Open Source SLA 3D Printer

Basics

• Part of the Open Source Digital Fabrication Construction Set
• A SLA or Stereolithography printer
• Uses a light curable resin and a laser/projector to make parts
• Can produce extremely small layer heights, and thus far higher print resolution than extrusion based 3D printers
• Can be a bit of a mess to work with due to the UV light issues + messy resins
• Also is quite costly + hard to recycle materials due to the chemical change used as opposed to FDM's physical change

Used For

• EXTREMELY precise parts
• Personalized Medical Devices + Implants
• Things with very interesting mechanical/thermal/optical properties (Thanks to the wide variety of resins)
• VERY fast prints

Industry Standards

Formlabs

• Consists of the Form 1, the Form 2, and the Form Cell (Also Form Wash + Form Cure if you are fancy) (This company is also making the Fuse 1 (A SLS Machiene, see Open Source Plastic SLS Machiene))
• Formlabs' Main Site

Carbon 3D

• Carbon 3D's Main Site
• The TED Talk Given About The M1 Printer Before it's Release
• A Tested Tour + Interview with a Carbon 3D Representative
• Like the Form 1 or 2 but MUCH faster

Existing Open Source Designs

• Need to check if it is FULLY open source, but the Peopoly Moai Kit is pretty good:

Peopoly Moai

• Peopoly's Main Site
• Introductory Video by Matterhackers
• Makermuse's Review or the Peopoly Moai
• 3D Printing Nerd's Review or the Peopoly Moai

Minimum Viable Product

• Modular
• Expandable
• Can use a variety of resins
• Safe (IE all lasers are contained
• Efficient (in resin waste)
• Clean (Workflow similar to form cell
• Fast
• Accurate (what resolution, this needs to be determined)
• Uses pure gcode like the Moai

See Also

• SLA 3D Printing
• SLA Resins

Useful Links

• Wikipedia Page on SLA Printing