Tiny holes (bubbles?) at surface of prints

[DKodiak]

Hello Formlabs community,

I seem to have an issue with my prints, especially with White V5 resin. At first, the parts look good but as soon as I start to sand them at the surface layers to clear the print lines, tiny holes that look like air bubbles appear as seen in the pictures. I’ve been having this issue for a while, even when changing tanks. Does anyone here have any idea about what could be causing this issue?

Thanks!

[jessbuck]

@DKodiak I’m sorry to see that you’re experiencing surface quality issues with your Form 4 when printing with White V5 Resin. The best way to resolve this is to open a support case.

That said, I have a couple of troubleshooting steps for you before opening the case.

• Inspect and clean the release texture
• Send photos from inspecting the Backlight Unit and LPU

Once you’ve done those two things, open a support case with the inspection photos.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Jess

[barreax2]

Haven’t seen it as much with white v5 but have seen microbubbles embedded with elastomers. If it affects your parts, try reducing the wiper speed pretty substantially so that the resin doesn’t flip over every time it passes.

[Mario_Martinez]

I don’t own a F4 for now, but I’m pretty sure this is due to micro debris in the tank. I know FL tanks are different from Nfep, FEP an PFA ones, but they must be something similar. When they receive damage, that damage in form of dents or similar will be transferred to parts in form of marks, holes, bubbles, and even debris.
empty the tank, filter your resin,clean it, inspect it, before filling again filter the resin one more time.

[DKodiak]

Thank you all for your answers. I have already been through all of the usual tests such as changing the resin tank, cleaning the screen and such but still no luck regarding better results. After inspecting the backlight unit and the LPU, everything looks fine but the problem remains. Next step will probably be to try and reduce the wiper speed I guess.

[Ashwini]

Reducing the wiper speed does make sense. I also had small pinholes on my prints, but unlike yours, mine were only circular and appeared no matter where I printed on the build plate. That’s when I noticed that during printing, the wiper action was creating a lot of bubbles and the build plate would lower without breaking all the bubbles or allowing time for the bubbles to break naturally (it would take a lot of time and ruin prints). Reducing the wiper speed has made a big difference in my case

Found a couple more articles for your reference:

Holes in the surface of the print

Exactly right! Just in case, I want to share our video for cleaning the release texture on the Form 4 here. This is the surface of the LPU that the tank rests on, and so if it has any dust or debris on it, it can cause issues like this. I hope it helps! Check it out here: [Cleaning the Release Texture | Form 4] Please consider subscribing to the Formlabs Support Youtube channel so you can see our weekly uploads!

Tiny holes in prints

I just received my Form 4 and I ran my first print yesterday and there are a couple of things that I want to discuss about this printer, but the first thing I would like to know is why am I getting pin holes in my prints? I used to have those in my Form 3 but usually it was because the vat was a bit old or maybe that the fact it’s a 4 years old printer. But on a brand spanking new printer I don’t find it acceptable. So any ideas would help. It’s not the end of the world I know, it’s an easy fix…

Hope you are able to solve this problem.

[leonhart88]

Bubbles are even worse if you print flat or have any surfaces parallel to the build plate. Definitely agree with lowering mix speed. We do that on all our resins for this reason.