Stereo litho printers

Been doing a bit of Googling and I think this will be the year of the laser based 3D printer. The resin price only has to drop slightly and then I dont think there will be any compelling reason for buying a PLA extrusion printer. I think most of them will end up in the bargain bin. It's amazing in our fast paced society, how rapidly things can change. Remember film photography !!!

There are a number of laser 3d printers coming onto the market. Not quite sure why no IP protection is in place for the basic technique used by laser printers (maybe it's expired?). Hope Peachy doesn't infringe any IP protection in place.

I note that form1 has been sued for infringement , for the support fingers attached to the item as it prints. Mind you, not quite sure why that support system was given a patent in the first place. The system is both banal and obvious. I though patents had to be an innovative step (and not obvious). In my view form1 have no charge to answer, but the patent office does !!!!

But rest assured fellow Peachiers, we chose the right technology, according to my crystal ball.

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Originally Posted by mike_biddell

Not quite sure why no IP protection is in place for the basic technique used by laser printers (maybe it's expired?). Hope Peachy doesn't infringe any IP protection in place.

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There was a patent on it. #4575330 - Apparatus for production of three-dimensional objects by stereolithography. It expired almost 10 years ago.

Split the diff and build an FDM + buy a peachy!
I don't think the FDM's will die off. Maybe lasers will take over, but unless they can be built like the reprap's, FDM is safe.

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Originally Posted by Kingoddball

Split the diff and build an FDM + buy a peachy!
I don't think the FDM's will die off. Maybe lasers will take over, but unless they can be built like the reprap's, FDM is safe.

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Why is FDM safe?

Safe being = Here to stay.
Simple, cheap and easy to configure and tune.
Might not be safe for health.

hmmm i dont know of any technology thats here to stay. im sure it will be around awhile but i do think sla or sls will be the next wave for home users. that will be a couple few years before that ramps up. at some point fdm will be like 8tracks.

Not so much the ease of configuration, but the fact that a FDM can have multiple print heads and do multi-material prints, where not even the fanciest SLA printer will be capable of that Also, FDM missprints can be recycled back into filament, where cured resin cannot (to my knowledge) be made back into liquid for re-use.

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Originally Posted by Feign

Not so much the ease of configuration, but the fact that a FDM can have multiple print heads and do multi-material prints, where not even the fanciest SLA printer will be capable of that Also, FDM missprints can be recycled back into filament, where cured resin cannot (to my knowledge) be made back into liquid for re-use.

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I researched FDM printers before pledging for Peachy. I read story after story of jammed heads and prints not finishing. Plus the smell of burning plastic and the noise. As I see it the major application for FDM is printing metal components for various industries particularly Aerospace. If you want to print metal at home, FDM is the way to go, but if you dont need metal, buying any FDM printer is a mistake. I want a printer whereby, if you start a print, it finishes.

The issue of colour could be addressed using Rylan's shell technique. Print a transparent shell and fill it with coloured layers, and cure each layer as you go. by orientating the print volume, this does not have to be limited to horizontal layers either.

I'm not really concerned about colours. That's what paint is for. If you take almost any multi-coloured plastic object around the home, you'll find that it's either a single base colour with paint, or it's a set of single parts where each is a different colour.

The FDM printers can do multiple colours, but normally it's one colour per layer and no mixing of colours (ie if you've got yellow and blue, that doesn't let you print green. Either you can print yellow, or you can print blue). There are also the usual alignment, cost, and space issues with having a multi-extruder setup. Quite apart from that, as far as I can tell the software isn't really developed to an extent that makes multi-colour prints practical.

FDM filament can be recycled, but that's only useful because they fail so often! Hopefully it just won't be an issue for the Peachy. I guess there's a possibility of recycling completed prints when they're no longer useful, but then you have issues with contamination (dust/water/oil getting into the filament). I don't recall seeing a functional low-cost recycling system either.