Hi Folks. Just wondered if anyone has seen this issue: We had a bunch of print fails using Surgical Guide Resin. They left little flat points stuck on the screen, so we ran a Mesh Clean. That works at pulling them out. But even after a z-axis calibration and fine tuning we still got failures so we swapped to a newer tank. We’re trying that now. HOWEVER, we found a strange “line” across the far side, close to where the LPU parks. We think at some point the LPU was shut off and turned back on (laser light ON) and it cured a section right near the edge of the sweeper arms length. Nothing else reaches all the way across the tank like this except the LPU.
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Good Afternoon!
My name is Kristen and I am on the services team here at Formlabs. I am sorry to hear you are having an experience with some of the resin curing to the tank. This is not the experience we like for our users. Swapping out the tank is a great first troubleshooting step.
The second thing I would like to check is the ABL nut and lead screw in your printer. If the LPU stalled in this specific place, something like this could happen. The lead screw and ABL nut should be cleaned and lubricated regularly as part of the scheduled maintenance. When you start to see a little bit of build up on this part of the printer, it can create print failures and even unusual noises. We have a cleaning kit available for purchase hereas well, if you would like to purchase to keep this part of the printer nice and clean. You will just need to purchase additional white lithium grease after the first use.
After you replace the tank and clean the x-axis, if you are still seeing further issues, I would recommend contacting us at support. We will be happy to assist you in further troubleshooting.
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Thank you. Yes, we swapped to a new tank. We were having regular failure (non-prints) so we had quite a few floating debris and stuck pads on the screen.
I will let my technician know. Thank you for the advice. I will follow up in the forums once we check the system.
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I hope you got things working again! If so, what worked?
Yes having the same issue out of nowhere all of a sudden. We print a lot of guides and had this process rock solid for years. We did the same to try and fix it, Z-Axis callibration, added some fine tuning after more failures, cleaned and regreased the Z and X axis, still fails. I’m wondering if updating to new Firmware and Preform softwares changed things for us, my versions were at least 6 months old and I cannot find the old installs for these now.
I’m curious, what version do you have of the Form 3? I have a base model 3B, it is NOT a 3B+.
Thanks for responding. As it looks now, the tank was the main problem. It was past it’s lifetime. We stretched it out as far as we could. I had seen non-prints before and when we took the flex-stage out, we noticed semi-cured resin trapped between the flexible metal stage and the block. Once it was cleaned, that seemed to solve the issue. NOT this time. We swapped the tray and we’re back to normal. We took the opportunity to regrease the axis’, cycle the LPU back and forth and inspected the pin as instructed above. All seemed well. I’m not sure if the regreasing worked as part of it, but it had definitely not hurt. It was lacking a little TLC for a bit, so we pampered it.
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Thank you. We inspected the lead screw and LPU attachment. Nothing of note. We cleaned, regreased both axis along with a tank replacement. All is well now.
Oops. Forgot to add that we have both a 3B and 3B+. They are workhorses. They are used nearly every day between 3 users. We are a University Development team working with researchers in the medical field.
Good Morning. I am glad to hear that swapping out the tank has fixed the issue you were seeing. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us here or via our support site for any other issues or questions you may have.
and when we took the flex-stage out, we noticed semi-cured resin trapped between the flexible metal stage and the block. Once it was cleaned, that seemed to solve the issue.
This was indeed my problem. Did not know there was cured resin between the two, even the directions for the Flexible Build Platform 2 that ships with it states you are not required to disassemble between prints. Well, apparently we do. Just switching back to the original Build Platform and calibrating fixed things for me.
Glad to hear your problems are cleared up! We replace our Resin Tank after 2 Cartridges as we notice an increase in failures with three Resin Cartridges in one Tank. But we use Surgical Guide Resin which seems to be a tad rougher on the Tanks.
