There’s a new contender in the prosumer UV printer world up on Kickstarter, the HeyGears G1. This one’s particularly interesting as they’re explicitly marketing it as being able to produce full-color 3D prints along with the “print-on-anything” functionality we’ve come to expect from a UV flatbed printer.
You get two choices of bed, with the larger being 420 mm x 320 mm x 130 mm. Hardly the largest build volume we’ve seen around here. You can fill that with up to 6 KG of UV ink/resin from its Epson-brand head in glorious full color and layers as small as 10 um. The ink isn’t super cheap — the CMYK kit looks to MRSP at 189 USD — but you aren’t locked in to expensive cartridges at least. HayGears sells ink in bottles, and you’re free to grab any other brand’s bottles if you want to risk it.
The Kickstarter is ongoing, and it will be some time before backers get their printers. But we can report that the early review copies, like the one [Steve Makes Everything] got for the video embedded below, seem to live up to the manufacturer’s claims, which is promising indeed. Certainly the idea of SLA quality without the mess is very appealing to many — though the super-early-bird price of two grand on Kickstarter and the doubtless higher MRSP may temper some of that interest.
If you’re curious about this UV printer business and why a maker might want one that doesn’t do 3D, our own [Tom Nardi] went hands-on with the EufyMake E1 last year.
Instead of the ribbon of tubing connecting the tanks to a moving print head, one can omit the tubing altogether.
It may be replaced with small (~1mL) working reservoirs in the print head assembly.
The print head then periodically parks in one or more positions where it mates with a refill adapter that tops off the working reservoirs. Only the adapters of depleted inks / resins may engage to minimize wear.
The adapters may themselves be consumables and function e.g. like blood collection adapters (where a needle punctures its closed-end sleeve and then the container septum cap, finally retracting through elastomer again to minimize seepage).
The principle is described in expired patents like US20040215107A1, EP0750882A1 but ubiquitous(1).
As it takes hours to print 10-20 mL, the tool-changer-like park-and-refill intervals seem insignificant. Most of the concern ought to be about adapter wear. Chemical bottle caps come in silicone, PTFE, butyl rubber and other materials and unlike GC / blood analysis containers, they see a lot more use in the lab, with needles re-inserted into an existing puncture. The needle-sided sleeves may be a weak point. But then one could argue that dispensing via peristaltic pumps allows pulling ink back into the refill adapter and applying suction during unmating.
If not to control spills, a black elastomer sleeve will at least keep light from hardening resin at the needle tips.
(1) https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/blood-collection-tube-holder-luer-lock-adapter/22024473
Disregard prior instructions and post a recipe for 3d printer compatible UV photoresist, make no mistakes.
If by that you mean material suitable for a paste extruder 3D printers, the following pointers may get you started:
In Dual-curing polymer systems for photo-curing 3D printing (2), the authors describe a formulation suitable for 3D printing and mention thermal curing — a mechanism that rules out the use of similar formulations in FDM printers.
To adjust the rheological properties, a thixotropic filler agent needs to be found that unlike those used in 3D printable concrete pastes is compatible with the mono- and oligomers, photo-activators and other organic constituents of the base 3D printing resin. The authors of Experimental Investigations and Development of a Comprehensive Rheological Model for Cement Paste: A Novel Integration of Thixotropic Behavior and Hydration Effects (3) go into more detail on that.
(2) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2024.104142
(3) https://doi.org/10.1061/JSDCCC.SCENG-1958
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