In terms of the analysis of the economic environment and market trends, the current surface exposure 3D printing technology mainly focuses on the two major grasps of automation & intelligence. As one of the first enterprises in the field of additive manufacturing in China, Luen Thai Technology set up a research and development team for surface exposure technology as early as 2013, and carried out in-depth exploration around the two major technology sectors of LCD and DLP. Today, it has a rich product matrix and in-depth industry application experience for the fields of prosthodontics, orthodontics, animation, footwear, education, industry, jewelry, medical and other fields.
With the continuous expansion of the blue ocean of the 3D printing market, 3D printing technologies such as SLS and SLM continue to iterate. In the highly saturated market environment, where should the "future tense" of surface exposure 3D printing technology go? Dr. Rong Zuochao, deputy director of Luen Thai Technology R&D Center, made an in-depth analysis.
Luen Thai Technology's surface exposure product matrix & industry application
"The large investment and continuous innovation in the research and development of surface exposure 3D printing technology will bring a full-chain closed-loop reaction from the upstream core technology to the feedback of downstream users. ”
Deputy Director of Luen Thai Technology R&D Center
Dr. Rong Zuochao
The market pain points of 3D printing technology are exposed
In order to realize the ideal production state of "black light factory" and "unmanned workshop" under the wave of digital economy, the surface exposure 3D printing technology focuses on the two major trends of automation and intelligence. With the increasing clarity of the market environment, the current pain points of face exposure technology have also been exposed:
01 Product pain points in software & hardware still exist
In the process of surface exposure 3D printing, there are still problems such as excessive use of release film at the equipment end and frequent board dropping, and the drawbacks of inaccurate and time-consuming design of process packages on the manual side have not been effectively solved. These pain points not only affect the quality of product molding, but also restrict the effective implementation of automation and intelligent production.
02 The market development of DLP technology & LCD technology is unbalanced
According to the current market analysis, DLP technology has significant advantages in intelligent large-format production, while LCD technology has problems such as insufficient accuracy, short life and high defective rate in large-format production due to the lack of power, resulting in its market share much lower than DLP technology.
A new round of innovation in surface exposure 3D printing
In view of exposing the existing pain points of the market and combining with the future development trend of intelligence and automation, Luen Thai Technology will also focus on the following points in the new round of technological innovation:
In order to strengthen the user's real-time grasp of the printing status of the device and the accurate prevention and control of unexpected events, Luen Thai Technology will launch an automatic intelligent detection function, which will automatically determine whether the device is off the board with the help of force feedback and intelligent algorithms, and convey the equipment information to users in a timely manner. At the same time, the automatic detection function can give feedback on the degree of use and service life of the release film during the printing process, and remind the user of the replacement node of the release film in time. The upgrade of this technology not only ensures the success rate of printing, but also effectively realizes automatic and intelligent production, and further reduces the investment of labor costs.
Due to the setting of various parameters in the printing process package, it basically depends on the experience of the process personnel of each manufacturer. Manufacturers often give users a "maximum" of demand. This format can cause material waste when printing small quantities and affect print speed.
In order to solve this pain point, Luen Thai Technology will launch an intelligent automatic identification process package, which does not need to artificially calibrate a large number of process parameters, only needs to finalize the most basic exposure time and power speed, and the rest of the process parameters can be automatically calculated through algorithms. This iteration of technology effectively realizes the rational use of materials and further improves the printing speed, making the process package design simpler and more accurate.
Luen Thai Technology will upgrade the hardware of the control system for the surface exposure printing equipment, and realize the integrated design of most functions in the form of embedded boards, so as to achieve the closed-loop control of the printing equipment, reduce the rate of bad parts, and make the surface exposure printing equipment more intelligent.
The future development direction of surface exposure 3D printing
Combined with the current market situation, the future development of surface exposure 3D printing technology may produce a new round of changes, and its market structure will also be reshuffled:
01 LCD technology is comparable to DLP technology
At this stage, although LCD is inferior to DLP technology in terms of power and other aspects, the growth rate of LCD technology is far greater than that of DLP technology throughout its overall development trend. Since 2019, the accuracy of LCD equipment has evolved from the initial 2K to the current 14K, which effectively reflects the rapid iteration and development of LCD technology.
Driven by this trend, in the next 1-2 years, LCD technology is expected to compete with DLP technology through the process of exchanging quantity for quality, while eating away at more markets. Luen Thai Technology will also focus on the innovation of this technology in the direction of LCD replacing DLP, further improving its accuracy, stability and consistency, so that LCD technology will no longer be a dream to do large-format splicing in the future.
02 DLP and SLS & SLM technologies form differential competition
At present, DLP has the fastest printing speed and a high market share in the area exposure process. In the future, with the further improvement of its format and power, DLP technology is expected to compete with SLS and SLM 3D printing technology and become a new choice for application-side users.
Luen Thai new
I 专业级LCD 3D打印机—Martrix300
As the latest professional-grade LCD 3D printing equipment launched by Luen Thai Technology, Martrix300 has undergone a new round of upgrades in terms of forming light source, printing speed, printing stability, and operation experience. Different from the common square resolution on the market, the Martrix300 has a revolutionary design of long bar resolution with a value of up to 19×24μ. The lower light source is also converted from the matrix light source of the same series Martrix190 and Martrix520 to COB light source, which is simplified to a single lamp irradiation without grid lines, and the printing uniformity can be as high as 90% after no grid lines, and the light intensity is more powerful than that of the matrix light source.
In addition, some functions such as dual-cabin heating, automatic leveling, and pressure-sensitive fluid rehydration are set to bring users a more convenient operation experience. At the same time, Luen Thai Technology's new equipment Martrix300 will also be grandly unveiled at the 2024 Asia 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Exhibition (TCT Asia 2024) from May 7 to 9.
I Dental fully automated 3D printer D300
The D300 adopts DLP 3D printing technology, which is a fully automated 3D printer upgraded and developed by Luen Thai Technology in the field of surface exposure 3D printing. With advanced functions such as intelligent sorting assistance, automatic stable printing, and high-speed high-quality molding, it can accurately apply the two major models of benchmarking repair and implantation, and realize the automated production of the whole process of 3D printing from automatic boarding, automatic queue, automatic liquid replenishment to automatic printing, automatic disembarkation, sorting assistance, etc., making it possible to "unattended 24 hours a day, 7 ×", and redefining the automated production mode of the dental industry. From May 7th to 9th, Luen Thai Technology Dental's new fully automated 3D printer D300 will also be unveiled at the 2024 Asia 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Exhibition (TCT Asia 2024).
I Luen Thai Technology independently developed UnionTech ONE, an automated intelligent software
UnionTech ONE, a 3D printing assistant software that is ready to use, one-click efficiency improvement, and fast collaboration, can effectively simplify the on-machine process, lower the printing threshold, improve the printing quality, and empower the industry with the power of digitalization through the integration of software and hardware and intelligent parameter setting.
- Large-format surface exposure equipment spliced by multi-optical machine will become the general trend
The market generally believes that the lower projection is not suitable for large formats, but Luen Thai Technology has carried out technical reforms to make large format of lower projection possible. Focusing on the focus on efficiency in the medical field, it has carried out the design of DLP surface exposure solution for dual-light machine projection splicing, and will be delivered to a well-known medical brand in May this year, which is the first time in the world, and also verifies that the large-format surface exposure equipment of multi-light machine splicing is about to become the general trend.
- High-power optical machine drives the double breakthrough of materials & applications
The development speed of DLP equipment power cannot be underestimated, in the early days, the power of DLP equipment of Luen Thai Technology was only a few hundred milliwatts, and now it has increased to 18 watts. The emergence of DLP high-power optical machine will drive the advent of ultra-high-performance materials, and the pain point of insufficient mechanical properties of materials will also be solved. Breakthroughs in technology and materials will expand the application scenarios of DLP equipment. This also means that the subsequent DLP will eat away at a part of the SLS and SLM markets with its advantages of low cost, convenient post-processing, and no explosion-proof requirements.
Dr. Rong Zuochao said that at present, the two major markets of intelligence and automation are relatively clear, which is also the key to the current layout of many brands. In the future, Luen Thai Technology will continue to seek breakthroughs at the technical level, drive the expansion of materials and application scenarios with technological innovation, and activate the whole chain of closed-loop reaction from upstream core technology to downstream user feedback with in-depth research and development.
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