Interesting, well known brand, so potentially good quality, though that build area is small, even for an SLA/DLP…
Originally shared by 3ders.org
Zortrax enters resin 3D printing market with Zortrax Inkspire 3D printer
3ders.org - Zortrax enters resin 3D printing market with Zortrax Inkspire 3D printer | 3D Printer News & 3D Printing News #3dprinting
Tiny build volume, no automatic resin refilling (or miss I something?)…
Since it is a bit limited in some ways, will it be a cheap option?
I am afraid there is a lot of cheap options from Asia. What profi users of affordable SLA and DLP desktop printers are seeking out are reliability and user friendliness. Nobody (except fans and hobby printer builders) wants to handle with liquid resins in common bottles and check if the tank is filled enough. (That’s why I was searching if Zortrax built in any automatic resin refilling functionality.)
Having used a Form 2, I can confirm that no one wants to handle resin manually! @Duncan_Gunn seems not, I saw $2699 somewhere, which is really not that far from the Form 2.
@Jon_Gritton I have the same experience with Form 2. The reliability of that printer is very pleasing. (Before it, desktop SLA machines barely have 2/3 ratio of completed prints.)
@Tomas_Vit oddly, mine must have been a lemon. After about 5 months use I was getting constant cartridge/tray errors. FormLabs tried to fix it and couldn’t so I got a full refund. It’s a shame as the prints were superb but it’s made me wary of that machine. I keep hoping they’ll announce a Form 3 with a more reliable method of detection.
@Tomas_Vit I will at some point. There was so much I liked about the Form 2, the ease of using the materials (no more settings), the quality of the prints, the software (both machine & online). It was a breath of fresh air compared to FDM, right up to the point where it started to cost me a fortune in failed prints…
@Jon_Gritton i don’t like the idea of handling liquid resin manually, but I don’t have oodles of cash either.
Not being terribly familiar with resin printers I see more opportunities and fewer problems until someone kindly points them out to me.
@Duncan_Gunn Resin is more expensive and it’s not particularly fun to deal with in terms of post processing and clean-up.
You’re also very limited in terms of material options compared to FFF. Build size is also limited compared to most FFF machines.
The reason you would want a resin printer is because you can get incredible detail/resolution.
@Taylor_Landry1 Indeed the detail is the appeal! I have several FFF printers (all home made) and I keep seeing awesome prints coming from resin printers. I kinda get that resin printers use messy nasty chemicals but just how messy and how nasty isn’t exactly clear to me yet.
IMHO do not get SLA(/DLP) as a substitute for FDM/FFF printer (especially multimaterial one). Both methods have different cons and pros. And they work very well also together on the same profi projects.
They aren’t that ‘nasty’ in terms of danger. They can irritate some people’s skin, and you don’t want to be breathing it in or ingesting it, but nitrile gloves and common sense is all the PPE you need.
The mess, though, can suck. Most resins are not water soluble, so cleanup requires lots of alcohol and you’ve essentially got to cure anything before disposing of it.
Well Zortrax being proprietary wouldn’t be as much of a problem when going against FormLabs but at least FormLabs is a known quantity in the space.
@Duncan_Gunn the resin has two main pains. #1 - Finished prints are still coated with uncured resin and to post-process them you need to get them from the machine to the cleaning station/area. If you’re careful that’s not that big a problem, but just a couple of drips leaves a very sticky surface and if you don’t notice them the resin will transfer to fingers, clothes, etc.
#2 is much more an issue. You buy resin in bottles or cartridges but it needs to be in the print tray to be used, so it’s all about how it gets from the bottle to the tray and, more importantly, how do you deal with the trays that have resin in them? You really need a dedicated tray for each resin, so you’ve got to store them somewhere flat and safe. When a tray reaches the end of its life (possibly less than 2L of fluid later), you’ve got to drain out the unused resin and dispose of the tray somehow.
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