Hi all. I’ve been using Dione (the Saturn 4 Ultra) off and on for a couple of months now. I’ve gotten some good results but I find that almost every print has some casualties because some of the prints are not adhering to the build plate. What has happened repeatedly is that one or multiple parts do not stick correctly and so the part in question either comes out deformed or totally disappears back into the resin vat. In some cases the dislodging of one or multiple parts causes other parts to have defects. Overall, of the four or five batches of prints I’ve done, every single one of these batches yields only about 50-60% of the parts I need.
At first I wondered if it was the slicer; I’ve been using Elegoo Satellite because the new version of Chitu seems buggy to me. I’ve checked my settings repeatedly and all seems well there. Most notably, the failures seem arbitrary. The parts that fail are often very similar in geometry and alignment to parts that succeed. I’ve attached images from the slicer and photos of the actual results from yesterday’s batch. Could it be as simple as needing to clean the plate before I initiate a print? I can’t imagine what else could be going on to mess with adhesion like this. I’ve had prints fail before because the supports were inadequate (and so parts dislodge and float into the vat, interfering with other parts), but here entire rafts seem to be coming loose and detaching, which is so odd to me. The others that survive are quite firm on the plate, needing a fair amount of force to be removed. As far as I can see the plate’s not damaged.
These two images show the intended prints as sliced and the actual results. The parts highlighted in the slicer screencap are totally gone, presumably they failed early on?
In these images, one can see that the highlighted parts did print, but having partially detached early on, they came out quite deformed. But the parts upward and to the right of them, almost identical and similarly oriented, came out fine. ???
Took me a bit to circle back, but I forwarded your post to @OctopusDream and the other 3D printing stewards to take a closer look at the Dione. We’re noticing what might be an issue with the printer itself; we’re digging into it.
Thanks Natanael! I assumed the stewards would see the post… should I have forwarded this to them directly?
I’ve discussed this with a couple of people since I made the post and an obvious explanation (so obvious I didn’t think of it initially) is that the print plate might not be level. If it’s skewed slightly in the Z axis that would explain why some prints in a job adhere correctly and some don’t, though the location of the parts that are failing doesn’t seem to point to a specific pattern (it’s not like all the parts in one area fail consistently). Anyway, thanks for folllowing up on this.
I think we stewards, myself included, could have investigated this inquiry sooner. You can also report problems using the red QR code, which sends issues directly to our leadership communication channel.
I’ll begin its maintenance by leveling the print plate, calibrating the resin, and attempting a test print.
Thanks Natanael. I assumed at the time that I was doing something wrong in the slicer, so I didn’t think to escalate or ask for the machine to be flagged. I was/am really curious if anyone else has had problems. It’s been a couple of weeks now. As I noted in my original post, every single job I’ve run on Dione has had this problem though. Parts always seem to detach and drift off into the vat or come out distorted.
I did notice a few issues with the Dione when I used it, so I thought of raising the issue. I just tested a few prints while running the resin calibration. They all stuck well, though another test print with smaller attachment of squares on the print plate would be necessary to see if the new calibration settings hold up well.
Please use the Problem Report QR code if you think something might be wrong with one of the machines, even if it also might be user error. Problem reports are sent directly to us, while we might not check this forum regularly. Please include contact information in your reports, so we can tell you if the problem has been resolved.
