Why choose SLA Printing?

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The process is relatively new, but it is already being used in several manufacturing sectors, including aerospace, automotive, medical and electronics.

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The most significant use of SLA printing is in the 3D printing industry, where it has become a popular method to produce prototypes of products or parts before they are made by other methods such as injection molding or direct metal laser sintering.

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This technology has many applications, including the creation of custom prosthetics, detailed miniatures, functional prototypes, personalized products, and more.

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How does it work?

To begin the printing process, an image is projected onto a thin sheet of plastic at the bottom of the reservoir filled with resin. Between the build plate and the plastic sheet, the resin is cured where the liquid comes in contact with UV light. This generally has a wavelength of 405nm. Curing is the term used to describe the process by which the resin solidifies. That process is repeated for each layer of the model to be printed. In each case, the image projected is a cross-section of the model.

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Print procedure

It requires a computer-aided design (CAD) model that must be delivered in .STL format to be accepted by the printer's slicer program.

It is necessary to set the printer to print with the resin we selected in the first stage.

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Then you need to put the model into a special slicer software program. Because 3D printing software varies by technology and even by machine type, not all 3D printing software is compatible with all 3D printing machines. Certain 3D printer manufacturers only accept files set up with their own software, such as Formlabs.

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Then it is time for finishing the part, including washing the part to remove any remaining liquid resin from the cured part, removing any supports that were used and sanding to remove any marks left by the supports.

The final step is to cure the cured model in a UV chamber. This fixes the model completely. Until this step, the resin still has elastic properties.

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Benefits of SLA technology

Compared to FDM, resin printers offer several key advantages, which we will discuss below:

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• Due to the very high resolution of the screen, it is possible to obtain very high accuracy and tolerances. Related to this will also be the price of the printer in question, as there are many different types, from desktop (cheaper) to professional (for more industrial use) (more expensive).

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• Excellent surface quality and resolution, especially in the Z-axis (which is determined by the layer height), with layer heights up to 25 microns, making the layers practically imperceptible to the human eye when viewed under a microscope.

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Its high accuracy and quality make it excellent for use in a variety of industries, including jewelry and dentistry. As a result of these developments, a wide range of materials specific to various industries has also been developed, including a castable resin (which is well suited to jewelry making) and dental resin.

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