14 DAY TRIAL // If you've been keeping an eye on the 3D printing industry, you've probably seen all the latest and biggest 3D printers and how there seems to be a contest to see who gets to make the largest one. But what if the emphasis was placed on the opposite? On miniaturization?
Apparently, there has always been a group of 3D printing companies and customers that were more concerned with small objects than large ones.
The reason we haven't written about them much is because of technological limitations that have kept their number low. Also, because the technique usable in high-quality miniatures has been, until recently, outside the reach of consumers.
You see, there are two main 3D printing techniques, not counting metal 3D printing. One is FDM, or fused deposition modeling, where an extruder pushes and superheats filament through a nozzle. Objects are, thus, built drop by drop.
The other main technology is DLP (digital light processing) or SLA (stereolithography). Here, a photopolymer, commonly known as resin, is cured by being subjected to intense light bursts. Objects are literally grown out of resin tanks.
FDM 3D printing is cheap but low-resolution (the best is 50 microns), while DLP/SLA is better at ensuring detail. Much better.
Just how much better wasn't totally clear, though, until now. The image above is a 3 mm-tall print from Zealot Miniatures, a small company that has been making very small models and parts for various clients, and has done so for five years.
Models, aftermarket parts, scenery, and conversion kits for miniatures are the specialty, in a way. Most models are Sci-Fi figures or characters from fantasy novels, games, or whatever else. Custom models are also among the commissions they take though.
Case in point, the item standing on the fingertip in the photo above is a Navy crew member made with the B9 Creator v1.2, which used a 1080p light projector to print in 30 microns on the XY axes and 15 microns on the Z axis.
The crew member will be used in a model warship being created by the client that asked Eddie J Fisher for help (Fisher is the founder of the Zealot Miniatures company). And according to him, he could print the item in even higher resolution if he gets a higher detail STL file.
We have to say, for a simple test print the small figurine is very detailed (the scale is 1:600). Fisher will also be tasked with creating the warship itself.
