Most non-SLA resin 3D printers, of course, on the hacker side of the market, must be LCD-based. SLA type, in which the ultraviolet laser is scanned on the build surface by a galvanometer, we will not consider it further in this article.
We are talking about a machine that emits a bright ultraviolet light source directly through an (hopefully monochrome) LCD panel with 2, 4, or even 8k pixels. LCD pixels mask areas of resin that do not need to be polymerized to form the layer being processed. This technology is cheap and repeatable, so it has gained popularity in this end of the market.
However, they do have some disadvantages. First, the optics in the panel will cause a certain amount of tailing on the resin interface, which reduces the effective resolution to a certain extent. The second problem is the thermal control problem-LCD will transmit less than 5% of the incident light, so for a given exposure of the resin, the input light intensity needs to be quite high, and this loss in the LCD will cause significant internal heating and active The need for cooling. Finally, the heat in the LCD combined with the strong ultraviolet radiation will reduce the performance of the LCD over time, making the LCD itself a consumable.
Go to the left side of the stage and introduce digital light processing or DLP to his close friends. DLP technology is not new, it is the basis of many projection systems that you often see. The efficiency of DLP is much higher, the light source intensity required is much lower, so the operating temperature is lower and the life span is greatly extended. Unlike LCDs, DLP chips will not degrade significantly at all.
For UV applications, DLP devices already exist, but they are Very expensive. so far.Texas Instruments has begun to produce a new DLP300s products for UV applications, [datasheet] Optimized for 3D printing applications, at a low price of $30/unit, this will make DLP printers at a price point that you and I can consider. Compared to LCDs, DLP printers produce significantly clearer features, which can sometimes be a curse, but DLP300s has another cool feature. 8-bit grayscale support provides resin curing edge smoothing where needed and only where needed.
Now, what if someone designs a machine with this DLP chip somewhere?Enter the stage ANYCubic Photon Ultra DLP Will land on Kickstarter on September 14day. How long will we see DLP take over the SLA market? It may just be a matter of time and price.
DLP chip:
Anycubic Kickstarter: