What printer style to purchase for high density thermoset peices?

[Overlord475]

What printer technology is preferred for 3D printed pieces of high density (98%+) that can print in a UV curable photopolymer thermoset plastic? SLA perhaps?

Need to be able to print in materials having a melting temperature of 250°C+ would be great. (ABS?)

This would be a desk-top home use printer for a small company venture.
Budget of ~$1000

[curious aardvark]

Umm, you either want an sla or you don't

As for the 250c - would the part need to withstand that high a temp ?

[LambdaFF]

ABS melts at 100°C but you print it at 250°C. Are you confusing the 2 ?

ABS is not a laser curable resin and as such irrelevant to SLA...

[Davo]

Please educate me. I know a little about thermoset plastics, and I know a little about UV crosslinking. I've never heard of a material which gets melted, then... what? UV cures? Cools off? Both?

[curious aardvark]

just out of curiosity - what temperature do the uv resins for sla machines actually melt at ?
I'd think it would be quite high - but no clue really :-)

[Overlord475]

Umm, you either want an sla or you don't

As for the 250c - would the part need to withstand that high a temp ?

Ultimately I am looking for an alternative to the Stratasys PolyJet Process using DigitalABS (due to the extreme expense of the Stratsys printers).
I will be using the printer to produce injection mold tooling for prototyping.

For that reason I need to be able to produce 3D prints having very high density (low porosity) and high melting temps.
The plastic also must be a thermoset material so that it will not interact with the thermoplastic injected into the mold.

I believe SLA is my best bet, but wanted to tap the collective knowledge of this community first.

just out of curiosity - what temperature do the uv resins for sla machines actually melt at ?
I'd think it would be quite high - but no clue really :-)

This is a good question as well. I would like to know the post-cured melting temp of the UV resins used for SLA.

Looks like 3Dsystems make a producte that when post-cured and heat treated can achieve a Heat Deflection temp of 513°F+

http://www.3dsystems.com/sites/www.3...uestone_US.pdf

[LambdaFF]

how about good old fashioned CNCed aluminium injection moulds ?

[curious aardvark]

The short answer is no.

There is no fdm material that has a glass point over 250C

Like I said no idea on resin melting/softening temps. And a couple internet searches came up blank as well. Doesn't seem to be information anyone wants to share.

[Overlord475]

how about good old fashioned CNCed aluminium injection moulds ?

Cost of Proto-typing an SLA injection mold = ~$200

Cost to Proto-type an Aluminum mold = ~$3000 to $5000

If there are issues with the SLA mold I can easily make correction to confirm proper production of the injected parts.
Once the design is finalized I will foot the bill to produce the aluminum / steel molds.

[LambdaFF]

Cost of Proto-typing an SLA injection mold = ~$200

Cost to Proto-type an Aluminum mold = ~$3000 to $5000

That would be true if you were to find a thermoplastic/curable resin that can live up to these temperatures.