MSLA (resin) Production
Odd Conjuration offers MSLA (resin) manufacturing for your custom digital 3D models in a wide selection of materials.
MSLA produces parts on a raft of supports one layer at a time. Parts that do not directly connect to prior layers or have walls that are more than 25 degrees from them require additional supports. Supports for MSLA are much more capable and less impactful where they connect than FDM (filament) production supports. MSLA offers exceptional surface detail and part geometries that FDM cannot match.
MSLA manufacturing is recommended for parts and models where surface detail is critical, geometries that require significant supports, or models that have fine delicate parts. MSLA offers the highest quality surface detail available without switching to mass production injection molding with expensive tooling from large manufacturers. Injection molding comes with much higher costs due to the machine tooling. This machine tooling cost comes with minimum part order quantities in the thousands to justify the costs. Our MSLA manufacturing allows for small quantity orders while maintaining exceptional detail and reasonable pricing.
If obvious layer lines and significant support defects are acceptable, FDM (filament) production is cheaper. MSLA is a much better choice over FDM when needing fine details and exceptional surface quality, but it does not entirely eliminate the potential of needing finishing such as fine sanding or filler primer to perfect the surfaces of your models. While MSLA offers exceptional detail and surface quality, layer lines are still visible upon close inspection of smooth surfaces. Supports also leave small “zits” where they connect to models.
Because supports are unavoidable for MSLA production, there will be small surface imperfections where supports connect to the models. These imperfections can be removed with sanding or modeling knives. We do our best to place supports in areas that will reduce their impact to quality as much as possible and we avoid placing them on front facing areas of models whenever we can. If there are specific areas on your models that you do not want supports connected to, please let us know when requesting your quote.
Maximum Part/Model Dimensions
Odd Conjuration MSLA manufacturing is available for parts that fit within 200mm x 125mm x 210mm. Tall parts (z plane) will increase production time and costs.
Layer Height
Depending on how critical your surface quality needs are, there are three levels of layer height. For parts needing the best possible surface quality, we offer MSLA printing at 30 microns (0.03mm). If part quality is not of the utmost importance, cost can be reduced by choosing the 50 or 100 micron layer height options. The lowest cost layer height available for MSLA production is 100 micron (0.1mm) layer height. Even at the 100 micron layer height, layers are still much less visible than the best layer height option available for FDM manufacture.
Part Strength
Along with material choice, part orientation on the build platform has an impact on part strength. The x and y planes of 3D manufactured parts are stronger than the z plane. Larger models and parts are hollowed to reduce material use and costs. If you would like your parts to be made with no hollowing, it is an option, but will significantly increase costs for larger parts. Parts can be hollowed to a wall thickness of 1.5mm for minimum cost or set thicker to increase strength. Please let us know what strength requirements your parts may have when filling out your quote request.