Build Your Own SLA/SLS

HI Henry,

Looks like you were onto something with this blogpost: http://projectsinterestsandetcetera.com ... y-could-be

A company called carbon3d just announced their "revolutionary" 3d printer today. It's basically a SLS/SLA/DLP printer that is orders of magnitudes faster than the rest.
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20150317- ... nting.html

What's the secret? An Oxygen permeable basin floor. They use a sheet of Teflon AF which is being supplied by a constant pressurized air. The patent explains this in detail: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20140361463.pdf

I'm not sure if this patent will hinder development in this field now. The other drawback is that Teflon AF costs a staggering 1800$/25gr

There's no pressurized air, only a 0.06 mm sheet of Teflon AF, tensioned by a tension ring right from the drawings on this forum

The sheet itself is so much gas permeable that it allows for a constant layer of uncured resin on the vat floor. And since it is rigid when tensioned, it has no glass/acrylic support underneath it, allowing the sheet to "never run out of oxygen".
It also allows the Z axis ballscrew to spin continuously at a rate of 20 microns per second, therefore giving the impression of "constant" printing, without any Z retraction whatsoever. Projector still projects slices every 10 microns, for 0.5 seconds.

And the price for a 192x108 mm 50 micron sheet would be 124.50$ for a DIY sheet, if possible, so not that much at all. Especially considering it would render most of other expensive metal components completely unnecessary, since Teflon AF requires absolutely no force for release.

I don't know how they got the patents, and what exactly is patented, but it in no way prevents us from discussing and building machines like it for our personal usage.

Didn't know that. But still, the only proprietary piece here is the Teflon AF, which is already a patented product in itself.

Using that in our existing dlp and lcd machines, with existing open source software... I don't see a problem even when speaking theoretically.

Especially when the patent closes by saying they solved the problem of sticking forces, by using a gas permeable material. Which is , afaik, first used on the B9 creator.

Except the b9 creator wasn't using the oxygen inhibition effect to speed printing. Thats the trick.