Why have my printed parts come out lopsided?

Hello fellow printers,

I’m working with a FormLabs 3BL and have just had a major print fail where 5 of 6 of my parts have come out mal-formed. I’m guessing I need to add more supports in the centre, can anyone confirm this?

If so, I used auto-generated supports. Why did PreForm failed to pick up that these supports were needed? What should I be looking for when considering if parts need more support than PreForm automatically provides?

Any help would be appreciated.
Jack

Picture1

One of my colleagues made the good observation that it was left to drain on it’s side all weekend and that this was before curing.

I’ve never seen anything like this before and I can’t imagine it’s got anything to do with the orientation when draining! I’ve left prints for days draining and never seen any distortion.

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Hi @jcross,

Thanks for reaching out. This may be a case of Tank film warping (Form 3L/Form 3BL). I would recommend getting in touch with Support for them to take a closer look and offer troubleshooting steps.

Hi.
The parts look hollow and very thin-walled, am I correct? If the design wall is a bit too thin for the material, you can have ‘skins’ appear in the material… basically, it’s like uncured material that should have attached to the object but failed. Check the tank for floating debris and/or material bonded to the optical film. I’ve had this happen a few thin-walled items. Also, consider “internal supports” as an option. I realize it probably it’s a good idea. Your device looks like it needs a smooth interior.