Resin performance in outdoors/cold

General Discussion
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Often times the parts we’re prototyping have to be used in an outdoor environment. Low temperatures (below 10°C and up to -10°C) are a part of that environment for us and it’s essential that the part can perform as you’d expect across the operating conditions. The part’s function can range from just being able to endure static loads, to enduring dynamic shock loads and snap-fitting or deforming for a fit.

While the V2 Tough announcements sound great, what’s holding us back from putting SLA parts in practical use is the poor performance of resin in colder temperatures. What we’ve done after printing our test parts is a simple refrigerator/freezer test to see how they act when they are cold and it’s a completely different world.

I get that there are inherent limitations to materials (the resin being based on methylacrylate) and what use cases you can/can’t do with SLA materials and technology. However, I’d like to hear how other users have approached these aspects and update my perspective on SLA and what’s realistic :slight_smile:

  • How do you approach use of resin parts for outdoors? If you have any comments on UV, that would be great as well.
  • What are your experiences with using Formlabs resins in colder environments?
1 Like
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Hi!
Thanks for your questions!
We don’t currently have testing data on this in our TDSs, but we know that some customers use Formlabs materials at low temperatures without any problems.
Like you mentioned, resins become more brittle at lower temperatures, meaning they’ll have a higher modulus and lower elongation. We also recommend to avoid thermal shock, since that could cause cracks. Generally, however, customer experience shows that a lot of materials perform well even at extreme low temperatures.
For an example on this, check our our user story where Tough 1000 Resin is used at freezing temperatures.