3D Printer with best Resolution?

[Larry]

I know the Makerbot has a resolution of 100 microns (about as thin as a piece of copy paper). Are there any printers that have even better resolutions? If so, what are they?

[EvaMMF]

Up! Plus is good.

[Larry]

Up! Plus is good.

Is the resolution better than 100 microns?

[EvaMMF]

ah no i think its 150 actually.

[garyhlucas]

What do you mean by resolution? Layer thickness? Positioning accuracy across the whole build surface? Repeatability? 100 microns suggests way more accuracy and fine finish than any FDM is doing. The idea that a rapidly moving head running on skinny round rails is achieving position accuracy of 0.0039" is someones imagination. Add material shrinkage and such and it is damn near impossible.

I have built a CNC mill using high precision THK linear rails driven by 20mm THK ballscrews. The work envelope is 18" x 18" x 18". It is mounted to a cast iron table top weighing 205 lbs that was hand scraped dead flat. When I set my 9" x 9" granite surface plate down it floats for a moment on a cushion of air! The steppers are 800 oz/in driven by a 68 volt power supply. So even though the total moving mass is about 100 lbs it still moves pretty quick. I am in the process of adding a 12" x 12" heated build plate and an extruder head. I can move in any direction and repeat back to a stopped position repeatably to 0.0002". It will be interesting to see what the 3D printing will look like, but I'll bet I won't get to the 100 micron resolution people like to quote.

[thejollygrimreaper]

garyhlucas: 0.1mm (100 micron) is very possible, currently i print pretty much everything at 0.1mm to 0.2mm layer heights with a 0.3mm nozzle with a hotend built for the purpose

x y repeat-ability usually suffers a fair bit because of the printing speed, people are generally too impatient and try and run their machines as fast as they can away with and usually with the idea of selling parts so the idea of fine quality prints go out the window pretty quick , i print a lot slower than most people (20mm/sec to 30mm/sec ) and my parts usually measure withing 0.1mm to 0.2mm of their desired dimensions (depending on the part too)

personally i have gone to 0.05mm before today, however at those layer heights infill for example behaves in interesting ways it's only the kind of thing you get into if you are printing hollow objects with nothing over a 30 degree overhang, realistically the layer height limit is 0.1mm

your cnc mill if you can get the print surface flat/level enough should allow you to go 100 micron layer heights with no dramas

[jimc]

i run a makergear m2 and like jolly i run it from .1-.25mm. usually almost everything is at .15. rick the owner of makergear has a yoda head that he printed on one of their machines that was done at .02mm. yeah thats not a typo. i personally dont know how he did it. i have seen real close up shots of it and man is it smooth. it was just something for them to do to say that it could be done but those layer heights arent practical at all and take a really good machine and alot of tuning in the software.

[thejollygrimreaper]

not to mention crazy print times

[Jo1212]

Ultimaker can get down to 25 microns (0.025mm) layer hight!

[MeoWorks]

IMO it's all about fine tuning. 100 microns is pretty standard and 50 microns is reachable with just some fine tuning and testing. IMO the best upgrade you can possibly get is the Bowden Cable since that will greatly minimize the vibrations when printing.