Yes, that was printed in standard resin. These issues I have been experiencing I well documented in this forum already. Support did initially assist but the problem was never resolved. The end of it was always either geometry on my orientation of the part.
I suspected issues with my particular machine as I have some other issues as well as hinges failing about a month after purchase. Granted, I did receive a set of replacement hinges which I am still to install.
Aside from these issues, printing with Tough resin ALWAYS fails at firstā¦ then I have to click ignore for the machine to proceed. Formlabs did give me a free cartridge to try and find the problem but we have had no luck. I tried everything they suggested and asked me to do, but the problem persists.
I have two build platforms, standard one and flex one. These layer lines are visible regardless of which platform I use. Sorry for the rant, but my frustration is spending almost $10 000 on this setup (not including a ton of resin and tanks) and have not been able to print a single part I ended up giving to a client. I mostly now print just to get an idea and then outsource printing.
I printed the same part flat on the build plate again nowā¦ taking your advice and letting it dry out over night. Will cure it tomorrow and see.
I will try to print the test parts from this link:
This should give me an idea whether I am just not great as SLA printing or whether there is indeed an issue with the machine. They are huge though and reducing the size lead to me having to re-do the supports which defies the purpose of this test
The part I printed yesterday and let out to air dry", warped even before curing.
These are not the results I get when printing closures, never seen a layer shift like aesthetic on any Form4 prints Iāve made so farā¦
Have you tried designing bracing against the warping? I had some issues with parts warping over time with sun exposure and did some trail and error with embossed bracing in my design, this worked perfectly over time.
May I suggest you emboss the ribs outward? This has done wonders for me in the past and you donāt need much, sometimes 2mm can be enough and it keeps the space in the enclosure the same and even a bit more in in the embossing locations.
Hi @Friedl_1977,
Thank you for providing more details on the print orientations you tried! The lines you are getting with the recommended orientation are generally related to the part moving during the peel / squish phase.
An option to mitigate this can be to increase the number of touchtips in general, and specifically near the bottom. The new support algorithm Supports V2 should inherently help with this. Could you clarify if you used Supports V2 or V1?
However, it is also possible that the part is moving during printing because the build platform is not securely attached, or other reasons.
Please feel free to open a support case for this issue, so that our team can investigate the problem directly, and if needed, check your .form file to determine the reason for these issues or to run test prints.
I have done thisā¦. and the problem was never resolved unfortunately. Here is a link to another post in 2024 already. As you can see, the same layer lines on the flat part of this model appeared.
Here are more:
There are more cases as I was each tome advised to open a support ticket which I did, but the problem was never really solved.
My apologies, I do not mean to come across rudeā¦ just a little frustrated as it feels the problem is just being moved from one department to another until such time that I stop asking.
Hi @Friedl_1977,
Thank you for clarifying!
Since you had linked previous forum threads, I was under the impression that you had not investigated these print issues directly with our support team yet, which we recommend because itās the most streamlined way to troubleshoot issues. However, I see that you opened support cases in the past as well, and similar orientation techniques were recommended as the ones already discussed. Sorry for the misunderstanding, and Iām sorry to hear that neither technique seems to have solved the issues completely.
Generally, we would still recommend to verify the secure attachment of the build platform by tightening the build platform draw bar, and trying whether the use of Supports V2 achieves better results. Let us know if you were able to check or if any further issues/questions come up!
No problemā¦. My recent post was actually only responding to some questions and feedback from another user, but we ended up discussing warping and other challenges as well.
I will look into this. It would be strange as I had this issue from the very start, but then again, I also had the hinges issue from the start. I did receive a set of replacement hinges so thank you for that.
I am not 100% sure what you mean? I am using the new Preform, do I need to actively choose V2 Support somewhere? I do use the new āreduced support V3.0ā and āFiner Touch points v2.0ā from time to time. For these latest tests I have tried them all and have not seen a noticeable difference.
I do use custom versions of these profiles mostly, by the only change has been the Early Layer settings and I only use them when printing directly on the platform. When writing with rafts, I use the standard Formlabs profiles.
Just for reference, the issues I had form the start are as follow:
Hinges failed
Severe layer lines as well as other warping and dimensional inaccuracy issues.
Not able to print with Tough Resin without mixer errors which then need to be ignored.
Honestly at this point, I would ask the support team to give you a file that is supported in what they think is an appropriate orientation, print it, and then see if you still have these layer line artifacts. If you do, they I would ask them to print it internally to compare. If theirs comes out fine and yours doesnāt then there is clearly something else going on.
Here is the part with some layer lines visible (to be expected as there are almost no support in this orientation I guess), but a lot less than the angled prints. What I did not expect was the two vertical lines
I will complete the assembly and see whether it remains flat during the day. Below is an image of the same part that was printed in Standard V5 flat on the build plate after it was assembled and left the device running for a day. As you can see it warped quite a bit. There are 20 IC LEDs on the PCB below, but it is Ā±5mm away and sits under the transparent part which act as the diffuser. I maximum temperature I recorded on the ālidā was Ā±30C. I do not think this will happen on the new orientation parts, but will post my findings again after it has been running for some time
Were you able to check whether the build platform draw bar can be tightened and whether the Supports V2 setting improves upon the print quality?
If you like, we can also cross-test by letting our support team print your part in the orientation we recommend and verify whether we get the same print results as you, in order to rule out any printer/setup issues on your side.
It seems I had to update my Preform to be able to the new PRESETS tab. I did update fairly recently so did not expect another update so soon. I will print a part shortly and see whether there is any improvements.
The parts I printing perpendicular and on the build plate till seems to be flat, but with the layer line as indicated in the photos I posted. I also ordered more resin as I am running low, so will gladly do more tests.
