This topic contains 14 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by Yago 4 months, 2 weeks ago.
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Looks interesting and its good to see a british company involved in this space.
But…
Im not sure what they are talking about with LCD screens that emit daylight. Surely they mean visible light because real daylight on a sunny day will cure the normal UV resin easily.
How do they focus the image on the print surface. This will probably limit the accuracy significantly.
There are very few example prints on the webpage. Some are from conventional DLP printers, but those using thr daylight resin looked significantly worse quality.
Yes I have one on order, should receive it in January.
I saw it in action at the NEC earlier this year. The screen sits flat in the base of the unit and the transparent resin bath covers the screen. the screen displays the section as a white on black image, this cures the resin. The main carriage then move up the required distance taking the cured resin with it and allowing more in underneath to repeat the process.
We’re adding it to our range of equipment for use with flexible and transparent materials rather than the Robox which is good at most things but not transparent or soft flexible parts.
Chris
I’ve not got any samples myself but the parts I saw at the TCT exhibition were very good.
I’ll let you know how I get on once it arrives.
Chris.
Has anyone got their hands on this printer?
It’s mentioned the xy resolution is 220 micron (0.22mm) in the spec. Seems rather large to me. Is it really so?
Build platform size: 200x100x200(H) mm; I guess that’s the size limit of the print. Right?
My friend bought a UV-resin printer acouple years ago. He said he couldn’t get the resin shipped because it’s regarded as toxin and couldn’t be shipped international freight (unless after a heap of paper works I think). Is it still true about this shipping restriction for UV and daylight resins? Or my friend just mis-understood something.
I’ve just had notification from the courier company, it arrives sometime between 2 and 3 this afternoon.
as the Robox is in for a well earned service this gives me something to play with and the time to get used to it.
I’ll report back once I start to get parts off.
Chris.
I’ve had it two days now. The first evening was spent setting it up. Nowhere near as easy and straight forward as the Robox. On top of the software and USB drivers you have to connect a second video output to it, which means messing around with cables and adapters. Then you have to configure your pc to see it as a second monitor and set the screen resolution - if you don’t get this right the image on the printer screen is distorted or not to scale. The little screen on the printer uses an odd aspect ratio too - 1024 x 600. This has to be set up as a custom profile. So connecting, configuring the screen, setting up the software so the PC will talk to the printer etc. took until late on Monday. so first print was yesterday.
There were problems (mainly me 🙂 ) I put in the wrong profile and over exposed the resin slightly but all in all I was quite impressed. Her indoors was very impressed as when printing it’s totally silent. Back to overnight printing 🙂 then.
Due to the nature of the beast it’s quite messy to use with plenty of paper towel and newspaper a must. There is also post processing required on the prints. The excess resin has to be washed off your model thoroughly with warm soapy water you then have to leave the model in cold water on a window sill or other bright place to post cure the resin otherwise it stays sticky. there is also the cleaning of the equipment after. So for someone who’s used to click the filament on press go, print, and at the end wait for the bed to cool and remove the model, all this comes as a bit of a shock. However I do think its worth the money and hassle, the unit is beautifully made and the quality of the prints is exceptionally good with very little layer visibility at 0.1mm, and there are profiles available down to 0.05 or 0.025mm which I’m looking forward to trying.
Another plus is the speed. Depending on the resin used this is around 21-28 seconds a layer no matter how big the model. So print time is only a fraction of the Robox for big prints.
Transparent parts are really transparent (see picture). I haven’t tried the soft and flexible material yet so can’t comment.
So is this a replacement for the Robox? No. I cant see myself getting rid of the Robox or using it any less. The convenience factor is far too good. I can knock out prototype parts to a good standard with no hassle. However I think I’ll use the Photocentric printer for more specialised parts or parts where I need a flawless finish.
all in all a good addition to the workshop.
Chris
@muttleysdad I was wondering how you are getting along with your Photocentric 3D printer. I ordered one just under a month ago and I’m told that it’s arriving tomorrow. I’m currently making a dedicated space in my house for 3D printing and also tidying up for a relative visit, so I won’t be experimenting for a couple of weeks yet. However this is all exciting in the continuing development of 3D printing. I’m not expecting an easy ride, not because of known problems but simply because everything has a learning curve. It’s not intended to be a replacement for the Robox, it’s a companion.
Hi
I’m getting on with it ok, bearing in mind I’ve only used it about half a dozen times at the moment.
I’ve had some nice prints of it in the flexible material. I’ve still to get the settings right to run the hard material but not really had time or the room to play with it properly, the house is a bit of a building site at the moment. I cant wait to get the new workshop built to give me more room to play.
The Photocentric forum is very good too for solving problems. Its a little like this one whatever problem you have someone else has been there first and has the solution. The staff at Photocentric are quick to respond too.
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