FDM vs DLP

My son was pretty impressed by the 3D prints that our Cube FDM 3D printer has been cranking out. While FDM (Fuse Deposition Modeling) as a 3D printing technology is simple and good enough to print simple things, it falls short when you want to do some serious 3D printing. To explain this to him I printed one of our test parts on the 3D Systems Figure 4 3D printer which is based on DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology. This test part has faces at different angles does a good job of highlighting the staircase effect that comes into play when printing sloping surfaces.

 

Now he wants me to get him a Figure 4. That’s the risk of exposing your kids to the finer things in life.