During an automatic blasting cycle, the Fuse Blast cleans powder off printed parts with blasting media, rinses the parts with ionized air, and agitates the parts with its rotating tumbler. You can control the blasting and rinsing time and pressure, as well as the speed of the tumbler. Select a preset or create your own settings based on your selected material and the number, size, and geometry of the parts you are cleaning.

The Fuse Blast cleans printed parts in three distinct ways:

• abrasive blasting media removes semi-sintered powder from parts
• ionized air rinses powder clinging to parts
• tumbling the parts in the chamber exposes all of their surfaces to the blast gun and knocks off loose powder.

Jets of air from air whips clean powder from the interior of the cabinet.

While most printed parts can be cleaned with the Standard blast cycle, Formlabs recommends experimenting with different presets and cycles to find the best solution for cleaning your parts. If your parts are not cleaned adequately in one cycle, Formlabs recommends running a blast cycle again before adjusting the blasting settings.

The Fuse Blast cleans parts in a four-step sequence: startup, blast, chamber rinse, and part rinse.

* These settings are not configurable.

There are five settings on the home screen that change the blast cycle sequence:

• Blast pressure
• Blast time
• Rinse pressure
• Rinse time
• Rotating speed of the tumbler basket

Experiment with different settings to achieve the best possible results for your individual printed parts.

Formlabs minimum compressed air recommendations are configured for effective cleaning for the majority of jobs. Although the Fuse Blast is capable of supporting a pressure range up to 90 psi or 6 bar, most jobs do not benefit from using pressures above 30 psi, and higher air pressures require more air.

The Fuse Blast has blasting cycle presets that combine different blasting and rinsing times and pressures. The Standard preset is a good starting point and works well for most jobs. In most cases, repeating the Standard preset blasting cycle gets results that are similar to higher blasting pressures or longer cycle times. Consult the table below or your Fuse Blast touchscreen to learn about the presets. Note that each preset includes time for a general blasting chamber rinse.

After selecting a preset, use the sliders or arrows on the touchscreen to modify the blast, rinse, or tumbler settings. When you modify an existing preset, the displayed name changes to Custom to reflect your changes.

The most important parameter to monitor is the cleanliness of your parts. Formlabs recommends starting with a Standard preset before modifying settings.

When modifying a blasting preset, keep the following in mind:

• Higher blasting pressures are not required to clean parts, except for parts printed in Nylon 12 GF Powder. Higher blasting pressures may damage delicate parts.
• When increasing the blasting or rinsing pressure, ensure that your compressed air source can still supply the required minimum flow rate.
• Higher blasting pressures shorten the life of your blasting media.

Changing the blast pressure setting

Changing the blast pressure affects how aggressive the media blasting and part rinse steps are. Formlabs recommends a blast pressure of 30 psi for blasting and 45 psi for the part rinse.

• Increasing the blast pressure can clean parts faster, but it requires a higher air supply. Higher pressures can also risk damaging delicate parts. Pressures higher than 30 psi / 2 bar are not required to achieve clean parts.
• Decreasing the blast pressure leads to a longer blast cycle, but requires less air flow. Formlabs recommends decreasing the blast pressure when using less powerful air compressors.

Changing the blast and rinse time settings

Compensate for lower or higher blasting pressure by changing the blast and rinse time settings.

• Longer blast cycles increase the likelihood that every surface on a part is exposed to the blast stream. Formlabs recommends increasing the blast cycle times for large parts or for those with complex geometries that tumble poorly.
• Shorter blast cycle times are sufficient for small builds or simple parts without many complex surfaces, holes, or cavities.

Changing the tumbler basket speed

Changing the tumbler basket speed (RPM) affects how often parts tumble throughout the cleaning process. The geometries of individual parts, the number of parts, and size and arrangement of parts all affect how parts tumble.

• A higher RPM causes parts to tumble more frequently, and typically with more impact. Formlabs recommends a higher RPM for small to medium-sized parts.
• A lower RPM causes parts to tumble less frequently, and typically with less impact. Formlabs recommends a lower RPM for large, complex, or delicate parts.