According to Formlabs, the new Form 4 can print two to 5 times faster than its predecessor, the Form 3 Plus – with the upgrade to an LCD screen and a brilliant backlight that may cure an entire layer of resin directly.
This is already a standard technique in prosumer resin printers, called masked stereolithography (mSLA), but Formlabs says it has built a printer that delivers higher quality than ever before. Still, it could not have the identical resolution as previous Formlabs printers, with a horizontal pixel size of 50 microns in comparison with 25 microns. (Both printers go all the way down to 25 microns vertically.)
However, between the corporate’s new “Low Force Display” lightweight resin curing engine and a series of new, faster-curing resins, the speed has been significantly increased to 100mm per hour vertically. The company says most prints should take lower than two hours, and small features akin to dental arches could be printed in minutes. “It’s not an overnight fast, only when I have a quick cup of coffee,” boasts CEO Maxim Lobovsky.
Formlabs says 4 of its $4,500 printers can beat an injection molding machine when printing batches of small parts like these:
(Note that 3D-printed resin parts should be washed afterward, but for injection molded ones, you’ll have to chop off the surplus plastic; Formlabs spokeswoman Meredith Chiricosta tells me post-processing times are in regards to the same.)
It doesn’t hurt that the Form 4 can spit out more and bigger parts than its predecessor, with 30 percent more construct volume and 19 percent more work surface – parts could be 10.7 inches long in comparison with 8.8 inches previously. You also get an integrated 5-megapixel camera for monitoring prints and generating time-lapse videos, a bigger seven-inch touchscreen and Wi-Fi 5 (formerly Wi-Fi 4), in addition to USB-C (as a substitute of USB-B) and Gigabit Ethernet.
Formlabs printer reviews sometimes criticize the high price of consumable resin, and that is something the corporate is improving today as well – 4 new “general purpose resins” that supply “improved strength and color” will start at $99 per liter, down from $149 dollars you pay today for the corporate’s entry-level resins. The company claims that resin tanks might be cheaper and last more. It uses greater than twice the electricity at 480W in comparison with 220W, but electricity is comparatively low cost.
If you are interested, the corporate is hosting a chat today at 9 a.m. ET that may discuss crucial facets of the new printers:
Credit : www.theverge.com
