates very quickly. Also it takes forever to post cure. Many of my black prints ended up being very rubbery until more than 12 to 24 hours of post cure which seems crazy to me. I found it not nearly as reliable and consistent as the grey resin.

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I have also had no issues with Grey settling, it has been very reliable and I only stirr a handful of time using the wiper before putting the tank in the printer. I only had issues with Black and White (in the “standard resins” range).

I stoped to print with Black V4 after changed 2 printers to new ones!!! I bought Formlabs Form2 to print in BLACK color! After printing with Black V4 long time (for me is more than 8 hours for big complicated task), laser heats up, degrades and all details and supports become soft! This resin kills the printer’s laser system! Don’t use Black V4 at all, if you want to keep your printer alive, untill Formlabs find and fix the problem. I guess that something is wrong with laser power settings for Black V4 resin! I am waiting for problem solving very much!

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Unfortunately I have same problem. Same elements printed 2-3 moths ago and now are totally different.
With wall 1 mm this “old” was strong and stiff, “new” are flexible like rubber. Probably they save cost and V4 Resin are now useless for me. Also I noticed problem that not appear before. When printing full table of details, it “gluing” into resin tank and i seen that resin tank is raising with table before it “unglued” from table.
Anyone of You have same problems?

@Marek: Could be a sedimentation problem, as has already been mentioned a couple of times.

If there is too much pigment, it could be that it blocks the laser too much, and that the resin then fails to cure properly, leading to what you described.

Maybe you can try putting all the resin back into the cartridge (using a funnel of course), to close the cartridge, then shake it VERY well, and then try to print again.

What is wrong with Formlabs?
No comments yet on this issue?

We only have problems with the Formlabs resins!
When using the Form2 for production these issues are particularly galling!

Best
Peter

Similar problem. The first print was brittle after curing. The second attempt at a print was less than spectacular. Then resin turned into tar sludge. I’m attempting another print with a new cartridge right now to see if it is better.

All the other resins I have used are fine (engineering pack)

Although maybe a little late, I do have exactly the same problems with Black V4 unfortunately… Nothing from FL thus far.

Usually the Formlab guys are reading our posts. Why not this time???

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