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Additive technologies: family of 3D SLA printers.

In our daily work as mechanical engineers we have been using additive manufacturing for 20 years, during which we have had the opportunity to test nearly all technologies and experience their technological evolution: at the beginning we talked about fast prototyping then, passing through less popular definitions, we got to talk about 3D printing (mass diffusion) and then about additive manufacturing (manufacture in volumes).

With this background and knowledge combined with our complementary technological skills and expertise (mechatronics, process control) and with the help of highly qualified partners where our knowledge was not high enough, we decided to enter this world. In 2012, we started to analyze the market and conduct some preliminary projects and then start designing a family of printers with SLA (stereolithographic) technology at the beginning of 2014.

Why stereolithographic technology? First of all we decided to work with plastics and then we excluded the molten wire technology (FDM®/FFF) considering the high number of competitors that was entering the market. We dropped sintering and polymer jet technologies because we thought the development time would have been too long for us and, in the end, the most suitable technology came out to be SLA.

LED light source + DLP®.

This SLA version of the printer uses a LED light source and through a DLP® projector designs 2D images, obtained by slicing the 3D model, on the bottom of a vat containing resin solidifying it in illuminated areas. A platform, moved by a precision axis, rises above the liquid resin every time a layer is completed. In the end, the platform moves away from the liquid resin allowing the finished object to be discharged.
Using Texas Instrument's DLP® system, the printer is able to solidify at each exposure (a few seconds of duration) the entire resin layer allowing a high printing speed and is able to produce small parts with high resolution.

Learn more about our 3D SLA DLP® printers on this page.

Laser light source.

This version uses a laser source whose beam, through an optical system composed of a galvanometer scanner head and a field lens, draws the 2D profiles obtained by slicing the 3D model on the resin free surface. A platform, moved by a precision axis, supports the various layers printed by lowering in the liquid resin every time a layer is completed. In the end, the platform resurfaces from the liquid resin allowing the finished object to be discharged.
The use of the laser allows to produce large parts with medium-high resolution.


Learn more about our 3D SLA Laser printers on this page.