Digital Light Processing 3D Printers
The oldest of the 3D printing technologies, Digital Light Processing (DLP) was created by Larry Hornbeck in 1987. It is similar to Stereolithography (SLA), since it also works with photopolymers. The liquid plastic resin used by the printer goes into a translucent resin container. SLA uses ultraviolet light whereas DLP is light source agnostic, able to use a variety of light sources. When there’s plenty of light, the resin is quicker to harden when compared to SLA 3D printing, which draws a layer The reason for the faster print times for DLP is that an entire layer is exposed at one time. With SLA printing, a laser draws out each of these layers, and this increases the time.