UV curable resins

Hi Chris,

for this we'll need a changed software, where the finer details are fabbed on a predefined 3D-surface.

Or maybe a bit simpler when only optimizing per thread - ten you have a tray of FFF-PMMA , say 0,5mm thick and then you have to apply the finish with 3D-coating the borders with 5 trays of 0,1mm thickness.

But then you'll have a two-head-fabber, so it's capable of supporting geometries too ...

Viktor

Wow

That is cool, excellent Viktor, hope the flu goes soon. I usually pop lots of pills and ignore it (If I can).

Cheers

AKA47

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Necessity hopefully becomes the absentee parent of successfully invented children.

Just a couple of comments and a few questions.

Bulking out the resin sounds like a good idea, something like a powder filler mixed in with the resin might work. The resin would tend to be more self supporting whilst curing (a phenomenon discovered by the Romans in concrete!), so you may be able to produce usable parts even with the longer curing times you are experiencing. The only downside I can see is that penetration of the UV light through the resin may be reduced.

I read of the problems with resin curing in the print head overnight. Is it possible to mix the main components of the resin in the nozzle as you use them? I'm thinking two syringes feeding to one nozzle, metered to the correct mix ratio. I am assuming the resin components are more UV stable before mixing.

Are the UV lights you are using similar the the ones used in the Aquarium Industry for water decontamination?

... most UV-curable resins have really long pot-life in light-tight syringes.

Mixing 2K-resins will work, but you'll have some prerun and residues in the mixer-valve.

What's a good methode for longer curing-times is print a slice with activating UV-LED's around the tip and ambient UV-lighting with bigger/stronger UV-tubes around the working area. Some UV-resins need the activation and then cure 'on their own' in some hours to solid. You have to estimate the stability of the printed body prior to print the next slice ...

For the 'tip-activating' i used UV-LED's and for ambient curing some UV-tubes from old EPROM-erasers and PCB-tooling - this Aquarium-lights could be interesting too ...

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Viktor
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Hi,

I am doing a research to find out a UV curable resin. I want to apply this resin as a hard coating on a polycarbonate part - a 2mm thick lens. This is to stop it from abrasion in harsh weather condition, dust and improve its surface life.

I am looking for a suitable

1. Hard coat material
2. Standard dipping equipment for application on thousands of parts
3. Any other recommendations

Can someone please assist me with this?

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Sharath

I have a Auto Windshield Repair business, we repair small rock chips and small cracks by injecting a UV cured resin into in most cases a dime sized chip through a hole smaller than the tip of a bic point pen. I'm actually trying to learn more about the product we've been using and how to either make it myself or find someone like the people on this forum to make it for me. Currently I'm spending $85 for a liter of this stuff and wanting to cut my overhead a little and also re-sell it to others in my industry.

As far as I know (which isnt much) its some kind of polyurethane oligomer, photoinitiator, acrylate (meth) acrylate. I'm actually just reading off a few things i have printed off a well known and marketed glass repair resins MSDS. Ok now that i've proven how stupid i am, can someone please help me. If someone out there can make a product similar to ones used for windshield repair for me a little cheaper so i can market it or help me make it. I would be very interested I'm in Dallas Texas U.S. my email is gene.freerepair@yahoo.com


Options: Reply•Quote

Sharath Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi,
>
> I am doing a research to find out a UV curable
> resin. I want to apply this resin as a hard
> coating on a polycarbonate part - a 2mm thick
> lens. This is to stop it from abrasion in harsh
> weather condition, dust and improve its surface
> life.
>
> I am looking for a suitable
>
> 1. Hard coat material
> 2. Standard dipping equipment for application on
> thousands of parts
> 3. Any other recommendations
>
> Can someone please assist me with this?
>
> Thank you in advance.
>
> Regards,
>
> Sharath


hi
did you try with norlan products?

regards

Fluidics

I was talking to someone at work the other day who was talking about laquer painting and during the conversation It became apparent that it may be a uv curing resin, not sure if anyone already has looked into this or if that is just another name for some of the resins you have already been talking about. I plan on doing some tests of it as a potential print agent but wouldnt mind knowing if someone already has the wavelenght of lite that it requires on hand.

When testing UV curable resins / products, what thickness is being tested in general?

For high detail pieces, 0.01mm seems to be the number mainstream industry offers, so what sort of curing time do currently discovered resins require to cure (or just partially cure) at that thickness?

(On which note, would using surface adhesion from say, a roller ball / moist applicator be appropriate for a thin enough application for a high accuracy, ultra thin UV curable coating?)

while i cant speak for everyone my intention for uv curable resins is wet tank and uv laser spot curing. though i have intentions to do high volume paste dispensor tests also. posibly using abs/pla as supporting medium to reduce slump at higher speeds.

Looking at other UV 3d printing processes, is there currently (of the self manufacturable UV resins / polymers suggested thus far) any with a vicosity appropriate to be run like ink through a inkjet style printer? I would hope the deposit would be thin enough to allow for high detail models. The catch if this is feasible is it would demand a solid UV curable resin, and another one that can be melted / removed / soluble as to act as support structure for the ultra thin layers.

i dont think so. but doing it this way would require something like a powder printer set up because of the inability to print on open air/ any kind of overhang at all.

That would be the point of the support uv material that would melt / be removed?

So you start with a flat clean surface to which the polymers can adhere.

Print either a float of the support UV polymer that you can disolve / clean off later, or just print straight to the surface.

Then either the print carriage moves up or the surface moves down so that the second layer of support and solid polymers respectively are printed on top of the now solid, first layer of cured polymers.

As long as you print everything as a 'cube'comprising of either removable cured UV polymer & solid cured UV polymer, you will always have sufficient surface to print on?

Last phase would be whatever method is needed to remove/disolve the support polymer and or any post treatment to further harden the remaining 'solid' polymers.