Faster Prototyping

The newest addition to the Formlabs resin library is Draft Resin and it prints three to four times faster than other Standard Resins. The material is named for its ability to print large parts quickly and cycle through multiple design iterations (or “drafts”) within one day. It’s accurate enough to meet prototyping needs with a 300micron layer height while enabling faster design iterations.

Prints three to four times faster than other Standard Resins

While part quality, accuracy and reliability are important, we know that time is valuable and turnaround time is key. Using feedback from our customers, Draft Resin was developed specifically to bring together speed with prototyping accuracy needs. Draft Resin is great to quickly printing large parts for same day design iterations, jig and fixture prototyping. the printers.

Prototyping time and costs in 3D printing has already significantly been cut down by removing the need for expensive outsourcing or other costly traditional manufacturing techniques.

Today, engineers and designers often use stereolithography (SLA) machines for higher fidelity models but turn to FDM machines for initial concept prototyping. Draft Resin can be used for early prototypes and switch to Standard or Engineering Resins for detailed, functional models - all on the same machine.

Draft Resin is as accurate as other Formlabs Standard Resins in the X and Y axes, even at 300 microns, making it great for printing parts with flat surfaces. Even though Draft Resin can print curved features and raised or embossed text, some layer lines will be more visible. Standard and Engineering Resins are still recommended for any parts with fine surface details.

When printing large parts or multiple parts on one build platform, the impact of faster printing is more drastic. With Standard Resin Models that take up the entire build volume printing can take up to 20 hours and may require printing overnight, but with Draft Resin printing the same part at 300micron layers it takes less than six hours.

Building great products are often time-consuming and takes multiple iterations.

If an engineer wants to create a new jig prototype, prints on the Form 3 or Form 2 can take up to 5 hours. Draft Resin can finish the same part at a 73% speed improvement in 1 hour and 20 minutes. This means less time printing and more time to iterate on product designs to create better products.

These are six different prototypes of a pump housing, printed in Draft Resin. To print one in Standard Resin takes 3 hours and 7 minutes and with Draft it prints in 47 minutes. The final model was printed in Tough and Rigid Resin.