It looks like my formlabs laser is dead after 7 liters of print. As it is out of warranty they offer a 500 usd discount to a form 3 or they offer to send me a refurbished form 2 paying $1300 usd.
Seriously? Is that the offer you make when I only used the printer with 7 liters of resin? The only discount you make is $ 500 when I get a printer that doesn’t work? It is the same discount they offer to anyone who already has a form 2 !!
How long has the machine been in service? Did you buy it used or new?
I think the offer was based on your machine being out of warranty. The warranty is based on time since purchase, not on usage.
The printer was bought fresh new in 2018. I dont expec an 2500 usd printer is dead after 7 liters of resin
Few would disagree that these machines should work error-free for longer. But unless you purchased an extended warranty, the warranty term is 1 year from the date of purchase, even if you only use it one time.
Conversely, if you used 1,000 liters of resin and the machine failed with just a few days of warranty remaining, Formlabs would repair or replace it under warranty at no charge.
Do you expect the company to disregard their own warranty terms just because you chose to utilize the machine very little over the last 3 years?
I prefer the machines would last more than 7 liters of resin and if they do crash, they should offer a bigger discount than “500 usd”:
There are environmental factors that also play in to the longevity of a product like the Formlabs printer. The optics are susceptible to contamination and degradation, and while the spontaneous failure of a laser (vs. slowly losing power) is rare, it’s not unheard of. So just sitting around for 3 years being used intermittently doesn’t necessarily support an argument that it should not have failed. It sucks, I agree. But it’s not really something FL needs to do something about…
I deal with customer support in my “day job”. Unfortunately, out of warranty means exactly that. There’s no mitigation for circumstance. Even if you’d never taken it out of the box, it’d still be out of warranty. Manufacturers have to do this to protect themselves from unnecessary warranty claims. You might not be the kind of person who’d try and “game the system” but there are plenty of people out there who would, given the chance. No exceptions to warranty. If I even considered it, my lawyers would flay me alive.
If it’s any consolation, my Form2 failed about a year out of warranty. I had certainly run more than 7L of resin through it by then. But not a huge amount more, I’m a hobbyist, I use the printer on average maybe about once every couple of weeks.
I took the $500 and traded up to a Form3. I think I also paid for the extended warranty this time. 
Its not like that-.
I bought the printer trough a reseller in my country. THe reseller is not a reseller anymore and also formlabs does not ship to argentina. So how can i get the refurbished form 2 or the new form 3?
Ah. I see. That is a problem. I’m betting you can get FL to ship to Argentina, but I don’t imagine it will be inexpensive. I was just looking at getting some parts shipped from England to the US, and the cost of shipping was almost as much as the cost of the parts…
We had a very similar, if not identical, issue with our Form2. Bought it a couple years ago, have run a negligible amount of resin through it, and now it can’t print right. We get constant delamination no matter the material. I presume it’s the LPU, but there’s no way to know for sure and it doesn’t matter as it’s “not user replaceable”. We got the offer to get a refurbished Form2 for the same price, but it will only have a 90 day non-extendable warranty. I’m not paying $1300 for a maybe-90-day printer. They’ve apparently used some pretty cheap parts and didn’t put enough focus on keeping things sealed up that are prone to failure when not sealed up. We’re now in talks with a local business to get an Objet 30 as a replacement as we don’t want to keep replacing/shipping machines every couple years when one little thing breaks. I really hope we don’t end up getting a Form3.
This sucks man, it doesnt matter about warranty, this is not something you expect to happen to a 3500 usd printer, this is somethiing you expect from a chinesse machine. Laser failure? really?
Exactly. We kept this thing in a fume hood in a temperature controlled lab. We don’t even have so much as fingerprints on the tray windows, but the internal mirrors still got fogged up. I presume this is material that has off-gassed from the resin or some component inside the machine. Their failure to seal the optical chamber with a few screws and some silicone gasket leads to requiring the users to clean galvos and internals, which they really shouldn’t have to do if this was done correctly. It’s not even about cost, because that’s negligible. I wouldn’t be surprised if the laser window itself has buildup accumulating on it, because if it is getting on the mirrors it has to be getting on the laser too. The window even had speckles of material on the inside I was able to clean off using the PEC pads and IPA. This really should not be happening.
Your issue sound like dust contamination of the mirrors. very easy to clean. Worth a try before throwing $$$ out of the window.
You can clean the laser very easily as well.
Did everything support said, Maybe my “IPA” IS BAD. i should try some lens cleaning?
Also the fact that i cant remove galvos or the main mirror does not help
Buy someone elses junked F2 with a good laser and swap the laser unit
As Oliver suggests, check for dust and clean it using Formlabs’ instructions. One of mine was kept in a slightly dusty room - and I mean only slightly - and it accumulated dust on the mirror and galvos. But it’s easily cleaned, if you follow the instructions.
Form3 has a sealed optics unit and should be immune to this.
I had a peek while swapping LPU’s and it’s not as sealed as you might expect. There are gaps, holes and openings for wires, forced air cooling, etc. I remember falling for the same myth when the Form 2 came out and they made a big deal about the “military grade” dust test. Each model is certainly better protected than predecessors, but not “sealed” as in gaskets all around or hermetic or 100% dust-and-resin-proof.
Hmph.
That’s a bit disappointing. I thought they’d have learned from the Form2 experience! I’d have bolted the whole lot down and sealed it as if it were a hard drive far as possible.
Yeah, that was the very first thing I did. Removed the shell, popped the plastic snaps off, and cleaned off the galvos and main mirror. I’ve got about a decades worth of experience cleaning optics for lasers and I feel like I did a decent job cleaning them. However, it’s basically impossible to see the galvo surfaces and I didn’t want to damage them, so I just spent extra love and care with the alcohol and swabs to be as sure as I could. There was absolutely zero change in the optics test after cleaning everything. Even did it all a second time and ran the test again- nothing.
I’ll see if I can locate the laser window and give it a cleaning. I feel like it has to be stuff on the window causing this.
Formlabs stopped answering my emails. They dont send to argentina so im stuck with a 3500 dollars marchine that do not work anymore.