Stereolithography

Scanner system

Laser
Laser beam
Layers of solidified resin

Liquid resin

An SLA produced part

Platform and piston

Stereolithography (SLA or SL; also known as optical fabrication, photo-solidication, solid free-form
fabrication, solid imaging and Resin printing) is an
additive manufacturing or 3D printing technology used Stereolithography apparatus
for producing models, prototypes, patterns, and production parts up one layer at a time by curing a photo-reactive
resin with a UV laser or another similar power source.[1] traces a cross-section of the part pattern on the surface
of the liquid resin. Exposure to the ultraviolet laser light
cures and solidies the pattern traced on the resin and
joins it to the layer below.

History

After the pattern has been traced, the SLAs elevator platform descends by a distance equal to the thickness of a
single layer, typically 0.05 mm to 0.15 mm (0.002 in to
0.006 in). Then, a resin-lled blade sweeps across the
cross section of the part, re-coating it with fresh material.
On this new liquid surface, the subsequent layer pattern is
traced, joining the previous layer. A complete 3-D part
is formed by this process. After being built, parts are immersed in a chemical bath in order to be cleaned of excess
resin and are subsequently cured in an ultraviolet oven.

The term stereolithography was coined in 1986 by

Charles (Chuck) W. Hull,[2] who patented it as a method
and apparatus for making solid objects by successively
printing thin layers of an ultraviolet curable material
one on top of the other. Hulls patent described a concentrated beam of ultraviolet light focused onto the surface
of a vat lled with liquid photopolymer. The light beam
draws the object onto the surface of the liquid layer by
layer, and using polymerization or cross-linking to create
a solid, a complex process which requires automation. In
1986, Hull founded the rst company to generalize and
commercialize this procedure, 3D Systems Inc,[3][4][5]
which is currently based in Rock Hill, SC. More recently,
attempts have been made to construct mathematical models of the stereolithography process and design algorithms
to determine whether a proposed object may be constructed by the process.[6]

Stereolithography requires the use of supporting structures which serve to attach the part to the elevator platform, prevent deection due to gravity and hold the cross
sections in place so that they resist lateral pressure from
the re-coater blade. Supports are generated automatically during the preparation of 3D Computer Aided Design models for use on the stereolithography machine,
although they may be manipulated manually. Supports
must be removed from the nished product manually, unlike in other, less costly, rapid prototyping technologies.

Technology

Stereolithography is an additive manufacturing pro- 3 Advantages and disadvantages

cess which employs a vat of liquid ultraviolet curable
photopolymer "resin" and an ultraviolet laser to build One of the advantages of stereolithography is its speed;
parts layers one at a time. For each layer, the laser beam functional parts can be manufactured within a day. The
1

length of time it takes to produce one particular part depends on the size and complexity of the project and can
last from a few hours to more than a day. Most stereolithography machines can produce parts with a maximum size of approximately 505060 cm (202024 in)
and some, such as the Mammoth stereolithography machine (which has a build platform of 2107080 cm),[7]
are capable of producing single parts of more than 2 m in
length. Prototypes made by stereolithography are strong
enough to be machined and can be used as master patterns
for injection molding, thermoforming, blow molding, and
various metal casting processes.
Although stereolithography can produce a wide variety
of shapes, it has often been expensive; the cost of photocurable resin has long ranged from $80 to $210 per liter,
and the cost of stereolithography machines has ranged
from $100,000 to more than $500,000.
Recently, renewed public interest in stereolithography
has inspired the design of several consumer model printers with drastically reduced prices, such as the Ilios HD
by GizmoForYou, the Form 1 by Formlabs, the Titan 1
by Kudo3D, the Pegasus Touch by FSL3D and the Nobel
1.0 by XYZPrinting. There has also been a drastic reduction in the cost of photo-curable resins, with USA based
providers such as MakerJuice Labs oering materials as
low as $55 per liter and European based providers such
as spot-A Materials oering materials for 68 per liter.

See also
Stereolithography (medicine)

References

[1] How Stereolithography Works. THRE3D.com. Retrieved 4 February 2014.

[2] U.S. Patent 4,575,330 (Apparatus for Production of
Three-Dimensional Objects by Stereolithography)
[3] 3D Systems Inc Company Info
[4] Stereolithography
[5] What is Stereolithography?
[6] B. Asberg, G. Blanco, P. Bose, J. Garcia-Lopez, M. Overmars, G. Toussaint, G. Wilfong and B. Zhu, Feasibility
of design in stereolithography, Algorithmica, Special Issue on Computational Geometry in Manufacturing, Vol.
19, No. 1/2, Sept/Oct, 1997, pp. 6183.
[7] Mammoth stereolithography: Technical specications.
materialise.com

EXTERNAL LINKS

6 Notes
Kalpakjian, Serope and Steven R. Schmid. Manufacturing Engineering and Technology 5th edition.
Ch. 20 (pp. 586587 Pearson Prentice Hall. Upper
Saddle River NJ, 2006.

7 External links
Ilios modular 3d Printer by GizmoForYou with industrial grade motion, fully metallic construction
and highly accurate repeatability rates
Super Precise Kudo3D Titan 1 SLA 3D Printer Hits
Kickstarter on May 27 Starting at $1899
Pegasus Touch by FSL3D Laser SLA 3D Printer:
Low cost, High Quality on Kickstarter
Formlabs Form 1 a low cost Stereolithography
printer being designed and fabricated as a Kickstarter project
How Stereolithography (3-D Layering) Works from
HowStuWorks.com
Rapid Prototyping and Stereolithography animation
Animation demonstrates stereolithography and the
actions of an SL machine
Video of micro-stereolithography for biomedical
applications

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Stereolithography Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereolithography?oldid=652692219 Contributors: Eloquence, Bryan Derksen,

Ronz, BenFrantzDale, Khalid hassani, Alves, Mike Rosoft, Pmsyyz, ArnoldReinhold, Mofochickamo, Alansohn, DV8 2XL, Je3000,
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Images

File:Edit-clear.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg License: Public domain Contributors: The

Tango! Desktop Project. Original artist:
The people from the Tango! project. And according to the meta-data in the le, specically: Andreas Nilsson, and Jakub Steiner (although
minimally).
File:SLA_produced_part.JPG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/SLA_produced_part.JPG License: CC
BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Wizard191
File:Stereolithography_apparatus_vector.svg Source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Stereolithography_
apparatus_vector.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: File:Stereolithography apparatus.jpg Original artist: User:Materialgeeza

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