The resins seem to be UV cured polyurethane or similar. Polyurethanes have a wide range of physical properties. There are "ABS-like" resins that are very structural. I believe hockey pucks are made of polyurethane. The resin printed parts are dense and impact resistant. One good choice for a structural resin is Siraya Blu, available in translucent light blue or clear. Most of the resins can be mixed, even between different companies, to fine tune the physical properties. As an example, I printed some little bars that are 5mm X 30mm X 60mm from a generic gray resin that isn't considered to be one of the structural resins. I'd need some tools to damage it. If I tried to break it with my hands, I'd only hurt myself.
I'd been waiting for resin printers to decrease in price and for the parts to be structural rather than "looks like" prototypes and fragile miniature figurines. It happened while I wasn't watching and was a pleasant surprise. We're suddenly seeing structural parts from resin printers appearing everywhere. Here's another advantage over FDM parts - resin printed parts are solid so they can be used to make fittings and manifolds for compressed air or liquids. The flexible resin is very flexible but it has a slow return to its original shape. I have an application that needs a fast rebound, so I'll be using the FDM printers to print those parts from TPU filament. There are plenty of YouTube MSLA videos, and the resins are for sale on Amazon if you'd like to read some customer reviews. My only down side to resin printing is washing the uncured resin from the parts, rinsing them and UV post curing the parts. It's a bit of a hassle but worth it if you want strong parts printed at high resolution. On 6/3/20 6:48 PM, Chris Albertson wrote: > On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 1:05 PM Bruce Layne <linux...@thinkingdevices.com> > wrote: > >> You might consider a resin printer for your high precision smaller >> parts. The MSLA machines are very inexpensive... no where near FormLabs >> prices. > > I didn't know these had dropped in price so far. > > What resin choices are available for these MSLA printers? What are the > mechanical properties of the resins? Maybe there is a good article on > this? One advantage of Formlabs is resin selection. But maybe these same > resins work in the low cost MSLA printer? > > Things I'd like to print are would need a tough semi-compliant plastic I'm > experimenting with robot gripper. One is an anthropomorphic hand that was > actually designed as a prosthetic for amputees. > https://openbionicslabs.com/shop/brunel-hand The other is a pure robot > design. Both are Open Source and all the CAD files are available. > Something like this > https://www.eng.yale.edu/grablab/openhand/model_q.html#about > <https://www.eng.yale.edu/grablab/openhand/model_q.html#about> > _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
