Resin 3D Printing
The material for resin 3D printing is generally liquid, which has the advantages of good high temperature resistance and high strength manufacturing. Resin materials are widely used in the field of SLA 3D printing technology.
SLA 3D Printing Fundamentals
SLA 3D printing service is also known as stereolithography forming printing. This technology is a rapid prototyping technique widely used in various industries. The main raw material for SLA 3D printing is photosensitive resin. The workpiece printed by this process has extremely high forming accuracy and surface quality, and SLA custom 3D printing is commonly used to produce products with complex geometric shapes, fine features, and thin-walled structures.
Materials for SLA 3D Printing
Photosensitive resin 3D printing, commonly known as UV-cured shadowless adhesive or UV resin (adhesive), is mainly composed of polymer monomers and prepolymers, with the addition of light (UV) initiators, also known as photosensitizers. Under a certain wavelength of ultraviolet light (250-300nm) irradiation, it will immediately trigger a polymerization reaction and complete solid-state conversion.
In most cases, the state of photosensitive resin materials is liquid, so they are generally stored as liquid. This is a commonly used material for making high-strength, high-temperature resistant, waterproof, etc. Due to the emergence of SLA 3D printing technology, photosensitive resin materials have begun to be used in the field of SLA 3D printing. The manufacturing principle is that they can be cured by ultraviolet light and can be formed by laser or directly layer by layer through projection. Therefore, SLA 3D printers that use photosensitive resins as raw materials generally have many advantages in molding, such as fast speed and short printing time.
However, photosensitive resins have high requirements for the printing process, and the first step in SLA 3D printing is to ensure that there is no slight deviation in the thickness of the resin laid on each layer. When the depth of aggregation irradiation is less than the layer thickness, the adhesion between layers will not be tight, and even delamination and detachment may occur; But if the depth of aggregation irradiation is greater than the layer thickness, the consequence affects the accuracy of the final printing molding, because this situation will cause over curing, resulting in significant residual stress and warping deformation. When there is no deviation in the scanning irradiation area, the thicker the layer to be cured, the larger the volume that needs to be cured, and the greater the interlayer stress generated by the polymerization reaction, making it difficult to control the thickness of the irradiated layer. Therefore, to reduce the influence of interlayer stress, technicians need to minimize the thickness of single-layer curing as much as possible to reduce the volume of single curing.
But even with very precise control, the photosensitive resin cured by irradiation is still difficult to fully cure and often requires secondary curing treatment. Due to the special properties of photosensitive resin materials, the hardness of cured photosensitive resin materials is generally not high, relatively weak, and prone to fracture, and their performance is often inferior to commonly used industrial plastics. In addition, there are stricter requirements for the daily storage environment, and technicians need to protect the photosensitive resin from light, which is beneficial for reducing the occurrence of polymerization reactions in advance. Liquid resin has poor performance, such as odor and toxicity, which makes it best to manufacture SLA 3D printing in an isolated environment. The printed items can only be made of transparent materials, and the selection is relatively single. At present, in response to the lack of functional applications in traditional photosensitive resins used for SLA 3D printing, high-performance photosensitive resins that meet application scenarios have emerged on the market through breakthroughs in new material technology research and development.
The Technical Principles of SLA 3D Printing
SLA 3D printing machine is an advanced manufacturing technology that utilizes photocurable resin materials to stack and manufacture objects layer by layer. The principle of the machine is to use UV-cured resin materials to construct three-dimensional objects through layer-by-layer curing. In SLA 3D printers, the light-cured resin material is irradiated layer by layer with a beam of light and solidified to form the desired object structure.
The function of the control system is to control the switch of the light source and the path of the beam, as well as to control the movement of the construction platform, achieving layer-by-layer stacking of objects. The main structure of SLA 3D printing includes photo-cured resin materials, construction platforms, light sources, and control systems. The light source is a predetermined beam path that illuminates the photocurable resin, and the main light sources include ultraviolet and blue light. Photocured resins have unique properties, as these materials undergo chemical reactions and then solidify into solids.
In SLA 3D printing, the first step is to illuminate the surface of the material’s UV-cured resin with the help of the light source, which then solidifies into a thin layer. The second step is to build the entire platform and descend it to a specified distance, to prepare for the solidification of the next layer. In step three, the light source will illuminate each layer of resin material, and this process will be repeated during printing. If the entire workpiece is manufactured, the irradiation will stop. Under the premise of a well-designed 3D model, the control system will accurately control the light source and the movement of the entire platform, which is conducive to correctly adding the curing of each layer to the previous layer.
The curing process of UV-cured resin materials plays a very important role, as it is the core principle of UV-cured 3D printers. The irradiation of a light source can trigger cross-linking reactions between resin material molecules, causing some changes, such as its state changing from liquid to solid. This curing process is a chemical reaction that requires precise light source control and material properties to ensure that the manufactured object has good surface quality and structural strength. The application of the SLA 3D printer principle in various industries can manufacture complex structures and precision components. It has important application value in many industries, including aerospace, medical equipment, automotive manufacturing, and other fields. With the continuous development of materials science and SLA technology, SLA 3D printers will have a broader development prospect, bringing more innovation and change to the manufacturing industry.
The principle of the SLA 3D printer is an advanced manufacturing technology that uses photocurable resin materials to stack and manufacture objects layer by layer. By precisely controlling the movement of light sources and construction platforms, the manufacturing of complex structures and precision components can be achieved. Due to the continuous advancement of technology, SLA 3D printers will play an increasingly important role in the manufacturing industry.
The Characteristics of SLA 3D Printing Technology
There are many advantages of SLA 3D printing technology, including fast forming speed and high prototype accuracy. This technology is very suitable for producing small-batch workpieces with high precision requirements and complex structures. SLA 3D printing uses photopolymerization technology, which is widely used in printing technology.
Meanwhile, the minimum layer thickness supported by the 0object series printer has reached 0.016mm. Among all 3D printing technologies, the advantage of SLA 3D printing products is that they have the highest accuracy and the best surface finish. However, the rapid prototyping technology of photopolymerization also has two shortcomings. Firstly, the photosensitive resin raw material has certain toxicity, and operators must have protective measures when using it during manufacturing. Secondly, the finished product formed by UV curing performs very well in terms of overall appearance, but the material strength cannot be compared with real manufactured products, which greatly limits the development of this technology and limits its application scope to prototype design verification. Subsequently, a series of processing steps are needed to convert it into industrial-grade products. In addition, SLA 3D printing technology requires more effort in equipment, maintenance, and materials compared to technologies such as FDM. Therefore, currently, SLA-based 3D printers are mainly used in professional fields.
The main advantages of SLA printing technology are as follows: the speed of SLA 3D printing is fast, it can be manufactured in a short time, and the manufacturing period of the workpiece is not long. The process of photosensitive reaction is relatively agile and does not require the help of cutting tools and molds during manufacturing. The upper software has complete functions, which can be operated online and remotely, facilitating the automation of production.
SLA 3D printing technology has been developed for many years and its usage rate is relatively high. SLA 3D printed products have the advantage of high precision, with no limitations on the printed products, and can print various types of workpieces. Printing prototypes and molds with complex structural shapes or difficult to produce with traditional techniques.
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