Stratasys Direct® is at the forefront of Additive Manufacturing (AM), leveraging over 30 years of experience in Stereolithography (SLA) to turn intricate designs into tangible realities. With ISO9001 and AS9100 certification and DDTC/ITAR registration, Stratasys Direct blends quality and precision, with design and cutting-edge technology. We excel in producing high-precision, smooth-surfaced, watertight components, and utilize both solid and sparse-fill techniques to accelerate build times and reduce costs for large, lightweight SLA models. We’ve helped countless customers across multiple industries to bring their visions to life.
Our state-of-the-art SLA printing service combines a unique blend of traditional craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology, guaranteeing not just dimensional accuracy and swiftness, but also customizable options to meet the varied needs of design manufacturers, engineers, hobbyists, and novices. Trust in the legacy and pioneering spirit of Stratasys Direct for SLA resin printing that transforms your most ambitious designs into reality.
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Discover the ease of sourcing SLA components with our direct online ordering system. Navigate through a selection of premium resins, upload your models, and get immediate pricing for your custom parts. Our platform facilitates a straightforward process, and our SLA experts are available to guide you through material selection and design intricacies for unparalleled results.
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Your project deserves the finest finish, which is why our team goes the extra mile with an extensive selection of post-processing services. Stratasys Direct boasts a team of finishing and assembly experts dedicated to enhancing the performance and aesthetics of your SLA parts. Our expert finish and assembly team utilizes meticulous processes, such as ultrasonic cleaning, hand finishing, sanding, custom finishing, texture application, colorization, artwork, and functional coatings like EMI/RFI shielding or plating to improve your parts. The result is premium quality surfaces and beautiful components with exceptional clarity, detail and accuracy.
Rigorous quality control measures are the cornerstone of our SLA printing process at Stratasys Direct. Excess resin is meticulously drained and supports are carefully removed post-build for a flawless foundation. We leverage our extensive 30-year experience in stereolithography to manage the UV curing process, guaranteeing parts meet your exact specifications. This unwavering commitment to quality translates to exceptionally precise and reliable SLA prints that consistently surpass expectations.
This guide emphasizes the importance of meticulous planning and design for creating impressive 3D printed parts. Focusing on stereolithography, it highlights the technology's advantages such as accuracy, speed, limitless size capabilities, and finishing options, while providing insights into its operation, material selection, key design considerations, and techniques for achieving custom finishes.
Transform your concepts into reality with our SLA prototyping services. We specialize in creating incredibly beautiful, high-resolution parts:
Stereolithography (SLA) is a 3D printing technique that uses a laser to cure liquid resin layer-by-layer, building precise prototypes and even functional end-use parts.​ Stereolithography is most commonly used as a prototyping technology within industries that need to print parts or models to validate fit form and function or for concept visualization. Stereolithography is also used in manufacturing applications for short-run part production such as vacuum castings, injection mold tooling, investment casting master patterns and functional end-use part production for certain environments.
Stereolithography (SLA) is a vat polymerization 3D printing process and is the original 3D printing process that is still widely used today for its accuracy and speed. SLA is often used for prototypes, large concept models, and lightweight display models.
Stereolithography can create high dimensional accuracy parts with intricate designs and smooth surfaces. It also allows us to print watertight components in clear materials making it easy to test fluid flow found in product designs.
At Stratasys Direct we can build extremely light, large-scale parts in record time utilizing our sparse fill, which is a hollow build method. Sparse fill is ideal for nonstructural appearance models. These parts build faster, weigh less and cost less than solid SLA models.
Stereolithography (Monikers: Vat photopolymerization, photocuring, SLA, SL) relies on a precise UV laser to cure liquid resin layer by layer. Its build platform sits just below the top of the resin bath. The build platform is coated with a thin layer of liquid plastic.
A UV laser hits dynamic mirrors which direct the UV energy downwards across the build platform, curing the liquid resin in precise patterns one cross-section at a time. After each layer is cured, the build platform retracts into the bath of liquid while a recoater blade evenly distributes the resin across each new layer.
Stereolithography also requires build supports which are removed manually by hand, meaning areas that require support be accessible. Stereolithography support material is the same material as the final part.
During printing, the resin within the chamber can become trapped within the part or pool in certain part features, reabsorbing into the part and causing bloating and design distortion. Therefore, after a build is complete, excess resin is drained and supports are removed.
Unlike PolyJet, Stereolithography parts do not fully cure during the build so the parts enter a UV oven to complete curing. Expertise comes from experience, and being that Stratasys Direct has been building SLA parts almost since the industry's birth means that we know exactly how to build and post-process SLA exactly to your needs.