What is the lifespan of a SLA Resin Tray?
As far as I know resin trays have a Teflon coat that allows prints to stick to the build plate easier than the resin tray but this Teflon coat wears over time.
I am new to the SLA scene and am currently troubleshooting a Draken Facture and trying to hone in my setting but my print keep sticking to the bottom of the resin vat.
How often should these trays be swapped out to allow for smooth printing?
@TomvanderZanden the printer is a Facture Draken
Yes that is exactly correct. That's probably a good answer all in itself since it is going to be dependent on the manufacturer. I was hoping to get some insight from people with various makes and models to know how they compare, and what to expect.
It depends on tray and resin type you are using.
PDMS
If you are using PDMS (eg. sylgard 184) coating for your tray. (B9 and similar printers using this type of tray).
Life of tray PDMS coating depends mainly on:
- How long you print without breathing floor.
- How reactive is your resin.
You could get 2 3 prints up to 15 20 prints.
It is suitable for printing delicate pieces.
FEP
Large number of manufacturers using FEP.
Life of tray largely depends on.
- Thickness of FEP
- Piece sizes and movement speed during early layers.
Usually you could use same tray for couple of hundreds of prints.
Optical quality is not comparable to other alternatives but without human error factor you could get almost unlimited prints. Delicate pieces require tough resin.Teflon
It is halfway between PDMS and FEP.
There are other tray alternatives:
- Envision uses special glass you could print on average 50 prints.
- Carbon 3D uses super expensive oxygen-permeable window.
License under CC-BY-SA with attribution
Content dated before 7/24/2021 11:53 AM
Tom van der Zanden 5 years ago
What specific printer/vat?