Warped parts - Need help

These are the first parts to have warped, in a long while using this printer.








These parts warped during the printing process. I do not know why they warped.
There were no signs of warping on the support, but nonetheless the parts have been washed and placed in a UV chamber.
The print setup looks like this :


The printer is a Form 2
The resin we a currently using is the Durable V2 – at 0.05 mm
We have both the Wash stations from formlabs this time it was the manual wash station that were used.
We are using a DIY UV chamber.

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards
ARO

Hey there!

Thanks so much for outlining your issue! Hopefully we can point you in the right direction.

Can you tell me if you’re removing your supports before or after the final cure?

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The support were removed before they the final curing. The parts were warped before the curing process. The reason behind curing them even if they were warped was we would like to keep them as a step in the process.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dg20lwnabbdy3e0/AABcjdp2_1B6N_T4LgtwjTN4a?dl=0

There are two different parts. One is the test model from this forum.
The other is a model where we have a similar problem.

The test part is not really that warped. It has some slight curvature but it’s not something that we can’t live with out.
On the other hand, our own model is warped and cannot be used. I can’t figure out what the problem is.
Is it the build plate that would be able to cause warping like this?

I would really appreciate it, if someone could point me in the right direction.

Kind regards
ARO

was there a significant change in temperature/humidity during the print?

As far as i know there wasn’t any major changes in temperature or humidity.
The parts was being printed over night.

Have you checked the optical window to make sure it is clear of dust, smudges, etc? Have you also inspected your resin tray?

Have you tried to print the parts in a different location in the tray to see if warping occurs?

There seems to be a small amount of dust specks on both. That being said the place where the dust is, doesn’t seems to match up to where the part were being printed.

How should i clean them both? I have some Isopropyl alcohol but i have read that you shouldn’t use to clean the tray with it.

I have not yet tested a different location.

Check out this article for instructions on cleaning the optical window:

https://support.formlabs.com/s/article/Cleaning-the-Glass-Optical-Window-Form2?language=en_US

I would try cleaning but also printing the parts in a different location on the tray.

Are you curing at an elevated temperature? If so you also might try curing at room temp.

I’m sorry for the long response time. I have been testing the Formlabs printer some more.
The curing of the parts happens at room temperature, which should be around 20-24c.
It all depends on how much sun the building is getting.

I have washed and cured all the parts, they were printed in two different places and not at the same time.

This one is not really warped in the same way, this might be due to shrinkage in the resin while curing.


This one on the other hand is suffer from the same problems as the last ones did.
warping one the side and sagging on straight edges.



After these i will try and clean the window, and i might just change the resin tank while i’m at it.

I just noticed while removing the supports from the model above that there is a hole in the part.


The hole looks like it’s in the same angle as the part was being printed.

That will be a spec of dust on the optical window.

Have you successfully printed these (or similar) parts in durable resin before, or did the warping occur as soon as you switched to durable resin?

Last winter I went through a trial-by-fire with Tough resin, where I was having major warping issues. After several weeks of testing, where both Formlabs and my local reseller did test prints along with my own, as well as consultations with Formlabs’ material engineers, it was concluded that the Tough resin simply was not capable of producing warp-free prints of the objects I was trying to print, no matter what we did.

The same warping occurred when printing the object (as a test) in durable, but NOT in Rigid, Grey, or Grey Pro.

I have also had similar parts test-printed in Dental Model, which also produced significant warping.

If you just switched to durable and have no issues printing the parts in more stable resins, it’s probably not a direct fault with your machine, just an unfortunate limitation of the technology, which is sadly not commonly known.

The general rule seems to be that the more durable the resins are (higher longation, more flex before breakage, I think), the more prone they are to warping. If straightness and dimensional accuracy are important, you’ll probably have to go with the harder, more brittle resins.

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Thank you. That have answered a couple of my questions.
Yes, I have printed other similar parts before, they may not have been as thick as the ones i have have shown here.
But they were still plenty thick for it to start warping


This part is 30mm in diameter and 6.5mm thick, and has no warping. It’s made i durable this one is quite old by now, maybe half a year.

I will keep all this in mind when i moving forward with 3D printing. I have a Ultimaker too for other projects that doesn’t need to be precise.

Kind regards
ARO

From what I could tell, the thickness of the parts didn’t necessarily play a large role in the warping. I had parts of varying thickness, maybe 2-10mm, that all showed signs of warping.

The two main factors for me were LONG parts (over 5cm) and STRAIGHT parts- things with perfectly straight angles and edges where you could easily detect warping.

What was the solution you found for warping?

There is no solution aside from switching to a different resin. In my case, I have to use Grey Pro because it’s the only resin that doesn’t warp and is somewhat durable, which is unfortunate since it’s murder on the tank- LTs only last for 3 liters. (I suspect that Rigid might be something I can use as well, but it has other issues.)

I have been swamped at work with other assignments, but i think i have found a solution to my problem.
I cleaned out the glass under the resin tank, and i cleaned the underside of the resin tank.(I have a unused resin tank. I just didn’t want to use it before it was necessary. ) I have already printed 3 models and none of them were warped.
I haven’t change the resin. (Durable v2)

Sorry but i can’t show the models, company property and all that.

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