Large format industrial
LCD 3D printer

Magna is a remarkable printer, and it will deliver accurate, precise and consistent parts if you understand how to use it correctly.

Blue 460nm light delivers consistent and repeatable cure through depth, across the build area, across different Magna printers, for life.

Magna has an 4K screen providing 137-micron pixel pitch across its entire 510mm (20.1”) by 280mm (11.0”) build area.

The fixed LCD screen never goes out of focus or alignment ensuring reliability in the x:y plane. Highly accurately engineered linear drive ensures precise performance in the z direction.

3D printing with resin (stereolithographic printing) by laser, DLP or LCD systems and powder bed fusion 3D printing (SLS and MJF) have the highest tolerances of commercially available plastic 3D printing technologies. Compared to machined accuracies, resin and powder 3D printing tolerances fall between standard machining and fine machining tolerances.

These are the terminologies when discussing accuracy:

Accuracy

Accuracy is how close a measurement is to true value, which is derived from comparing the measured value from a Magna part to the dimensions designed in CAD.

Precision

Precision is the repeatability of a measurement, which means how much you can rely on Magna to produce your expected results, every time.

Tolerance

Tolerance is how precise the critical elements of a part need to be, achieving tighter tolerances generally means higher manufacturing costs, Magna’s pixel pitch defines tolerance.

Tolerancing in 3D Printing

In traditional machining, tighter tolerances are exponentially related to increased cost, requiring additional machining, so machined parts are designed with the widest tolerances allowable for a given application.

Contrastingly, 3D printing has a single automated production step and tighter tolerances may require more effort in the design stage but can yield significant savings in prototyping and production.

Part design and preparation

Designing the model for the LCD Additive Manufacturing process is essential in achieving print success. The orientation of the part, positioning the leading angle correctly, creating its support network, the introduction of latticing are all critical in avoiding warpage. Our Customer Service department will assist you in teaching you how to orientate and support your part for Magna.

Post processing

Magna comes as part of a full eco-system with Air Wash L and Cure L2 units. This enables the parts to maintain isotropy by being washed and post exposed on the platform. The wash solution is optimised to remove excess of resin and maintain mechanical integrity. The combination of heat and double wavelength light fully cures the parts completely.

Finishing

Finishing includes de-supporting, sanding support artefacts and spray painting. Sanding is suitable to achieve correct in a one-off part, because less tolerancing is required in the design phase, but with larger assemblies, or when producing multiples, accurate dimensional tolerancing is essential.

Material selection

Bottom-up printing is more physically demanding on the part than printing top-down. Resins that print successfully provide both the desired end use properties and green strength (modulus before post-curing) necessary to hold the weight of the part and withstand shrinkage during printing. Poorly formulated resins can exhibit significant shrinkage and warpage, the effects of this are more evident in large parts. Photocentric select chemicals carefully to deliver the necessary short terms properties while still delivering essential long-term functionality. Compensation factors in the resin print profiles are tailored to deliver accurate parts.

The minimum z built resolution starts at 25µm, the pixel pitch is a factor in creating the resolution in the x:y axes, and the minimum feature size is typically formed from 2 or 3 pixels combined.

We print test cubes and large structures and then measure all the elements of the parts, relative to each other.

Build volume accuracy

You will be able to achieve within +/- 0.10% volumetric accuracy in printed parts compared to CAD.

Build volume repeatability

When printing a full platform of aligner dental models with Magna and scanning each model, 90% of the scanned data aligns within +/- 100µm compared to the CAD data, irrespective of the model’s position on the platform.