New Improvements for the Form 3L, Now Shipping With Minimal Lead Time

We started shipping the Form 3L, our large format Low Force Stereolithography (LFS) 3D printer in September 2020. With a build volume five times larger than the Form 3, the Form 3L opened up a whole new world of 3D printing possibilities: large jigs and fixtures, full scale functional prototypes, large-scale models with intricate surface detail, and low volume production of small and medium sized parts.

At Formlabs, we strive to bring you the best in 3D printing. This means continuously updating our products. Just like what we’ve done with the Form 3 and Form 2, we’ve incorporated feedback to improve your experience 3D printing with the Form 3L. Read on to learn more.

Since we announced the Form 3L is shipping, we’ve been met with great demand that initially resulted in long lead times. Now we’re happy to announce that the Form 3L is shipping globally with up to 1 week lead time. If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on the Form 3L, you don’t need to wait long now.

With more than 34,000 parts printed and more than 2,400 printers shipped globally, we’ve loved seeing what users are printing and sharing on social media. With zero lead time, now you can get started 3D printing and experience the quality of the Form 3L right away.

Experience the quality of the Form 3L for yourself.

We’ve taken customer feedback into account and subsequently made updates to the Form 3L. Learn more about what those updates are and how they can benefit your business.

We have released 50um beta print settings for: Grey Resin, Tough 2000 Resin, Clear Resin, White Resin, Rigid 4000 Resin, Durable Resin, and Castable Wax Resin.

With PreForm release 3.19 on September 9, we promoted eight of the most frequently used material settings from beta to fully validated default settings. We also released beta settings for High Temp resin at 50 and 100 um layer heights.

Remote printing enables you to start a print job anywhere, any time. Print on-the-go with just your computer. Setting up remote printing is fairly simple. Simply prime your printer for the next print and upload your job from anywhere. The printer will start printing that part automatically with no human interaction required.

We’ve improved your ability to track cartridge fill levels. Form 3L now uses a load cell that measures the weight of the cartridge. This enables accurate tracking of how much resin is left in the cartridge, so you know when it is time to order more resin. This improvement is available with Firmware 1.6. 

We continue to tweak print settings to improve print success rate, but we understand print failures do happen. Cleaning meshes make cleaning up these print failures as easy as possible. The Form 3L has the option to print a cleaning mesh that binds the cured resin together into a single piece that can be easily extracted from the tank. You can print a cleaning mesh through the settings menu on the printer’s touchscreen. Starting with Firmware 1.7, they are available for Grey Resin, White Resin, Black Resin, Clear Resin, Draft V2 Resin, Castable Wax Resin, Grey Pro Resin, Rigid 4K Resin, and Tough 1500 Resin.

On September 15, Form 3L Resin Tank V2 replaces the previous version of the Form 3L Resin Tank. Resin Tank V2 offers improved print success rate in some cases compared to the previous version of the Form 3L Resin Tank. 

We have also made steady progress in the development of  the Wash L and Cure L post-processing tools. The engineering validation test stage (EVT) is now complete. With an external beta rollout and pre-DVT builds in progress, the Wash L and Cure L will begin shipping in volume in Q1 2022.

“Form Wash L washes really smoothly, and the part was much cleaner than after my manual washes. You guys hit a home run with this one.”- Travis Busbee, CTO of Voxel8

Black Diamond prototypes gear with the Form 3L.

Since getting their hands on the Form 3L, our customers didn’t hesitate to harness the power of large format LFS 3D printing. This resulted in a wide range of applications: prototyping, pre-operative planning, and printing large sized tools, to name a few. Furthermore, the Form 3L allows to scale demanding processes such as injection molding or composites lamination to large molds and tackle even more applications to answer the industry needs.

Outdoor equipment company Black Diamond Equipment brought full-size prototyping in-house with the Form 3L, printing in both Grey Resin and Tough 2000 Resin. “We have reduced our costs on full-size prototypes from $425 a print to $70 a print. With that savings, Form 3L would pay for itself in only three months,” said Matt Tetzl, R+D technician at Black Diamond. 

3D printing drives product development at Tapestry.

The Form 3L made its way to the fashion world with Tapestry, the parent company of Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman. 3D printing drives the early stages of product development. For example, the Form 3L is used to print shoe soles. “After doing due diligence integrating 3D printing into the process, it became very clear to me that 3D printing was going to enable any design process to be more effective. It helps in validating concepts quickly and producing work on demand; you can be assured concepts will work out and the work can be produced without needing space dedicated for holding inventory,” said Tomer Emmar, Rapid Prototyping Manager at Tapestry.

3D printing can be life saving. Pre-operative planning is crucial to delivering successful surgery. With the help of Formlabs and Axial 3D, Dr. Alistair Irwin, a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, successfully removed a tumor from a young patient. 3D printing enabled Dr. Irwin and his team to produce a physical 3D printed model to augment the 2D scans and improve planning with enhanced insights into the patient’s anatomy.

The Form 3L caught the attention of Adam Savage of Mythbusters and Tested fame. Savage took us through his unboxing journey with the Form 3L. 

Customer satisfaction is our utmost priority. We are hopeful that with these updates, the Form 3L can open up more 3D printing possibilities.

Curious about the quality? Experience the Form 3L for yourself.