A new resin-based 3D printer, the LittleSLA, hopes to provide an opensource option for those wanting to get into the high-resolution 3D printing technology.
The LittleSLA has not yet been released; in fact, it hasn’t even had its crowdfunding launch yet, so we don’t know much about it. Here’s what we do know:
- Photocured resin technology
- Build volume of 60 x 40 x 100mm (small, but typical for resin technology)
- Arduino-based electronics
- Use of generic 3D printing resins
- DLP light engine (as opposed to a laser)
The DLP approach means rapid print times, as the DLP light engine can illuminate (and therefore solidify) an entire layer simultaneously. The LittleSLA can apparently print a layer in six seconds, meaning you could print 1mm in 0.05mm layers in only two minutes. Putting it another way, you could print a full height 100mm object in 0.05mm layers in less than 3.5 hours. That’s really fast for a high-resolution print.
The company says:
The LittleSLA was designed to be Hackerspace friendly and easy to self source. Immediately following the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign the LittleSLA bill of materials, laser cutting files, and stl files will be made publicly available and open under a cc-by-nc-sa license.
This is huge news, as it thus provides a reference platform for resin-technology 3D printers that can be used by the public to make and improve. It’s not the first reference platform, as Autodesk announced their “Spark” platform, but it remains to be seen which one will be favored by the opensource community. We suspect ease of use, functional capabilities and price will decide this question over coming months.
In the meantime, we await the LittleSLA Kickstarter launch.
Via LittleSLA