1. User Guide
  2. Troubleshooting
  3. Part Cleaning Issues

Part Cleaning Issues

# Issue Description Customer Troubleshooting Steps
PCI1 Parts come out of cleaning process dirty, shiny, or sticky.
  1. Parts may not have been properly cleaned. Ensure you have followed all the steps in the sections under Cleaning Printed Parts. It is recommended that parts go through the cleaning process within 24 hours of printing.  Some materials thicken as they sit over time and will require more vigorous cleaning.
  2. Solvent baths may need to be changed.
  3. Use solvent spray bottle and part-cleaning brush to rid the part of excess print material.
PCI2 Parts show surface cracks or edge erosion during sonication cleaning.
  1. Your particular print material may be sensitive to sonication power. Try one or more of the following:
    1. Reduce the power of your ultrasonic cleaner;
    2. Reduce the duration of sonication
    3. Reduce the temperature of the cleaner's tank.
  2. If measures you took in Step 1 were not successful, clean printed parts manually. This process is referred to in the Cleaning Chart where it refers to "gentle shaking in sealed container."
PCI3 Parts crack downstream after post curing.
  1. Parts may have been overexposed to solvents during cleaning. Ensure that you clean printed parts no longer than the times specified in the section Cleaning Parts Using an Ultrasonic Cleaner.
  2. If your cleaning times were correct, there are other cleaning parameters that you can try changing:
    1. Reduce sonication power.
    2. If your ultrasonic cleaner's power setting cannot be changed, reduce cleaning time.
    3. Reduce temperature of liquid in ultrasonic cleaner.
    4. Increase drying time after cleaning.
PCI4 Supporting architecture not completely removed by hand
  1. Ensure that for future builds, you have removed the supporting architecture before post-curing the part(s). The post-curing process makes the supports stronger and, therefore, harder to remove.
  2. Use tools such as flat snips and/or tweezers to remove support remnants from tight areas of your part.
  3. Perform wet-sanding with IPA on support remnants.