Build Platform for Formlabs Form 2

Build Platform

The Build Platform for Form 2 can speed up your workflow, whether you're changing resin or starting a new print while removing your part from another platform.

SLA printing

Here's how the SLA manufacturing process works:

1. The construction platform is first placed in a tank with liquid photopolymer, at a distance of one level of height from the liquid surface.
2. Then the UV laser creates the next layer by selective curing and curing of the photopolymer resin. The laser beam is focused on a given path using a set of mirrors. The entire cross-sectional area of the model is scanned, so the resulting part is completely intact.
3. When the layer is finished, the platform moves to a safe distance, and the laser machine re-covers the surface. Then the process is repeated until the part is completed.
4. After printing, the part is in a fully cured state and requires further processing of the post under ultraviolet radiation, if you need very high mechanical and thermal properties.
5. The liquid resin solidifies by a process called photopolymerization: during curing, the carbon chains of the monomer that make up the liquid resin are activated by an ultraviolet laser and become solid, creating strong inseparable bonds. The photopolymerization process is irreversible, and there is no way to convert parts of SLA back to liquid form: when heated, they will burn rather than melt. This is because materials made from SLA are made of thermosetting polymers, unlike thermoplastics used by FDM.