[HH] UV 3D printers

[Tom Metro]

Greg London wrote:
> I think UV printing has a good chance of obsoleting filament printing.

Isn't the Formlabs printer an example of that tech? (http://formlabs.com/)

It's a technology that has been around since the $10,000+ stereo
lithography machines of decades ago. I'm not sure why filament printing
ended up dominating.


> It's order(s) of magnitude faster print times and better resolution.

Their marketing does claim it is "up to 2x faster." I haven't seen much
being made of that advantage elsewhere. I don't recall speed being
mentioned in the reviews of this printer.


> In which case, you wouldn't need the x/y axis anymore, just Z.
> It needs a projector...

So you are assuming that they are projecting a 2D image of UV light
covering the print bed? Have you seen designs that work like that?

The Form printer appears to raster scan with a laser:

  A high precision optical system directs a laser across a tank of
  liquid resin, solidifying layers as thin as 25 microns. The build
  platform pulls your model upwards, out of the tank.

Although that doesn't preclude it from using projector-style technology.
They could be using one of TI's Digital Light Projectors (DLP -
chip-scale mechanical mirrors) to perform the raster scan.

(The print head mechanism seems to be contained in the opaque box under
the print bed, so you can't see from the photos how it works.)


> It's more expensive for printers right now...

Because of the UV laser? DLP tech has gotten cheap. And otherwise, the
printer seems to be far more mechanically simpler, and thus should be
cheaper.

 -Tom