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Aging Nylon 12 Powder before first use

Aging Nylon 12 Powder before first use

Formlabs recommends tuning the bed temperature of your printer before printing with Nylon 12 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 with a mix of 70% used and 30% fresh powder (i.e., a 30% refresh rate) to be evaluated properly.

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.

To age Nylon 12 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. Download the FLZ file (Fuse 1+ 30W only).
  1. In PreForm, select your printer. In the sidebar on the right, click Upload Diagnostic Print. The Upload Diagnostic Print window appears.
  2. Click Browse and select the downloaded FLZ file.
  3. Click OK to send the print file to the selected printer.
Upload Diagnostic Print
  1. After the upload is finished, start the print on the printer touchscreen. The print should take 16 hours to complete on a Fuse 1+ 30W printer.
  2. When the powder is safe to handle, extract the powder cake in the Fuse Sift or Fuse Depowdering Kit.

Note:

Powder may be stiff or clumped after the aging process. Sieve the powder thoroughly in the Fuse Sift or Fuse Depowdering Kit before filling a powder cartridge.

  1. Fill a powder cartridge with a mix of fresh and used powder. Follow Formlabs recommendations for the correct refresh rate for your material.
  2. Insert the mix of aged powder and fresh powder into the printer and run the bed temperature tuning print.