How do 3D printers work? And what are their limitations?
In: Technology
There are two main types of consumer 3d printers. The first is called PLA, and it takes a plastic like filament, which it melts a tiny bit of the PLA and builds things up one tiny drop at a time, and cooling it until it solidifies. The second called SLA and it uses a liquid resin that is hardened by a laser or a DLP projector. The main limiters of the type of printers is that they can only be made with these specific materials, which limits the strength and durability of what you can create with them. Certain shapes aren’t possible, or require extensive support structures that then need to be removed. Especially PLA is limited in how smooth or how much detail that smaller objects can have based on the smallest size of the melted substance you can extrude at a time (called layer height).
There are many other types of 3d printing but they are either at an industrial scale, or just not as popular in the consumer market.
Latest Answers