#mSLAb: An #OpenSource masked #stereolithography (#mSLA) #bioprinter:

-based on Phrozen Sonic Mini 4 K
-#Arduino-temperature control & #humidification of the printing chamber

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2024.e00543
#DIYbio #lab #instruments #hydrogel #3Dprinting #TissueEngineering

#OpenSource mod of a desktop #FFF printer via 980 nm #NIR #laser addition for upconversion #3Dprinting:

-penetration depths up to 5.8 cm
-printing inside/through existing #3Dprinted parts
-in situ #bioprinting

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2024.e00520
#stereolithography #DIYbio #lab #instruments

Resin Printing Hack Chat

Join us on Wednesday, October 13 at noon Pacific for the Resin Printing Hack Chat with Andrew Sink!

At its heart, 3D printing is such a simple idea that it's a wonder nobody thought of it sooner. Granted, fused deposition modeling does go back to the 80s, and the relatively recent explosion in cheap, mass-market FDM printers has more to do with cheap components than anything else. But really, at the end of the day, commodity 3D printers are really not much more than glorified hot-glue guns, and while they're still a foundational technology of the maker movement, they've gotten a bit dull.

So it's natural that we in this community would look for other ways to push the 3D printing envelope, and stereolithography has become the new hotness. And with good reason -- messy though it may be, the ability to gradually pull a model from a tank of goo by selective photopolymerization looks magical, and the fine level of detail resin printers are capable of is just as enchanting. So too are the prices of resin printers, which are quickly becoming competitive with commodity FDM printers.

If there's a resin printer in your future, then you'll want to swing by the Hack Chat when Andrew Sink visits us. Andrew has been doing a lot of 3D printing stuff in general, and resin printing in particular, over on his YouTube channel lately. We've featured a couple of his tricks and hacks for getting the most from a resin printer, and he'll be sharing some of what he has learned lately. Join us as we discuss the ins and outs of resin printing, what's involved in taking the dive, and the pros and cons of SLA versus FDM.

Our Hack Chats are live community events in the Hackaday.io Hack Chat group messaging. This week we’ll be sitting down on Wednesday, October 13 at 12:00 PM Pacific time. If time zones have you tied up, we have a handy time zone converter.

#hackadaycolumns #3dprinting #elegoo #hackchat #msla #photoploymerization #resin #sla #stereolithography

Making the Most of Your Resin Printer Investment

To the extent that we think of 3D printers as production machines, we tend to imagine huge banks of FDM machines slowly but surely cranking out parts. These printer farms are a sensible way to turn a slow process into a high-volume operation, but it turns out there's a way to do the same thing with only one printer -- as long as you think small.

This one comes to us by way of [Andrew Sink], who recently showed us a neat trick for adding a dash of color to resin printed parts. As with that tip, this one centers around his Elegoo resin printer, which is capable of intricately detailed prints but like any additive process, takes quite a bit of time to finish a print. Luckily, though, the printer uses the MSLA, or masked stereolithography, process, which exposes the entire resin tank to ultraviolet light in one exposure. That means that, unlike FDM printers, it takes no more time to print a dozen models than it does to print one. The upshot of this is that however many models can fit on the MSLA print platform can be printed in the same amount of time it takes to print the part with the most layers. In [Andrew]'s case, 22 identical figurine models were printed in the same three hours it took to print just one copy.

It seems obvious, but sometimes the simplest tips are the best. And the next step is obvious, especially as MSLA printer prices fall: a resin printer farm, with each printer working on dozens of small parts at a time. Such a setup might rival injection molding in terms of throughput, and would likely be far cheaper as far as tooling goes.

#3dprinterhacks #elegoo #msla #production #resin #sla #stereolithography