I’m struggling with an issue with my Form 2. We bought it four months ago, and at first it made great things with castable resin, allowing us to use it in our jewellery business for production.
But it’s been two weeks that it suddenly lost accuracy, but I don’t understand why. Along with this problem, I had some parts droping from the build platform during the first layers of the printing, and creating a lot of mess on all the remaining parts… Have a look at the following picture (In green are the positions of the lost parts) :
Because of this I required a support from my Formlabs reseller, who gave me some tricks to keep the parts from droping. Nevertheless, the accuracy is not recovered, and now I’m pondering send back the printer for refund.
On the folliwing picture, you can see the difference between before and after the loss of accuracy :
Note that I changed the cartridge to make sure it couldn’t come from it, and I did so with the tank. The only thing not new is the build platform, that I will try to change, but it doesn’t look worn, as the surface is even and without deep scratches.
Do you have any clue about what is going on with my Form 2 ?
I’m sure the glass is clean, as my reseller’s support came to try to fix it, and cleaned the glass three days ago.
However there is a blue “cloud” in it, that I assume is just a colour changing in the glass caused by the laser’s heating. Do you think that it can affect the laser’s direction ?
that discoloration is almost certainly the culprit.
the laser is blue- the discoloration is blue- that would absolutely affect the focal resolution and strength of the laser.
Could be as simple as replacing the glass.
But the greater question is why are so many form2 s being plagued by this kind of parts quality issue?
and will the replacement glass last longer than a few months?
The blue cloud looks more like an unfinished cleaning job. I find it pretty difficult to do it right in one wipe with a cloth with IPA. The glass is probably still dirty.
Do you see any particles on the mirror? The cover is not dust tight and over time, particles will accumulate on the mirror.
Formlabs has this optics test file you could run. There is a link somewhere on the forum. The print edges should be very sharp.
As Fantasy2 just pointed out, the problem came from the glass that was unproperly cleaned. The blue cloud on the picture was created by alcool during the cleaning. My problem is fixed, I hope this thread will be useful to someone else.
Hello!
Improper cleaning can happen, it’s hard to get all the streaks off. I’m glad to hear your issue was solved.
Here are my tips for window cleaning:
Please clean the optical window, following the instructions here: Even after proper cleaning with the right materials it is very hard to get rid of everything.
YOU WILL NEED
Only PEC-PADs and fresh IPA (from the container).
No compressed air.
Gloves, especially when touching the PEC-PADs.
You can get PEC-PADs on Amazon
Optical window Cleaning Instructions
Use PEC-PADs and fresh IPA only.
If possible avoid IPA at first. Too much IPA can easily create streaks that are hard to remove.
Always wear gloves to avoid contaminating the PEC-PADs.
Put a bright flashlight down the side of the optical window, to help highlight areas that need extra cleaning.
EXTRA TIPS
Start with circular wipes using PEC-PADs with light pressure and a very small amount of IPA across the whole optical window.
Do this for about 2-3 minutes covering the whole surface multiple times.
It is good to irregularly check the optical window with a light (using your phone for example). There is a difference between smudges and clouding being caused by dirt and being caused by IPA (if you have used too much IPA once you’ll see what I’m talking about)
Once all IPA streaks have been removed, you can stop the circular wipes.
Take 2 PEC-PADs and fold them each twice (like described in the optical window cleaning article) Use a very small amount of IPA on one of the PEC-PADs and then dry-rub it off it on the other PEC-PAD, so only the minimum amount of IPA remains.
Do the regular straight wipes from bottom to top like described in the article.
Please don’t clean the optical window with a microfiber cloth, you risk scratching the surface.
