Speed theory

I, as probably many others, thought that more UV power will give a faster printing speed when printing continuously. I think that might not be 100% true. There are limits.

When printing continuously the projector is always displaying an image. This means it is always hardening the resin. Less UV means the light will penetrate less and more UV means the light will penetrate deeper.

If it penetrates less it means a thin layer of resin will be hardened with resin still flowing under the thin layer of hardened resin. Kind of like lava flow. This will allow you to print thicker walls. This same concept is most likely also what is causing small holes to close up and that is why you can't print tiny holes when printing continuously.

If there is more UV, the penetration will be deeper. This means the resin will have less of a distance that it can travel before it hardens. So more power will mean you will need to print thinner walls.

What more UV really gives you is the ability to print larger items, but that again has its own issues. Bigger prints will give a lower resolution, meaning larger banding will be visible as can be seen in this blog post http://www.gizmo3dprinters.com.au/#!Resin-printer-banding/ynrii/572ab2eb0cf25326f6c599f0

What it comes down to is that more power is not always better. In some cases it can actually create a part that is more layered than if you printed using standard speed.

So is more UV better? The answer is, it depends.


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