you guys seen this? http://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2015/03/19/3d-printing-clip-f ast-orig.cnn more at carbon3d.com check out the ted talk there.
oops, didn't see that. one thing I like is the no more print lines right off the press so-to-speak. now if they could only do this with metal, I'm a buyer
Yeah, the no print line aspect is AMAZING! We'll be able to print jewelry designs in resin compatible with burnout and lost wax casting and not have to spend countless hours under inspection microscope grinding away to remove print lines. There are still print lines, but they are so fine that for all practical purposes they are nonexistent.
Very cool, but it looks like it would have a problem with parts sticking up that are attached below the current print layer. You'd need sprues for support of each part until they join the main body.
I'm creating small model parts so the less spruage the better. I go out of my way to place sprue attachment points where they can be trimmed off without affecting the visible surface and eliminate the need to carefully sand sprue stubs off. So my initial excitement at this fast finely finished tech wore off quickly. Some parts of mine would look like a forest of sprue trees. Too bad this is still a layer approach, maybe in the future they can create a part in a vat of liquid resin that also acts as a support. With smart software that could minimize strata by buildup in a non-2D way. Possibly via magnetic flux capacitor fields working at a molecular level. *cough*
Correct... and it has not stopped many producers of miniatures. Fixing some contact points, which with some planning are in low visibility zones and for sure smaller than those from casting resin copies, is a lot less work than fixing "poor" surface detail all over the model.
Like preassembled action figures or ball-joint dolls? Probably. But if they can be printed separate, no more problems than others manufacturing methods. SLA is part of the big digital push behind many miniature related products of recent years, including tiny things like 6mm infantry (and past year someone printed a dropship with working doors for them); products aren't mentioned at SW because SW doesn't offer the system.
Yeah, the support attachment points can be made so fine that they are not that big of a problem when it comes to surface imperfections, although supports sometimes need to be inside the part and this can lead to situations where they cannot be removed very easily or sometimes not at all.