We manufacture very detailed parts 6 - 8 per platform that are almost impossible to double expose due to the accuracy required in the finished part. It would be really helpful to make a feature that allows you to layout your parts with supports and then be able to click a button that will simply tell the machine to double expose.
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What do you mean? The printer doesn’t have any option to double expose and you wouldn’t want to anyway since that will change the print quality.
What I mean is that I want the option to double expose. At the moment the only way to do it is to orient the part with supports, make a duplicate and drag it precisely over the first one. It has the effect of making the part more rigid and if done tight has no effect on accuracy. The problem with manually doing it is the time it takes to get the copy part exactly in the right place. Hence my request for a software development to do it automatically if required
Double exposure will slightly improve the mechanical properties of your parts but a better option might be to post-cure after printing. Multiplying exposure will complete more photo-initiator reactions during printing, but UV curing your part after printing will do the same thing with higher efficacy and in less time. You should notice that the mechanical properties after UV curing are superior to the same part even after double exposing.
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If you really want it, just drag two pieces with the same orientation to one corner and they overlap.
That being said, don’t bother doing double exposure. Just post cure. It will save you some PDMS wear too.
If you do it that way it would affect the quality of the print.
Undersides of prints always end up with light bleeding through the layers, and with resins that have pigment the laser will bounce off the particles in the resin and cure extra material around where the light hits which makes the details not as sharp. By increasing the exposure it will make these issues worse. It could also cause the print to fail.
Thanks for the ideas. The parts are very thin and fragile. I post cure for 2 hours in an industrial light box supplied by the form labs reseller. The reason for my wanting to double expose is because form labs themselves told me to as it would make the the parts more rigid. What I need is a quick way to achieve this in pre form. I will try the dragging to the corner option.
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I feel like I learned a really cool idea from you @morky181. Never thought about double exposing parts…I assume that’s what happens with base layers, which are overcured. It will probably increase wear on your resin tank overtime, but yeah a good workaround would be to use the corners. Make sure to alternate corners to maximize life!
I am going to assume you are using a Form 2 because if you were using a Form 1+, someone here would have had pointed you to look into OpenFL.
If the typical over exposure thickens the models by ~.5mm, why not just thicken your walls by …5mm? This will strengthen your models with thicker walls and give you the outside dimensions you would get without over exposing your models.
…unless you really only want to over expose the inside hatching while only exposing the perimeter with a single pass. That would be really cool for thin walled models… I wonder if I can do this with OpenFL…
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