Flexvat V5, the best of both worlds.

Forum dedicated to discussion and technical support centered around the LittleRP affordable, open source 3D resin printer.
HTL
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2014 3:19 pm
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Re: Flexvat V5, the best of both worlds.

Postby HTL » Wed Apr 05, 2017 1:00 pm

I am pretty much done with testing the vat and things look really good. The vents in the acrylic support plate plus the slight thickness of the tape along the edge of the vents successfully maintain a very thin film of air between the acrylic and the FEP film and make the peel characteristics of the vat almost as good as that of a drumhead vat under many conditions. The thin layer of air keeps the FEP film from sticking to the acrylic plate and the vents allow the FEP film to bulge upwards when needed to aid peeling.

The first eiffel tower in the photo was printed using the v5 vat with .1mm layers and .063mm x and y resolution, the second tower was printed with 0.05 layers and .0.63 xy resolution, they are both 100mm tall (the .063 xy resolution is a compromise resolution on my test rig since I am also testing other vats, if I have time this week I will run some tests at .025mm xyz resolution and post the results.). The surface finish of the parts I have printed has been very good and I have had no print failures when using 2 build plate attachment layers exposed for 30 second each. The outer handrail at the first platform of the .1 layer thickness eiffel tower did pull away but I don't consider that much a failure since the bars holding up the railing were hair thin 0.07mm diameter rods (about 1 dlp pixel in size) and they did in fact print, the inner hand rail printed ok.

The photo of the disassembled vat show the main components: top plate/vatwall, base plate with molded in threaded inserts (no more spinning threaded inserts), acrylic FEP support plate with tape and vents, snap in retainer for mounting the support plate, printed mounting thumb nuts (or screws depending on the printer). Not shown are misc bolts, gaskets and FEP film (the gaskets and FEP film are the same as those used on the drumhead vat). The vat can be mounted to the LittleRP, LittleRP2 using 2 or 4 mounting points or custom printers.

I should have the v5 vat kit available at flexvat.com next week sometime, the kit will come with the components described above, any needed mounting hardware, 4 laser cut FEP windows, 4 laser cut gaskets, a spare acrylic FEP support plate and spare snap in retainer. I have not determined the cost for the kit yet but it will be comparable to the v4 vat.

Image

0.1mm z, .063mm xy, printed straight
Image

.05mm z, .063xy, printed angled 6 degrees
Image

HTL

cerriousdesign
Posts: 57
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Re: Flexvat V5, the best of both worlds.

Postby cerriousdesign » Wed Apr 05, 2017 4:17 pm

:o :o :o That looks amazing!

dangre
Posts: 116
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Location: SW Michigan
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Re: Flexvat V5, the best of both worlds.

Postby dangre » Fri Apr 07, 2017 10:32 am

Awesome design!!! Well executed!!!
Dan - mUVe 1 DLP

HTL
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2014 3:19 pm
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Re: Flexvat V5, the best of both worlds.

Postby HTL » Tue Apr 18, 2017 9:56 am

I should have the new vat available over at flexvat.com later this week, I'm finishing up on the "other" stuff that needed to be done: photography, instruction sheets, packaging etc.

In the mean time check out the write up on how the vat works:

I printed this on a larger version of the vat:
Model:
140mm long without supports, .05mm layers, wt. 86g, makerjuice sf, took about 10 hrs to print
Note: the line about 2/3 the way up from the base was caused by me bumping the build plate while adding resin to the vat
Image

hirenashra
Posts: 59
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Re: Flexvat V5, the best of both worlds.

Postby hirenashra » Sun May 07, 2017 6:40 am


cerriousdesign
Posts: 57
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Re: Flexvat V5, the best of both worlds.

Postby cerriousdesign » Mon May 08, 2017 1:03 am

I also keep checking every day to see if the Flexvat 5 is available yet. Keep us in the know when its ready.

HTL
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2014 3:19 pm
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Re: Flexvat V5, the best of both worlds.

Postby HTL » Wed Jun 21, 2017 5:07 pm

I finally have the new vat available over at flexvat.com.
Image

Assembly instructions:


HTL


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