Quote Originally Posted by rylangrayston View Post
Wellcome jjmouris!

Just did a test to make sure, 405 nm light from our laser shines thru water very well, just as i thought there is no noticeable drop in cure rate going thru 2 cm of water.
I think water carry's Blue light very well, and lots of deep sea creatures emit blue light, taking advantage of this.... googling.....
looks like we(405nm) just snuck in ! http://library.thinkquest.org/26153/...ages/elec1.jpg

Looking forward to testing this idea out. There is a liquid that would help by being above the resin I think it would do so with its adhesion properties not its mass which.
In fact i think the mass of the water on top the resin would make things worse not better, as there will be less pressure difference in a void filled by water than a void filed by air.

As for the pro we have high hopes of accomplishing everything you mention, but are still in the early stages of R and D.
If their is a layer of water on top, I can see their being an issue with diffraction, that may distort the print. I dont really know much about predicting how light is diffracted by a layer of water but that may be possible and maybe the software can make up for it.

This is a little off topic but here are some ideas I had to reduce surface tension without changing the resin. I have not tried yet and am not sure if they will work, and if anybody experiments with them they should keep safety in mind.

Increase the temperature of the resin. One way this maybe could be done would be by putting a small aquarium heater in the reservoirs to keep the fluids at a higher temperature.
Increasing humidity of the air (this works with water, I dont know about resin)
Run electricity though the liquid.

Another idea I had was a small vibrator, maybe sound waves? I dont know if this is technically reducing the surface tension but it may have a similar effect.

As for moving the print down and then up again, what if you had a T inside the reservoir on a spring, with a piece of metal on the end. Then an electromagnet on the underside of the reservoir (not even in it if possible). When you turned the electromagnet on it pulled the T down, then when it let go the spring put it back. Not sure maybe this exact idea what mentioned already.

-Kaleb