Hi
Does anyone know what the xy resolution of the form2 is?
Isn’t the XY resolution the thickness of the laserbeam (140micron). Still, wall thickness won’t be much different. 300-400 microns for workable parts (no wavy surfaces).
Don’t think so, the DWS Xfab claims minimum feature size of 80um, Kudo 3d Titan claims 250um and the form1+ was supppsedly 300um.
Minimum feature size and resolution are two very different things.
Pretend you’re holding a cookie-cutter. The cookie cutter inner diameter is the feature size. Resolution is the precision of your hand movements.
You can cut out a cookie that’s at least the size of the cookie cutter, but you can cut two of them side by side as closely together as your hand-eye coordination allows.
With lasers and resin the situation is inverse - the cookie cutter (laser) “adds” material, not removes it. The smallest positive feature (bump) you can print is 140 microns (laser focus width). But the smallest minimum negative feature (hole) you can print is smaller than that and depends on a variety of factors, one of them being the galvo resolution.
Galvo resolution for Form2 is (not yet?) known. For Form1 it was 15-25 microns, depending on distance from center.
6 Likes
Yeah, the X/Y resolution is based off how small the galvo motors can turn, it’s very very small so in the X/Y dimension you will not see any stepping
So basically, the thinnest wall you can print would be 140 microns and the thinnest hole you can print would be 15-25 microns? To summarise @Ante_Vukorepa’s message and confirm @Zachary_Brackin’s message?
That sounds right, but remember that the light will scatter into the resin so holes will be smaller than what you design because of increased light exposure beyond where the laser is directly hitting.
1 Like
@Ante_Vukorepa that’s the clearest description of minimum feature size vs resolution I’ve heard in a long time!
1 Like
I second that, nice analogy.
Yes, the actual smallest hole size is much larger than the resolution, due to a lot of factors. Ditto for hole size in general, compared to designed hole size.
It’s not just due to scatter, but quantization from slicing, then, if it’s a (vertically) diagonal hole, due to stair-stepping along the Z axis etc.
Still, the minimum hole size, for simple, shallow holes, is likely much smaller than 140 microns.
This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.