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Resin prints are production quality, but a messy/toxic process. We need a resin printer tuned for mass production of tiny pieces, just like belt FDM printers a
by mapt 2y ago
Resin prints are production quality, but a messy/toxic process.
We need a resin printer tuned for mass production of tiny pieces, just like belt FDM printers are tuned for mass production.
FDM prints are either slow or have obvious layer lines or both. If you're painting it maybe that doesn't matter.
- wkat4242 2y agoResin is also slow (probably slower per mm^3 than FDM depending on nozzle size), but speed doesn't really matter IMO. But yeah with a high detail 0.2mm nozzle (0.1mm extrusions size) it does tend to get pretty slow. Layer lines are a factor of orientation a lot (you want to have steep angles, not very shallow ones). I have several printers and I ususually have something "in the oven" while I WFH (my job is not related to 3D printing sadly)
- mrWiz 2y agoOne advantage of resin is that it takes a fixed amount of time per layer no matter the size of the layer. FDM time obviously increases linearly depending on the amount of material to deposit. So a resin printer will take the same amount of time to produce a single figure or as many figures will fit into its print area.
- mapt 2y agoAdditionally: If you want to _mass_ mass produce these things, an injection molding setup is going to be your goal. You can sort of hack one together for plastic molding using a pneumatic/hydraulic cylinder and some mold plates that are either cast metal (lost-PLA, lost-wax), cured plaster, or CNC'd. The stuff that will give you five million units a day costs as much as a house, but there is a middle ground that is competitive with FDM on quality but significantly faster for more like $300-$3000. The limitation with injection molding is typically the cost and complexity of having mold plates made when you don't have a demand for all that many units.