Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a printing process that pushes a solid filament through a heated extruder, melting the filament. The printer then lays the now melted filament in layers onto the print bed. The printer does this by reading a G-code that tells it how and where to move. Overall, it is a simple and straightforward process. The level of detail in a print can be altered in slicing software but is often dependent on the diameter of the extruder.
Resin printing is a process that involves a printing with a material (resin) that is already liquid, and can be cured with UV light. The resin is adhered to a plate bed that is submerged in a resin-filled tank on the printer. At the IDEA Lab, we only have printers that use Masked Stereolithography Apparatus (MSLA), which use UV LCD screens placed under the resin tank to cure the resin to the build plate. Unlike FDM printing, resin prints are difficult to monitor because, most of the time, the print itself is submerged. It can take up to an hour before noticing that a print has failed. Additionally, it is important to know that you will spend much more time cleaning up your prints with resin as opposed to FDM. Despite this, resin printing allows us to print things smaller and more detailed than ever.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elegoo Saturn 2
Elegoo Mars