I’m a jeweler and a pretty new F1+ user. So far have had good success with both Castable and Clear. After finishing a print with Castable I left the tank with resin in the printer with its black cover. I did not check it again for a few days until I wanted to do a Clear print. I removed the tank from the printer and it was dripping with resin. Naturally the resin had flowed down inside the printer.
To shorten up the story, I was successful in cleaning the spill and upon cleaning the tank I noticed it was cracked. There is a vertical crack on the rear wall and this extends into the bottom of the tank as you can see in the image. Needless to say the tanks will not be stored in the printer but has anyone experienced anything like this?
It’s been seen before. Not a lot, but you’re not unique. No definitive cause that I can recall.
Does your tank get stuck to the printer where you have to really pull it out? Also do you clean the tank in IPA? This can weaken the plastic and make it crack. Have you lowered the build platform? could be pushing in too hard.
The tank inserts and withdraws normally. No alcohol to clean the tank, it’s pretty much new, 5 print sessions. This is not the kind of crack that can occur by pushing down besides the Z servo has a force limiter.
We have had quite of few of the Form1 + tanks crack, I am a re-seller, but they were all reoplaced by formlabs, the later version tanks are better and we havent had tanks crack again. I think it was just a bad batch.
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This is one delivered 3 weeks ago.
have the same problem
used promo code for tank order around the same time.
I am also a Jewelry designer using the 1+ how ironic…
The Form1/1+ tanks are made from a different material than the Form2. They’re a bit more prone to cracking, especially if you clean the tank with IPA
I had this problem before, but after doing some research I found that acrylic becomes far more brittle if it is extruded compared to casting the acrylic. Since they have changed to version 04 it seems to have resolved this issue, but world recommend that you open a ticket with FL to get a replacement.
Usually the cracks start at the back left corner of the tanks where there is a pour spout. Crack on the side suggests that the side wall was flexed at one time, maybe a stuck lid or stuck in the machine and forced out, maybe a hairline crack from shipping?
Bad think with Acrylic is once it fractures it will keep going. As I have stated before run some clear packing tape around the perimeter of the tank will make a world of difference. No need to go over the front panel, just start on the backside of the front and go around. I have 2 tanks now that the pdms are just about worn out and there are no signs of fractures on them so they will be worth recoating down the road.
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