Potential resolution

[nka]

So is the cured transparent resin transparent to UV light as well as visible? Because I'm thinking about printing lenses now

Not sure what you're trying to do, but I dont think you'll be able to print lenses. Those need very high precision and polishing to be acurate.

[Feign]

Not sure what you're trying to do, but I dont think you'll be able to print lenses. Those need very high precision and polishing to be acurate.

No reason not to try it... Besides, a quick delve into Wolfram Alpha suggests that there are indeed relatively simple functions for determining a lense geometry for any given z-value. Meaning that someone could just have the Peachy graph out the function at high speed rather than running the G-Code, with each drop changing the z-value. Effectively making each drop a seperate layer.

Also, I remember reading that the resin tends to stick in the tiny crevices where layers meet, giving a slight smoothing effect.

[mike_biddell]

Feign..... have googled printing lenses...... people are already on the case..... it could well be a goer. No problem polishing the finished article with a little jeweller's rouge. Obvs, for spectacles, some research required on translating a prescription into lens geometry.

[Anuvin]

Sure, that crystal clear column has got me convinced the peachy can print all sorts of crazy things! Time will tell, and the sky is the limit.

[rylangrayston]

Effectively making each drop a separate layer.....

Also, I remember reading that the resin tends to stick in the tiny crevices where layers meet, giving a slight smoothing effect.

From what i have seen i think the peachy can do lenses. Standing over the printer watching it print the heart really gave me that impression for the first time.
Warps and bubbles aside it has a really smooth surface and it was printed face up (the hard way with steep walls reaching first out and then back in)
The two reasons you mentioned in the quote above are exactly why its doing so well at it already but let me also note that a drip may seem like a digital sort of increment but
when you actually watch it closely each drip spreads into a long continuous stream of water running in the hose. I keep bugging the engineers at peachy saying the water actual enters one atom after another :P
I think the truth is that altho we think of it as printing in layers ( and we treat it that way in software) its really printing a really long spiral.

Also by dipping a print in resin and curing the smooth layer of resin over and over you quickly get a seemingly perfect gloss finish.
We didnt do that in any of our prints yet tho. They actually came out this smooth without dipping


fdc0630bf7379cf3f53d14824b054871_large.jpg
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I think there are still some big suprizes that need to be accounted for before you could ever use the peachy for making even a pour camera lenses, but already it looks like it can make a toy magnifying glass with a bit of TLC.
more pics at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...c/posts?page=3

Also these prints are all rather small and I would expect we will run into many newly needed solutions (problems-lol sorry that how I think. ) as we try bigger prints.

[Morten]

Mind-blowing to think we can do lenses. Even a toy microscope would be a great achievement. What I was wondering is whether the cured form of the transparent resin is transparent to the UV laser (I'm guessing it's not) because if it is, then I could print a 50x microscope, mount it on the Peachy and have 50x the resolution (and a much smaller print). Then, I can do printing on the micro-scale, allowing structural color and other fun stuff, mabye. Hey, we're all desperately awaiting pictures of the first prints, speculating helps ease the suffering

[jjmouris]

I don't think it will work like that. Being able to print a lens or in high resolution does not mean you can use that to print a printer with even greater resolution. It is not just made out of cured resin, there are parts made out of different materials that we currently can not print and do effect the outcome.

Secondly dipping prints into resin to smooth the surface does not improve the resolution. So your lens will become smoother but not more accurate. In fact it will become less accurate and may not do what it is supposed to do. Trying to adjust the drawing you feed the printer may work but without the resolution / accuracy you will not get repeatable results.

Warping and bubbles worry me a bit.

Bubbles we can potentially get rid of by treating the resin with a vacuum before printing to expand and raise any small bubbles to the surface where they will pop. A technique comely used in composite manufacturing. Thinner resins will help here.

Warping however is mainly due to the shrinking of the resin as it cures. A greater wall thickness results in more warping, important if you are after a very accurate surface. It may be best to print the side of the surface you want to be accurate first with a very small spot of laser light and then run the laser inwards line by line to build up the wall thickness. Or after the first outline is done, increase the size of the spot to increase the speed as which you can build up the wall thickness. All of this is assuming we are printing layer by later when as Rylan points out it is more of a dynamic affair with the constant drips raising the fluid continuously within each "layer". A resin with ultra low shrinkage is the easy way to skin this cat.

J

[glauco]

I keep bugging the engineers at peachy saying the water actual enters one atom after another :P
I think the truth is that altho we think of it as printing in layers ( and we treat it that way in software) its really printing a really long spiral.

As you are using Sound, Light and Heat to produce things, exactly like Nature does according to occultism and some brazilian scientific strands, is very possible that your printings are printing like a spiral, exactly like the Nature does. Take a look man, you have three active factors (Sound, Light and Heat) and three passive factors (Water, Resin and the Drawing itself). This is literally the duality being manifested by the trinity.

Very congratulations man, you broke a lot of barriers between metaphysics and pratical uses.

[Spelljammer]

I would say that the Peachy has the potential for huge resolution. At 16 bit res., that is about 4.3 Gigapixels. Printing a 4 inch square object would yield about 1.5 micron resolution. Using 40 ounces of salt water per 1 inch rise in height would yield about 1 micron resolution on the Z axis.

And as far as laser spot size, increasing speed or decreasing power for a given speed, effectively reduces the spot size.
laser.png

[chipphydes]

With regard to the poking a hole in foil, I would like to suggest you look at camera pinhole lenses. These have been used for years to produce incredibly sharp photographs with no blurring. The smaller the hole, the sharper the image. Just a thought. Google "camera pinhole lenses". Prices vary.