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Calibration · Quick Lab

A fresh machine — or one that’s just been moved — should run Quick Lab before its first real cut. It catches mechanical and material issues that would otherwise show up as bad cuts 30 minutes in. Open DIAG → STATUS and follow the five-step banner. Quick Lab persists between sessions: close the app mid-walkthrough and it resumes where you left off.

Step 1 — STATUS

Confirms the basics in one view: driver state, detected firmware, licence state, and the last pre-flight result. Everything green here means the machine is talking and licensed.

Step 2 — SETUP CHECK

A pre-flight checklist you confirm by eye before any power goes to the wire:

  • E-stop reachable and tested.
  • Wire tension correct (see Heater & wire).
  • Hot-wire fuse / current limit in place.
  • Foam stock loaded and squared to the bed.

Press ALL CLEAR when verified. This gate exists for safety — don’t skip it.

Step 3 — MOTION TEST

Exercises the mechanics without heat:

  • Square check — cuts/marks a reference square; confirms X/Y are orthogonal.
  • Travel limits — drives to the soft limits to confirm the envelope matches your SET → MACHINE values.
  • Backlash — measures lost motion on direction reversal per axis.

Mechanical problems found here (skew, backlash, lost steps) would otherwise produce trapezoidal or drifting cuts later. Fix them now: tighten belts, check the gantry square, set backlash compensation.

Step 4 — WIRE CAL (kerf)

The wire removes a little more foam than its diameter — the kerf. The CAM transformer needs the kerf to size parts correctly.

  1. Cut the calibration cube at your current settings.
  2. Measure 8 points with calipers (top/bottom, both towers).
  3. Save. FoamSync stores the kerf and (if top and bottom differ) the top-vs-bottom delta, which indicates wire lean or tension drift.

If parts come out consistently undersize/oversize, re-run WIRE CAL — the kerf is almost always the cause.

Step 5 — MATERIAL CAL

Foam batches vary. This step tunes the cut to your material:

  1. Cut a small reference at the material’s catalogue settings (feed, temperature, power).
  2. Score the result on five quality axes (surface, edge, kerf consistency, etc.).
  3. FoamSync suggests adjustments and stamps them onto the material preset, so the next run starts from your batch’s real behaviour.

Material calibration is preserved when you edit a material — renaming or tweaking a preset keeps the calibration you measured. (If you ever see calibration reset on save, report it via a support bundle.)

Cut quality from calibration

Once a material is calibrated, FoamSync uses it to improve the cut automatically:

  • Per-material calibrated feed — the toolpath runs at the feed your batch actually cuts cleanly, not a generic default.
  • Curvature-adaptive corner slow-down — the feed eases off through tight curves and corners (where a constant feed would scorch or round them) and returns to full speed on the straights.

Both are opt-in through calibration — an uncalibrated material cuts exactly as before, so updating FoamSync never changes an existing job until you measure your own foam.

Material library

FoamSync ships presets for EPS (15 / 25 / 40 kg/m³), XPS (30 / 45 kg/m³) and PU (40 kg/m³), plus your own custom materials. Each preset carries feed, temperature, power and kerf. Pick the active material under SET, or per job.

What’s next

Calibrated? Set up heater & wire safety and make a test cut.