Summary Draft #1 +Thesis

The webpage “Guide to Stereolithography” from Formlabs (2015) introduces the Stereolithography (SLA) technology. Stereolithography, also referred to as vat photopolymerization or more simply resin 3D printing, is an additive manufacturing technique that uses a focused light source to polymerize a photoinitiated liquid resin into a solid. The SLA may be classified as the most widely used Rapid Prototyping (RP) method largely because it has many advantages when compared with other 3D printing methods. Advantages such as higher precision and resolution (like 1 μm for MicroSLA and 10 μm for SLA as compared to 100 μm for Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) another type of 3D printing technology) and complex internal structures in the made parts (Gardan, 2015). Yet, like any other technology, it has its short comings, which will be presented later. The main disadvantages include the very limited range of photopolymerisable materials available, their relatively high price and possibly the requirement of additional steps after the fabrication process, to enhance the physical characteristics or extract excess uncured materials. (Martinez et al., 2018).

The Stereolithography Resin 3D Printer is the most popular in the market due to its ability to produce high-resolution prototypes and its cost-benefit ratio is high.

References

Formlabs (2015). Guide to Stereolithography (SLA) 3D Printing. Formlabs. https://formlabs.com/asia/blog/ultimate-guide-to-stereolithography-sla-3d-printing/

Gardan, J. (2015). Additive manufacturing technologies: state of the art and trends. International Journal of Production Research, 54(10), 3118–3132. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2015.1115909‌

‌Robles Martinez, P., Basit, A.W., Gaisford, S. (2018). The History, Developments and Opportunities of Stereolithography. In: Basit, A., Gaisford, S. (eds) 3D Printing of Pharmaceuticals. AAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Series, vol 31. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90755-0_4