The RepRapMicron (also µRepRap) is pretty much the microscopic take on what RepRap did for more macroscale manufacturing, with the most recent innovation being a UV print head, called the PIKA UV Head. What this does is use off-the-shelf optical fiber and UV LED modules to create 3D structures in-situ in a UV resin, allowing for pretty small structures to be printed, down to a resolution of about 9 µm.
More photos of prints can be found on the blog page with links to YouTube videos. It’s naturally somewhat tricky to get clean photographs of a 3D print that’s small enough to lose forever if you so much as sneeze or breathe too loudly.
For the UV head assembly a single mode fiber optical cable was used in the form of a regular patch cord that got trimmed a bit with a hacksaw. This was used in combination with a “3W” UV LED module, which may or may not be its true rating, but it was definitely able to cure the SLA resin. The used resin was regular eSun Standard Resin.
Afterwards you have to do the typical SLA post-processing, including cleaning off of liquid resin – both the part and fiber – and curing the part. So far results are pretty decent, with overhangs still being a weak spot that will be addressed in future revisions.
FYI The blog page is HTTP, not HTTPS. If your browser can’t do old-fashioned HTTP anymore the YouTube stuff is here:
https://youtu.be/JwNy73c8Wak
https://youtu.be/Chl6i1mCL2k
Bonus fact: Cured eSun Standard Resin glows in UV, which makes the finished parts easier to find. But you need to wash them first or they end up as mini-bricks…
Looks awful.
It’s just about the size of the . at the end of your sentence.
Of interest
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-tiny-3d-routers-enable-sharper.html
Horizontal flow
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-ultrasound-tube-air.html
Please realise that this benchy is essentially microscopic. Perhaps a benchy isn’t to best model to show off such capabilities.
That’s really interesting! I wonder at what point motor control and pointing will become the bottleneck for how small you can make something. This must be using some pretty elaborate gearing?
FFS, they apply all sorts of creativity to coming up with a technique to print tiny stuff and all they can think of to print is a tugboat? I swear if I see another 3D printed tugboat I’m going to puke.
I’m printing small flexure mechanisms too, eith a view to printing an even tinier 3D printer.
Maybe the next print could be something like this tiny nerf gun?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9c2NqlUWZfo