SLA printers

SLA

— one of the types of 3D printing based on the use of photopolymer resins — liquid materials that harden when exposed to light. The light source in this case is a laser, and printing is carried out as follows. In the container filled with photopolymer, there is a movable platform. At the beginning of the process, the platform surface is at a depth of one layer (about 0.1 mm ± 0.05 mm). The laser traces the contours of this layer on the surface of the resin, causing the material to harden; the platform is then dipped to the depth of another layer, and the process is repeated until the product is finished. (The opposite movement of the platform is also possible — from the bottom up, this option has no fundamental differences).

The main advantage of SLA is the highest accuracy, which allows using this technology even in dentistry and jewelry. At the same time, the speed of such printing is quite high, and modern photopolymers are very diverse; in finished form, they can imitate various materials (plastic, rubber, etc.). On the other hand, consumables for such printing are quite expensive, and the printers themselves are complex and expensive — despite the fact that the recently appeared DLP technology (see the relevant paragraph) allows you to create more affordable devices with the same advantages. However, SLA is still quite popular.