May 18th, 2010 — 

We are pleased to announce that we have completed the process development on our new, micro-resolution (MR) stereolithography process for micro-sized parts. We substantially modified our equipment and implemented a new material that combine to allow extremely fine details.

The MR process features resolution as fine as 30-40 microns in X and Y, with 25 micron layers. We have built parts for some beta test customers that were measured to be accurate to within 15 microns anywhere on the part. There are limitations still regarding the thickness of the first layer of a feature, but it is about half that of the HR build process that represented the previous state-of-the-art.

A critical component of the micro-resolution development effort was a custom-formulated material. We worked with DSM Somos to develop a resin exclusively for this application, and we call it MicroFine Green. It is opaque green in color, with the stiffness of an ABS material. See the material section of our website for a downloadable material property datasheet. MicroFine Green is only available for micro-resolution parts, and only from FineLine Prototyping.

If you have an application that could benefit from finer resolution then feel free to upload it to our online quoting engine, and our knowledgeable quoting staff will brief you on what you might expect from the micro-resolution process/material combination.