Hi All,
We have a Form 3L printer, and our general manager decided to buy some Silicone 40A for it.
For months its been on the shelf as I didn’t have the time for it to start experimenting with it.
Recently we had a project where the Silicone 40A might be the best solution (we usually use Flexible 80A), but we faced some compatibility problems with the Silicone 40A when we wanted to use it.
In short: Silicone 40A is NOT compatible with the Form 3L, even though it is the same printer as the Form 3, but with a larger build volume.
When inserting the Silicone 40A cartridge, the 3L detecs that you have the Silicone 40A inserted, so far so good. But unfortunately you don’t have the option to select Silicone 40A as a printing material in Preform software, and as Preform is communicating with the printer, Preform knows that Silicons 40A cartridges are inserted…
This makes it impossible to start your print.
We didn’t give up…
Asked formlabs for support, but we got a ‘not possible to do’ from them.
Still didn’t give up, and started thinking and tinkering and were able to get things going succesfully, but still need some finetuning.
How did we manage to do this?
We took the identification chips from the bottom side of 2 empty Flexible 80 cartridges (can be removed quite easy with a utility knife), and took the Silicone 40A ID chips out, placed the Flexible 80 ID chips in the Silicone 40 cartridges.
Now the printer thinks that Flexible 80 is inserted so we’re half way.
Then I’ve made a custom ‘Flexible 80 printing profile’ where I’ve used (to start with) the values of Silicone 40A for the Form 3 printer.
First print (a simple small flat washer) was succesfull, the 2nd print (a relative complex and fragile profile) unfortunately failed (fell off it’s supports and was mixed up all messy in the tank).
After cleaning up the mess and tuning the printing profile, I’ve managed to print this complex shape succesfull.
Probably we’ll have to make some more small tweaks in the printing profile, but for the moment we’[re happy to be able to print some items for prototyping.
If anyone wants to print Silicone 40A with the Form 3L, I’m happy to guide you in the right direction. Let me know it you want to use my custom profile for silicone 40A printing on the Form 3L.
I just love to read this kind of posts, when someone tells you “No, not possible” then finding a workaround and well… It turns out it is possible.
Hi @Vicoos ,
Thank you for sharing your experience with us; we truly appreciate your feedback.
While our printers are great for experiments, we don’t recommend this action, especially since the material isn’t supported on this printer. Doing so could potentially cause issues like failed prints, error messages, and resin spills, and might also affect your warranty.
If you’re interested in conducting experimental work, we recommend obtaining Open Material Mode. This enables greater flexibility for material use while helping to ensure your printer’s functionality and continued support.
Hi @annatoth ,
I understand you don’t recommend this action. So you suggest to obtain the ‘Open Material Mode’.
With this open material mode, will I be able to use silicon 40A in the Form 3L?
If so, why didn’t your helpdesk suggest this when asking for support on this…?
Hi @annatoth,
Can you please come back to my question regarding the ‘open material mode’?
We would like to proceed with silicone printing.
Thank you for your feedback!
Hi Vicoos,
Sorry for getting back to you just now!
To answer your question: With Open Material Mode you would indeed be able to print Silicone 40A Resin on a Form 3L without tampering with the resin cartridges (which could only work temporarily, since the cartridge will be locked once 1 L of resin has been printed from it).
Open Material Mode allows you to print with any 405 nm resin and it’s the solution we offer for experimenting with non-validated materials, but please note that the tank needs to be filled manually. You can find more information on the process here.
That said, the print settings would still need to be created in the Print Settings Editor, as we do not have validated print settings for Silicone 40A on Form 3L. With low durometer materials, it’s very challenging to reliably print large parts, and our validation standards are high, which is why we have not published official settings.
For the Form 4L, our engineers have shared some unvalidated print settings for Silicone 40A, Alumina 4N, and True Cast Resin in this post. Please note that these settings have not passed validation, so print success still cannot be guaranteed.
The Form 3L’s different print engine makes achieving usable settings an even bigger challenge, so we don’t recommend it. If you choose to proceed at your own risk, we’re happy to look at any results you’re willing to share on this thread to pass on to our materials team.
We hope this helps!
Best,
Sophia
I do understand that large part is a challenge to reliably print large part, but it would still be nice for us 3L user to be able to try printing small parts on our printers.
In my company we were really interested to try to replace our Elastic 50A parts with Silicone 40A but we can’t justify to buy a new printer or the Open Material Mode just to try out the material.
Hi Sophia,
Thank you for your clarifying explanation.
So with the open material mode, we will be able to experiment with Silicone 40A.
This open material mode will cost us roughly €5000. So for only €5000 we will be able to do what we are able to do now for free, with the difference that we have to fill the tank manually…
That realy sounds like a great deal!
It would be graet if you would be able to tell me the REAL benefit…
Thank you 