3D Printing Service with Different Technologies

DLP technology comes from the image projection technology developed by Texas Instruments in the 1980s. This technology applies a set of chipsets based on optical micro-electromechanical mechanism to process light sources to photosensitive resin. The main functional part is a digital micro mirror device (DMD) which consists of a group of micron-sized, controllable mirrors. The mirrors rotate to control the path of light and then project it onto the photosensitive resin.

The projection mirror arrays comes with a large amount from nearly a million mirrors to more than 2 million. On the other hand, the pixel spacing of the micromirror is only a few microns or a dozen microns. The resolution of the DLP printing depends on the projection plane adjusted by DMD and lens. Thus, the DLP printing technique has a relatively high resolution, which is usually at the micron scale.

Furthermore, the printing conditions are mild for cells. In general, the printing process without high temperature, pressure, and shear stress caused by the nozzle is suitable for printing living tissues or organs with little cell damage. When light is projected onto the resin using DLP technology, instead of being restricted to a spot like the laser-assisting 3D printing, the entire layer is printed immediately. Hence, this technology allows fast printing.

SLM

SLS

FDM

SLA

DLP

Aluminum

Stainless Steel

CoCr

Titanium

Nylon

Fiber

Carbon Fiber