Uniz Announces Slash 2 Series Ultra-Fast 3D Printers

San Diego-based Uniz announced two new high speed desktop 3D printers, the Slash 2 series.

The company has been around since 2014, and we’ve met with them several times to see their incredibly fast resin-based 3D printer, the Slash. This machine is most notable because of its ability to 3D print objects at a very rapid speed.

Most resin 3D printers undergo a tedious “peel process” to rip the fresh layer off the bottom of the transparent resin tank, because the solidification process tends to bond the solidified resin not only to the previous layer, but also to the tank surface! This causes a significant slow-down in printing speed.

Several vendors have overcome this problem through ingenious solutions. The most complex would be Carbon’s, which involves a specially designed tank bottom that inhibits bonding due to oxygen reactions. Uniz’s solution is actually quite simple: they have developed a non-stick surface coating, so no adhesion occurs. This allows them to print a full speed, which in their case is an astonishing 1200mm per hour in what they call “cUDP mode”. This is significantly faster than typical resin 3D printers that run around 50mm per hour.

The new machines are the Slash 2 and the Slash 2J. They are basically identical with two major differences.

The Slash 2 has a build volume of 192 x 120 x 200 mm, with a XY pixel resolution of 0.0495mm, whereas the Slash 2J has a smaller build volume of 127 x 71 x 200 mm, but a finer resolution of only 0.0328mm. This is simply because the 2J has focused the LED light panel’s pixels on a smaller surface area, margin the pixels correspondingly smaller.

The other difference is that only the Slash 2 is able to operate in cUDP mode at high speed. The Slash 2J presumably does not include the fancy adhesion solution, and would require longer print times.

It seems to me that the Slash 2J is targeted at smaller jewelers, who require high resolution, but not a very large build volume. The Slash 2 would be best for other applications. However, Uniz says that it’s possible to produce a single 3D print job containing up to 376 rings on this device. Impressive, particularly if it is done at high speed. The Slash 2 may be best for larger operations requiring more throughput.

Both machines are set for delivery in July 2019, according to current company estimates. The Slash 2 is priced for pre-order at US$4,599.

Via Uniz