Before we start, I feel like I should point out that the Formlabs Form 3+ is 4400€ just by itself,
making it the most expensive printer I’ve ever reviewed on the channel. It’s also using the
most expensive consumables of any printer I’ve tested so far, and all this can make the Form
3+ seem like it’s a really bad deal compared to simpler printers that literally cost 1/10th
as much to buy and run. I’m going to keep making comparisons throughout the review to some of
those, but the thing is - the Form 3+ is also the most sophisticated 3D printer I’ve ever used
and it absolutely has applications where it’s the right tool to get. And if anything,
it’s doing a lot of things right that other manufacturers could learn from.
Because the Form 3+ does a lot of things differently than what you’ll be used to,
I wanted to take an in-depth look at each of the areas that I found interesting about the machine,
starting today with what’s special about how the Formlabs machines create 3D parts
and specifically with what’s new with this “Plus” version of this Form 3.
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As usual: Let’s start with the disclosure: Formlabs sent me this printer free of charge
to test out, I will need to send it back once I’m done, no money changed hands and Formlabs
does not get any influence on this review. They did pull a sneaky one on me, though, and quietly
sent a Form 3+ before it was released instead of the Form 3 they claimed they had sent. I mean,
I’m happy I can review the most recent hardware, but still, I would appreciate being filled in on
these things - especially because the Form 3 and Form 3+ are rather hard to tell apart. The Form
3+ even showed up as a Form 3 in their software. So what are the differences anyway? Unlike the
printer itself, the changes don’t seem to be huge. Build volume stays the same at 145 x 145 x 185mm,
the machine size and look stays the same, it is a rather chunky boi for how comparatively
small the build area is, and the mechanical construction, software features etc,
all seem to be identical. But the + apparently has a new laser unit for exposing the resin,
which they claim can speed up some prints by as much as 40%. I couldn’t test this because I don’t
have a non-plus unit to compare to, but later on we’re still going to take a look at print speed
overall. That hot new flexible build platform is also something that is still an optional upgrade,
even on the Form 3+. By default, it still comes with a classic rigid build plate.
The way the Form 3+ exposes the prints is actually the main difference between it
and most of the resin 3D printers that you’ll have seen so far - definitely
any that you’ve seen on this channel so far. The MSLA machines that I’ve used like the Prusa SL1S,
or any of the Elegoo, Anycubic or Creality machines use a UV LED array and a masking LCD
over that to only expose the parts of each layer where your part is going to end up,
and turn the LCD black everywhere else. But the Formlabs printers are laser SLA machines where,
similar to filament printers, they will actually trace out the contour
and infill for each layer of your part. The way this works in the Form 3 generation
is actually pretty interesting: While the earlier Form 2 machines and other laser SLA printer like
the Moai have a fixed laser and a pair of pivoting mirrors called galvos to redirect that laser to
any spot in the build area, the Form 3 generation only uses a galvo for moving the laser back and
forth in the Y direction. For the X direction, the entire laser and mirror unit will physically move
left to right. They’re doing this to aid in peeling off the print from the separator film
on the bottom of the resin tank. On other resin printers, that film is stretched tight over the
bottom of the vat, but here it is intentionally left floppy so that the light processing unit,
the laser toolhead, can physically push it up into place where it’s currently printing,
and then once it moves away from that spot, that immediately peels the film off of the print again.
On “normal” printers, after one layer is done, it is at first entirely stuck to that film and then
needs to be carefully peeled off. For example, the SL1S even integrates a tilting mechanism for that,
because if the printer just rips up its Z-axis without allowing for each layer to slowly release
first, it can easily tear parts off of the print or blow out thin walls. Here, with the “Low Force
Stereolithography” approach that Formlabs is using, that is absolutely not a problem at all.
Throughout this review series, I’ll keep coming back to the comparison between the Form 3+
and the SL1S, because the Prusa is my “high-end” reference for this - even though it’s only half
the price - and I find it really interesting to see differences in how things get approached.
There are a couple of up- and downsides with using a laser setup in the Form 3+: First of all,
of course, you don’t have an LCD screen, which is considered a consumable on MSLA printers.
To be fair, the laser inside the Form 3+ isn’t going to last forever, either, but it should last
more print hours than a typical masking LCD. And you also don’t have individual fixed pixels
that would make up each layer, instead the laser spot will first move smoothly around the contour
of the part before it does the infill, similar to how a filament printer works,
and you can actually hear that contour movement while the Form 3+ is working.
As a result, the surfaces of Form 3+ printed parts don’t have any of the “blockyness” you
see with some MSLA printers. We’re going to take a detailed look at details later on.
But, there is a huge downside, too: The Form 3+ is slow. Really slow. While an MSLA printer exposes
the entire layer in just a couple of seconds, the Form 3+, like I said, has to physically trace out
the outline and then fill in all the solid parts. The more area needs to be exposed on each layer,
the longer it’s going to take. For the infill, it’s actually smartly using the galvo and only
physically moves the light processing unit in tiny steps and then has the fast and
silent galvo do the majority of the work. So while there is a significant difference
in how a typical laser SLA printer, an LFS laser SLA printer like the Form 3+
or an MSLA printer works, the differences in what each technology can print are relatively minor.
The same restrictions with geometry apply for each of them.
But there are quite some differences in how well it prints parts and what level
of detail and reliability you can expect - and we’re going to take an in-depth look at
that in the next video - so stay tuned for those. Thank you to everyone who’s supporting the channel
through YouTube memberships or Patreon, you can find the details for that below,
thank you for watching, keep on making and I’ll see you in the next one!