3D Resin Printers? How do they Work?

[Larry]

I know how the Filament printers function. It's pretty clear and simple, but watching a video of 3D Printing using resin I get a bit confused to just how they work. Does anyone have a simple explanation or can they point me to it?

thanks!

[DrLuigi]

Well its the same kinda,

But it isnt a Extruder but a laser pointing the points that it has to be hardend,

Example Form1,
It simple has a bed over the plastic, The laser will draw the places that have to be hardend with mirrors getting it to position.
As the layer is done the bed will go up and so on.

Laser Sintering is the same kinda but with Powder, It lays a fine layer of powder on the table, Points the places that has to be hardend, and so on.


With Peachy they kinda use the same method,
But in another way, They count the drups that fall in the resin, they know how much the chamber will raise at every so many drups,
and it will also draw a path that has to be hardend every layer.

[Larry]

DrLuigi, in your opinion, which solution, Filament, or resin have the brightest future? Are there limits to one and not the other and vice versa?

[DrLuigi]

Well with Extrusion technique the positive is obviously its faster, cheaper, as printer and plastic goes,
neg is mostly being not realy that user friendly, you gotta dive a little into the tech to realy get it working properly, and the resolution isnt as perfect, also hangovers are quiet impossible etc,

Lasers/resins well they are more expensive, and very slow at the moment,
As resin goes and printer they are easily more then twice the price.

The positive is the resolution and being very silent, I wouldnt mind a printer being on for 20-40-60 hours if its quiet and not being a total consumption monster.

This was a reply just made in a quicky and i may forgot a fact or two.

So the baseline is,
extrusion is cheaper, But i don't realy see a future in it any longer since we kinda hit the limit as i dont see it getting like a break through that would increase the strength/speed/resolution/price of a print/er.
But as this time i would maybe recommend this one more since its more thought through then other methods (depends on your money :P)
And its just alot more cheaper and quicker.

I do see some future in Resins/laser techniques since they are more user friendly and well it still has some space for development like Peachy and they already can do amazing resolutions(Well peachy doesnt at the moment, but i believe if they put there work into it as they did so far, it can become a nice printer that could be the next Reprap).

(Or of course if someone else creates some day a new technique from out of nothing ^^)

[Resin]

I'm considering entering the resin market for 3D printing.

My company already produces UV resins for other markets so this wouldn't be that large of a leap for me.

My research has shown me that the current resins for this market are around $220-$555/gal!

If I was able to drop this to $100/gal, what are your thoughts? That's approximately $24.4 / kg! Cheaper than some ABS/PLA filaments....

Would the community buy my resin?