In my opinion, stereolithography 3D printing while being around for over 20 years, still has tremendous room for advances -- especially true for someone approaching from a chemical background.

Early on, SLA machines would create resin models used in direct investment casting. The resins would dictate the speed the machines could print at and other factors in how well it'd cast.

Fast forward to present day, and machines like the B9 Creator paired with their B9R-1-Cherry resin would print the same 3D file in half the time with more detail and still remain friendly to direct casting. B9R-2-Black resin would print even faster than Cherry, but doesn't reliably burn-out cleanly for direct casting.

Many of the machines like B9 Creator, Form1, etc rely on resins that have specific characteristics. Reactivity to light for curing. Oxygen used to inhibit curing. Best I can tell, the aftermarket resin companies are mixing up concoctions randomly and just hoping for the best. This results in stuff that reduce the service life of the vats of these units.

Someone approaching this leveraging their knowledge of chemistry could develop resins that maximize the desired characteristics (reactivity speed, high detail) while minimizing/eliminating the bad ones (perishability, shelf stability, inhibition control, etc) for the jewelry/dental casting industries.

There's also plenty of room for development of resins that cure into materials with other characteristics... clear materials, rubber/flexible materials, conductive materials, luminescent materials, thermally stable matererials, super-tough durable materials...

An established variety of these resins could be the "killer app" that opens more opportunities for SLA printing to be used in more areas. The aftermarket companies will either have to buy these optimized mixes or fold up when the users flock to you.

In my view, it doesn't take much to knock out the aftermarket pretenders. A variety of resins that expands the capabilities of the machines they're used in while preserving/enhancing/maintaining the serviceability would be a huge step over what exists now. The next factor could be one based on cost. On the commercial side, a HALF-KILO of some resins cost upwards of $400usd. There's lots of $$$$ to be made in this little-charted arena.