Photocentric has recently introduced two new desktop 3D printers, the Liquid Crystal Pro and Liquid Crystal Precision.
Both machines are based on the photopolymer/resin process, in which liquid resin is selectively solidified by exposure to certain wavelengths of light.
This makes much sense, because Photocentric is actually a major manufacturer of photopolymer resin, one of the largest five such suppliers in the world today. They know a great deal about photopolymers, as their materials are actually what is sold by many resin 3D printer manufacturers. They explain:
We now have 17 chemists and engineers working on 3D research, 6 of them with PhD’s and are investing further in R&D to offer the widest range of resins.
But in the past two years the company has decided to produce their own desktop 3D printers (using resin, of course), in order to promote the use of their product line. Starting with the Liquid Crystal HR, the company now boasts three different models.
The Liquid Crystal Pro was announced previously, but is only now becoming available. It’s a rather large resin machine, having a build volume of 470 x 240 x 340mm, and currently priced at £3,700 (USD$4,800).
The latest development is a small machine, the new Liquid Crystal Precision, which has a build volume of only 123 x 69 x 160mm. While this may seem small, it is ideal for those designing jewelry or fashion items: they are small and require very high detail. It’s to be priced at only £799 (USD$1,030).
Both machines use an LCD panel as the light engine for photopolymerization. I’m told they use relatively low energy, so the resin print tanks do not wear out as fast as occurs on most other resin-based desktop 3D printers.
Via Photocentric
