Industrial SLA vs. Desktop SLA

Industrial SLA vs. Desktop SLA

Companies interested in SLA 3D printing may be startled to see the extreme difference in price between consumer desktop SLA printers and industrial 3D printers. Most desktop SLA equipment will set you back just a few thousand dollars, whereas industrial 3D printers usually cost upwards of $100,000, and in some cases even close to $1,000,000. The makers of the much cheaper desktop SLA printers often quote impressive resolution statistics, so where exactly is the value in a printer 100 times the price? The answer of course is that expensive industrial SLA printers have all kinds of advantages over desktop models, or put another way, desktop printers have numerous traits that make them unsuitable for industry. Let's look at the most crucial differences between desktop SLA and industrial SLA.

The first unsuitable trait of desktop printers is size. As you would expect from a piece of equipment termed "desktop", consumer SLA printers are not very large. As an example, Formlabs'popular Form2 desktop SLA printer can only print parts up to a maximum of 145 x 145 x 175 mm, and this is typical of the market. This may be enough for hobbyists but is far too restrictive for industry. Industrial 3D printers come in a wide variety of sizes depending on the specific needs of the buyer and can be gargantuan if necessary. Taking ProtoFab as an example, our best-selling SLA600 is capable of printing parts up to 600 x 600 x 400 mm, and our largest printer, the SLA 1100, can print parts more than a meter wide. This offers the kind of flexibility that manufacturers require, and desktop printers look like toys in comparison.