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Sep 14, 2018 | By Thomas

Polish 3D printer manufacturer Zortrax has released the Zortrax Inkspire, the company's first desktop DLP 3D printer which marks the company's entrance into the the resin 3D printing market.

The Zortrax Inkspire uses a high resolution LCD screen and UV LED backlighting to cure photopolymer resin layer by layer. "With 50x50 microns XY resolution and 25 microns minimal layer height it is up to 9x more precise than leading SLA 3D printers. Because the entire layer is projected onto the photopolymer’s
surface all at once, it is also up to 8x faster.", states the company. With its microscopic precision, the Zortrax Inkspire is designed for engineers, designers, jewelers or dental prosthetists.

The Zortrax Inkspire has a max build envelope of 74 x 132 x 175 mm (2.9 x 5.2 x 6.9 in). It can work as a basic production unit in 3D printing farms offering low to medium scale manufacturing capabilities. “With one printer making 50 to 80 parts in 1h 30min, 30 printers working together can offer an approximate monthly output of 360,000 to 500,000 parts.” Zortrax states.

One Zortrax Inkspire can 3D print 77 HDMI cover caps in 1h 30min. 

The technology at work in laser-based stereolithography (SLA) and digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing follows very similar principles. In SLA, the precision is constant, but the speed of operation is in inverse proportion to the amount of workspace taken by the model. In DLP, the speed of operation is constant, but the precision falls as the amount of used workspace increases. Zortrax expects its Inkspire DLP 3D printer could offers constant high speed and precision regardless of how much of the workspace is used.

In Zortrax UV LCD technology, UV light is processed in three distinct stages. First, it hits a polarizing film arranged along a horizontal axis. Only a part of the spectrum vibrating horizontally gets through. Such horizontally polarized light then goes into an array of liquid crystals. Each crystal can let it pass unchanged or rotate it 90 degrees. In the last stage, the light hits another polarizing film, this time arranged vertically. If a liquid crystal between those two films does not rotate the light, the pixel is off because the horizontally polarized light can’t get through the vertically polarized film. But if the light is rotated, it can pass through both films and the pixel is on.

Zortrax will release its own Zortrax Resin Basic, but Inkspire will be compatible with any resin that can be cured by light with a 405 nm wavelength.

Along side the Zortrax Inkspire, the company will also release Zortrax Ultrasonic Cleaner, a device that automatically cleans models using high frequency sound waves propagated in a cleaning liquid. In addition, a number of additional functionalities will be added to Z-SUITE, its slicing and 3D printing farm management software, to make it compatible with the Zortrax Inkspire DLP 3D printer.

The system is scheduled to be released in Autumn 2018, and will cost around  $2,699.

Specs of Zortrax Inkspire Resin UV LCD 3D printer

Printing:

• Technology: UV LCD
• Pixel size: 50 microns (0.05 mm)
• Layer thickness: 25, 50, 100 microns
• Print speed: 20-36 mm/h

Device:

• Build volume: 74 x 132 x 175 mm (2.9 x 5.2 x 6.9 in)
• Support: Mechanically removed - printed with the same material as the model
• Light source: UV integrated light (wavelength 405 nm)
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB
• Operating system: Android
• Processor: Quad Core
• Touchscreen: 4″ IPS 800 x 480
• Available materials: Zortrax Photopolymer Resin Basic
• External materials: Applicable

Software: 

• Software bundle: Z-SUITE
• Supported file types: .stl, .obj, .dxf, .3mf, .zcodex
• Supported formats: .cws, .zcodex
• Supported operating systems: Mac OS X / Windows 7 and newer versions

Weight and physical dimensions:

• Device (W x D x H): 210 x 210 x 420 mm (8.3 x 8.3 x 16.5 in)
• Shipping box: 315 x 312 x 530 mm (12.4 x 12.3 x 20.9 in)
• Shipping weight: 10.5 kg (23.1 lb)
• Device weight: 9.2 kg (20.3 lb)
• Net weight: 7.6 kg (16.8 lb)

Temperature: 

• Ambient operation temperature: 20 - 30° C (68 - 86° F)
• Storage temperature: 0 - 35° C (32 - 95° F)

Electrical: 

• AC input: 110 V ~ 5.9 A 50/60 Hz 240 V ~ 2.5A 50/60 Hz
• Maximum power consumption: 50 W

 

 

Posted in 3D Printer

 

 

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Anthony wrote at 9/19/2018 4:35:20 AM:

First of all, this printer isn't DLP, it's LCD based. I can't understand how a site dedicated to 3d printing technology would get this fact wrong. Second, it's far too expensive for what is substantially a remodeling of products which is widely available on aliexpress at $300-400 price

Joe F. wrote at 9/18/2018 10:49:17 PM:

A couple things: "In SLA, the precision is constant, but the speed of operation is in inverse proportion to the amount of workspace taken by the model. In DLP, the speed of operation is constant, but the precision falls as the amount of used workspace increases." On a SLA printer, the precision is constant only if the optics provide that capability using a F-Theta lens. The laser spot will start to diverge on standard optics as you move to the outer region around the center. What is the basis for the loss of precision due to workspace on a DLP? Is it because the light is a fixed quantity and the more mirrors reflecting it, the less overall light per pixel? Or are you talking about optics as well aka pincushioning or barrel distortion? All LCD panels use two polarizing filters as part of their basic function, so there is nothing special going on here that any other LCD printer doesn't have themselves.

David wrote at 9/14/2018 4:39:45 PM:

I'm not sure what it thinks differentiates it from something like an Anycubic Photon costing 1/6 as much? I mean it's not quite a rebadge, but all the functional parts look substantially the same principle, so where's the selling point of spending $200O+ more on this? You'd buy a Formlabs Form 2 if you're spending this kind of money, surely?

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