Nylon 12 GF Powder is intended to print with a refresh rate of 50%, meaning a mix of 50% fresh powder and 50% used powder. When you first start printing with Nylon 12 GF, all of your powder will be fresh. To create the recycled powder needed for the first print of a new material, Formlabs recommends aging a build chamber of fresh powder in the printer. The aging process only needs to be performed once per powder type to create sufficient recycled powder for the first print.

This is especially true when printing on a Fuse 1+ 30W printer: Formlabs recommends tuning the bed temperature of your printer before printing with Nylon 12 GF Powder for the first time. Fine-tuning the bed temperature prior to printing your first build results in fewer surface defects on your parts caused by variable printer temperatures. The diagnostic print must be printed at a 50% refresh rate to be evaluated properly.

To age Nylon 12 GF Powder:

1. Ensure that your printer’s firmware is up to date.
2. Update PreForm to its latest version.
3. Fill the printer hopper to the 10 L mark. This is equivalent to 6 kg of fresh powder.
4. Age the powder following the steps below for your printer.

Fuse 1+ 30W

Fuse 1

1. In PreForm, select your printer.
2. Set up a print job with a small model of your choice positioned at the top of the build chamber. The space below will be filled with unsintered powder that you can reuse.
3. Send the print to your printer and start the print.

1. When the powder is safe to handle, extract the powder cake in the Fuse Sift or Fuse Depowdering Kit.

2. Fill a powder cartridge with a mix of fresh and used powder. Follow Formlabs recommendations for the correct refresh rate for your material.
3. Insert the mix of aged powder and fresh powder into the printer.
• Fuse 1+ 30W: Run the bed temperature tuning print.
• Fuse 1: Print using the powder mix. Monitor your print results and adjust the printer’s Bed Temperature Target if necessary.