Phenom L - 90% Failure Rate

#1

Hello Everyone,

We have had a Phenom L for a number of months and I have attempted at least 25 prints. We have experienced tons of failures. My previous experience was with the Elegoo Mars pro and we almost never had any failures. I expected this machine to be more challenging but it takes me a full week of attempts to get anything to print well enough that I can fix the remaining flaws by hand. We use this machine for rapid prototyping for our business but with a 90% failure rate the prototyping isnt exactly “rapid”.

Failure Modes:

  1. Growing holes - holes in the prints which grow with each z step.
  2. Layer shift lines - Z axis lines in the prints where the model shifted.
  3. Model detaching from supports and adhering to the FEP

Based on these failures my main theory is that we are getting way too much bonding to the FEP. Just yesterday I had a print that failed because it pulled the model off of the support structure. The FEP was old so I changed it out with a new sheet. This morning when I checked the reprint and it failed in the exact same way.

The parts are not complicated or delicate. In general they are actually fairly thick and substantial. Many of our prints require 500ml of resin. Could thick cross sections be part of our problem?

Variables that I have already tried:
Resin: I have tried multiple colors of Siraya Fast (using the peopoly resin setting guide) and now I am trying Elegoo ABS-Like Clear Blue (I am trying this because of the low odor and because of my previous success with it in the mars)
Temperature: I have found that if my room isnt at least 75-80 degrees my prints will not stick to the build plate in the first few layers. Generally I run my prints with a room temp of 80 degrees.
Leveled the build Plate: I have releveled the build plate several times using a sheet of printer paper and reset the zero.
Teflon Lubricant FEP Treatment: Applied Teflon to the FEP film and let dry. But I had sticking issues on the very next print.

I have attached photos from my last print to see if you all see any issues. As for supports you will see that I go WAY overboard and the print still rips off of them.

Untitled-3
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I must be over $300 in wasted resin at this point so if anyone has any tips or suggestions I am all ears.

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#2

I’m no expert, and I only use the moai 130 which is not the same but I’d suggest that cross sectional thickness might be the problem. If you can’t hollow your parts the. I’d suggest tilting them closer to 45 degrees to reduce the cross section and thus the concentrated peel force.
If your printer uses a tilt peel method you could also try rotating the parts 90 degrees on the z axis.

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#3

Sorry to hear about your printing problem. The most effective way to provide you with the best answer is to get as much information as possible from you.
The information we need from you:

order number
Where you are
Machine serial number (at the switch position in the lower right corner of the device)
Question survey information This is a support survey and covers factors that affect all key factors. Some may be answered, while others seem to be irrelevant to the question at hand. Please answer as completely as possible:

You can download it as a Word file and put the answer in

#4

I have had the Phenom L since they first started shipping (June 2020) I have run many large prints through the machine, probably 800 hours of run time. I make enclosure parts (mostly) and I put 4x parts on the bed that have a 40 x 300 mm footprint, and are about 300 mm tall. These prints take about 60 hours and almost all turn out good. One print job can use 4 liters of resin (!) Notes and details:

  • I use Siraya Fast resin almost exclusively
    Capture2
  • I warm up the resin to about 30°C in a filament dryer
  • I tried also warming up the build plate before printing but that made adhesion to the plate worse. I think the shrinkage of the plate during cooling would cause the print to detach
  • I buy FEP film from McMaster. I replace the film after about 100-150 hours of use.
  • I clean the film and build plate with alcohol after each use, nothing else.
  • It looks from your photos like the part has broken off the supports. I have never had this happen.
  • My gut (and your “layer shift lines” comment) are telling me that maybe there is something loose that is allowing the built plate to shift in X or Y axis (or both) This would mean that the vertical support is actually a diagonal, has less cross-sectional area (or none), and could fail.
  • Ambient 70°F
  • The build quality of my unit was sub-optimal. I had to open it up and tighten screws, etc. before the system was ready to use.
  • At this point the LED’s have seen about 400 hours of on-time. I am finding that there are some areas of the LCD display that are no longer opaque when they should be. This is causing some areas to have some semi-hardened “slime” that sticks to the part, or remains in the vat. I have not found this to be a problem because my parts are port-processed by sanding, filling (if needed) and painting.
2 Likes
#5

Thank you for the replies.

I think I am just seeing huge amounts of suction from large cross-sectional areas. I am going to try to reduce these, increase the thickness of my supports, and copy your print setting Jeff.

Right now I am 90% of the way through a screen replacement. Last night things went really bad and I ended up with resin everywhere. It actually adhered the tank to the screen such that I needed to use a metal scraper as a prybar to separate them. Long story short…new screen…new FEP.

I do have a question about the screen replacement. I got it in and ran the test calibration pattern successfully. But some genius put a permanent adhesive “FRONT” sticker on the screen. My company actually uses this exact same dimension sticker but the removable kind. Why on earth they would use permanent is beyond me. Its insane. Any tips on how to scrape this thing off and clean up all the adhesive goo? I am not supposed to remove the film protector and I also don’t want to scratch it all to hell trying to pick it off an 1/8 of an inch at a time.

So far removing this sticker is the hardest part of the screen replacement process :joy::upside_down_face:

Also what do you guys use for tape? I would think something super thin would be best but it also needs to block the UV light.

#6

I use Goof Off for adhesive removal. My Phenom L used Gaffer’s tape to hold down the display, so I bought a roll from Amazon or McMaster. The tape is excellent for lots of things and does not leave residue.

#7

Hi
I think your support setting are a bit weak. I have been using the same printer. I am not using raft anymore, just the skate at 12-14mm and thickness to 1.5-2mm for ease scrap off.
the middle diameter I use are 1.8mm diam, angle 30deg, pillar diam same as 1.8mm upper depth 1.2, lower 1.2.
for the TOP settings diam set at 1.5-1.8mm and depth at 0.40mm

I also tilt all of my parts at 29.4deg as per calculated for pixel size.
I have seeing a video of how to calculate angle base on pixel size to reduce skin marks.
I have installed a heather inside the chamber set at 35 c.

I have used siryiatech fast grey and saint smart resins (super nice!)
https://www.sainsmart.com/collections/resin

all was success prints.

good luck

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