Absorption peaks of most photoinitiators are below 400nm. So why do most DLP 3D-printing machince use 405 nm wavelength?
This article will help answer your question:
Quan, Haoyuan, et al. "Photo-curing 3D printing technique and its challenges." Bioactive materials 5.1 (2020): 110-115.
Hello Maohang Zhang,
as far as I learned up to now:
All LCD based printers use 405 nm because the LCDs absorb too much power below this wavelength. They already absorb a lot of power at 405 nm, by the way.
A lot of DLP-printer use 405 nm, too, because the optics for 405 nm are made of plastics and are quite cheap. Optics for lower wavelength are more expensive. But there are several DLP printers on the market that can be ordered with different wavelength than 405 nm, e.g. 385 or 365 nm.
And: Some cheap printers state to be DLP printers but use an LCD and no DLP-chip to structure the light, so they are no DLP printers from my point of view.
Hello,
I totally agree with Dieter Spiehl
I addition from my point of view the 405 nm DLP/LCD optics are a mass product and therefore they are very cheap. Lower wavelength is more expensive, because it is not used so often.
Best regards
Guido
405 nm machines are more economical in manufacturing, however there are more and more 385 nm DLP 3D-printers on the market. Even shorter wavelength are still rare though.
Thank you for your question
I would recommend 385nm for better accuracy of 3D printing due to lower overcure of the 3D printed layers and less depth penetration of the UV light . Nevertheless a strict comparison of experiments done at 405 and 385nm would be interesting but I did not find articles for such comparison.
It consumes less power and blue light is safer than UV light. Beside common resins are curable till 410-420 nm of wavelength hence 405 nm is a safe and cheaper option.
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