As the earliest 3D printing technology, photocured 3D printing is not as popular or sold as its successor, FDM(fusion deposition molding technology). Let’s talk about the advantages of 3D printing that use light curing 3D printing technology over FDM.

First of all, let’s talk about the principle. Light curing 3D printing is different from FDM. Light curing is a top-down printing method, and the printing method is mainly laser and projection light curing.

At present, the mainstream light curing in the market is basically based on DLP and LCD, and the size of the print is much smaller than FDM, usually for home desktop level and teaching professional level. SLP, on the other hand, is laser light curing. Most of them are large industrial-grade equipment. Although the printing size is large enough, the accuracy is not as good as that of DLP and LCD.

But in the printing speed, the light curing printing speed is much faster than FDM, this speed is not only reflected in the printing of a single object, light curing as long as the printing platform is large enough, no matter how many pieces, the printing is basically the same, the time consumed is the same, which is incomparable to FDM.

The second is the precision of printing. Compared with the accuracy of FDM, the current market common precision is about 0.1mm, while light curing can easily reach 0.01mm. Therefore, users who have requirements regarding the smoothness and fineness of printing objects are advised to use the light-curing 3D printer.

But does not say that light curing 3D printing is better than FDM, in addition to the above-mentioned light curing 3D printed unless it is industrial equipment, the size of the general equipment is small, and if frequent use, light curing parts should be frequently replaced, such as light curing exposure screen, release film, etc.

At the same time, since the main consumables used in light curing are photosensitive resins, this leads to a series of post-processing after printing the object.

Even if the above comparison of FDM and light curing, whether FDM or light curing, although all say 3D printing technology, the application field is different. For example, prototypes that require less precision are more suitable for 3D printing using FDM.

For example, dental, jewelry, hand office, assembly equipment parts, and other industries have high requirements for printing size and precision, it is recommended to use light-curing 3D printing.