Power difference of different LCD & MLCD printers and its consequences
Each printer model, and even different units of the same printer model*, have different powers across the vat available for curing the resins, with differences of around 300%**. See below the evidence and proof of facts: the power of two commercial MLCD printers, the Phrozen Sonic Mini with 0.6 mW/cm2 vs the Anycubic Mono X with 1.7 mW/cm2.
This huge difference in power among different printers of even the same technology significantly affect the exposure times for printing the resins, even differences of exposure times of 5-10 seconds per layer or more can be required for printing the same 3D resin. Our Instructions for Use IFU will show you to choose the right exposure times for your chosen z layer thickness in your specific printer.
This variablity of printer specifications also affect significantly the safety and biocompatibility of any 3D printed device, since the polymer conversion, the % of monomer conversion to polymer, depends on the printing, printer and postprocessing overall specifications.
Additionally, light powers naturally decay upon usage, overcomplicating the production of safe 3D printed materials. Learn about the natural decay of light power of 3D printers:
Examples of power** difference of different LCD & MLCD printers, which
- Examples of several standard multicolor LCD printers:
- Anycubic Photon Zero 0.27/0.30 mW/cm2*
- Longer Orange 30 0.29/0.31 mW/cm2
- Anycubic Photon S 0.43/0.46 mW/cm2
- Examples of several monochrome LCD "MLCD" printers:
- Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K: 0.60/0.70 mW/cm2
- Phrozen Sonic Mighty 4K: 0.79/0.93 mW/cm2
- Phrozen XL Mono 4K: 1.05/1.30 mW/cm2
- Creality LD-002H: 1.40/1.80 mW/cm2
- Anycubic Photon Mono X: 1.70/1.90 mW/cm2
- Commercial mono 4K printer unit 1: 1.05/1.15 mW/cm2
- Commercial mono 4K printer unit 2: 1.10/1.30 mW/cm2
**Note: power in mW per cm2 across the vat expressed with two values: low value in the corner/high value in the centre of the vat