Ever think Bambu will try their hand at resin printers? Not sure if there are any who manufacture both FDM and SLA.
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There are a few.
SLA is a very different process from FDM. But there isn’t a lot of variation in what you can do to print, since performance of the printer is ultimately limited by the resin no matter what you do. So coming up with a design that significantly outperforms the competition (like the P1P/X1C does) is much, much harder to do. Manufacturers are focusing on higher resolutions, not print speeds. And they all have access to the same display panels, so there’s no real opportunity for differentiation there, either.
I’d prefer BBL stay focused on FDM where they have a clear edge.
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Creality makes both. As a hobbyist, resin printers seem like way too much mess and work to be fun.
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Well said. 
I was playing with the idea of getting a resin printer a few weeks ago but thankfully, I was given the opportunity to see a few prints fresh off of a resin printer (ANYCUBIC Photon Moto X 6Ks) and I didn’t see enough benefit in the resolution compared to my X1C’s using a .2 nozzle and printing at .08.
That is almost EXACTLY what the guy said who showed me the prints I mentioned above. I believe his exact words were, “Very messy and smelly, and a #$%! ton of post processing”.
I’ve been SLA printing since Formlabs’ Form1 kickstarter back around 2015. I currently have a Form3 printer.
SLA produces beautiful parts. But it’s slow to print, and you also need to clean and then post-cure your parts. And supports leave little “zits” where they touch that have to be cleaned up manually (and SLA uses a pissload of supports). It’s time consuming and messy as hell.
Also, SLA resins in general a built from a common set of polymers made by just a few suppliers. They share the same basic mechanical “weakness”, the prints are strong, but they tend to break with “glass like” fractures. Some resins are claimed to be strong enough for functional parts, but if I were to print a flat sheet of material and then hit it with a hammer, FDM plastic will dent. The SLA print will blow apart in to lots of tiny, sharp fragments.
So SLA for prints you want to look as nice as possible, FDM for stuff you need to be functional.
This is a D&D character I printed for my Nephew. Supports removed and cleaned/post-cured but before I went around to knock off all the support “zits”. It’s about 1.5" tall.
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I’ve been doing Resin printing for a while and only recently got into FDM printing. Besides the relatively small build volume of resin printers, it’s mainly the stability of prints and now the multi color/material features which got me to get a FDM printer. Resin prints are more fragile than FDM prints and hence isn’t suited for all kinds of prints. I had one model though where my resin print lasted for 2 years in water and sun, while the same with PLA starts to degrading after a few weeks and the PETG print broke instantly because of the worse layer adhesion. So… Really depends on the particular use case.
It’s true that resin printing is somewhat more effort, in that you have to clean prints and printer with IPA. IMO it’s not outrageous though, if you take into account the effort to dry filament, respooling filament to be able to use in the AMS, unclogged clogged nozzles, switching nozzles etc (which all isn’t a thing with resin printing).
In terms of smell, it’s certainly worse than printing PLA, however, I suppose the newer resins may be not as bad as printing other materials like ABS (from what I read, I’ve yet to do my first ABS print). In any case, if you want to get a resin printer, pick one with carbon filters to reduce that. The worst in terms of smell is probably the IPA which is used for cleaning after printing.
The print quality, when it comes to details isn’t comparable though. A FDM printer doesn’t come even close to what a resin printer can do there, even with the smallest nozzle.
I do not agree that there wouldn’t be much room to differentiate when making resin printers. Just like Bambu came up with the AMS for FDM printers to differentiate, I could think of similar systems for resin printers which would obtain the resin directly from the bottle and flush it back into it after the print, perhaps even coming up with a multi resin system for multi color prints too by swapping the VAT on the fly or something.
Also I’ve seen a Ted talk where some research project claims to be able to print Resin like 10 times faster by building upon a ventilation system injecting air from below which allows to pull the print out of the Resin in one go, without raising and lowering the build plate between layers… So, certainly a long way to go there too still…
Besides creality, there’s also anycubic which makes both, and also there’s a Prusa resin printer too. However, I don’t mind if Bambu sticks to FDM printers, given both technologies are quite different from each other, so there’s not too much knowledge that could be shared between the teams…
Edit: also I keep on reading that SLA printers are slow, which I don’t really agree with… Yes, if you print a thin and tall model, FDM may be faster, but for larger flat parts, SLA is the clear winner. In average I wouldn’t say that my Elegoo Mars 2 Pro is slower than my X1C… For instance, I’ve printed the very same lithophane with both simultaneously, and the Resins one finished in 6 hours while the X1C took 9. Admittedly with a 0.2 nozzle, but the resin print still has better details.
Edit2: Oh, and the thing I really love about resin printing, is that it’s enough to buy black, white and clear resin, and then you can mix every color using resin color pigments. While I have some 5 bottles of resin here and printed virtually every color with that, I already have waaay to many filament spools and still some 5 colors on my wishlist…
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I could think of similar systems for resin printers which would obtain the resin directly from the bottle and flush it back into it after the print,
Unfortunately, just because you can think of it, doesn’t mean it’s doable. 
The problem with this idea is that resins need to be viscous (this liquid property directly affects the strength of the cured resin, more viscous is better). They flow like heavy-weight motor oil. Purging the resin tank by simply letting it drain doesn’t work. It has to be flushed. Or wiped down. The mechanism to do this automatically would be extremely hard to develop, costly to manufacture, and flushing the resin tank would produce a significant amount of waste material that’d have to be disposed of.
I don’t think SLA will ever be able to do multi color printing. At least, not with the current architectures that can be used for SLA printing. Though there are clear resin kits with CMYK dyes that let you print in whatever solid color you want.
The SLA resins do not cure if they’re exposed to Oxygen. So the idea here is a semipermeable membrane for the film at the bottom of the resin tank. It allows Oxygen to get through but it doesn’t let Resin get out. The resin that’s in direct contact with the membrane doesn’t cure, so there’s no peel operation required to separate the newly printed layer from the membrane. Huge benefit to speed and also eliminates the stress applied during peel, letting you print more delicate parts with fewer supports. But… this concept isn’t new. It’s been around for a few years now. No one has managed to commercialize it in spite of a lot of effort to do so. It may not be achievable in a way that makes it practical for general use…
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That is very true, but likewise, I think because us here in this thread don’t know how to do it, doesn’t mean it’s impossible 
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I had actually considered a job at Formlabs, and spent a fair amount of time talking to them about the technology’s strengths and weaknesses. The current way SLA printers work simply doesn’t support multi color printing.
You’ve got a tank full of colored resin. You want to change colors. You have to purge the tank and refill it with the new color. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it simply can’t be done. Be slow as hell, too. If you think an X1C takes a long time to change colors… when I want to switch resins with a tank I’ve already used, I have to let it drain overnight before I can put it back on the printer and load it with new resin. I could keep multiple tanks and swap them and it’d be faster, but also much more expensive. And you can’t switch mid-print. And you can’t print multiple colors on the same layer.
I’ve seen some highly experimental resin printers that actually work more like FDM, they cure the resin with UV at the printhead as it’s extruded from an orifice. This style of printer can add dye to the resin as it’s ejecting it. But this approach totally eliminates the primary advantage of SLA - high resolution. It’s just like FDM and inherits the same kinds of quality-reducing limitations. And it has an annoying habit of curing the resin so the needle gets blocked so it’s not an idea that’s likely to go anywhere.
A good place to keep up to speed on 3D printer industry news is a website called Fabaloo.
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Well, you two (@RocketSled, @michael_zanetti) have definitely given me a lot of information in a short period of time. The primary purpose of my X1C’s is for printing action figures and diorama’s, with the occasional functioning part. I sand, prime, and paint everything so once that is done, I really am happy with the detail and smoothness of the prints. So, I really don’t need a resin printer. However, “need” has never been a motivating factor in my purchasing decisions regarding my hobbies. 
That’s actually what I do… Yes, required me to buy additional VATs, but as I couldn’t afford a Formlabs printer, an additional VAT for my Elegoo Mars is just about 20 bucks. Most of the time I don’t switch mid print, but keep the additional VATs just so I don’t have to clean them all the time to change color. But I did already switch mid print and it works just fine. Depending on resin and color one needs to change the exposure time when switching.
Also what I already did is to pour in a different colored resin during the print for a smooth transition. Say hello to my multi color flexi resin dragon
Can’t think of a way to switch color in a single layer yet, indeed.
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LOL, I feel like I have been pushed out of my own thread. 
Sorry, I’ll shut up now.
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Absolutely not, I am learning a lot from you two.
Well that’s very cool.
How do you get the print retracted far enough to remove the vat? And do you do anything to keep the suspended print from dripping resin on the display while you’re halfway through the swap (other than go fast )?
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Well, I pause the print, that makes it move up enough to change the VAT. You can even clean it off a bit with a tissue to not mix too much of the old resin color into the new one, but be very careful with that, to not create layer shifts. Z-Axis stability isn’t too great with my el-cheapo resin printer…
What I actually do more often, is to calculate the rough amount of resin the first part will need, and when it’s nearly finished, then just pour the other color in… It washes colors a bit, but not too much. Resin has the nice property that it collects around the print and dries up unused areas first.
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I don’t think the Form3 will move the Z stage very far for a pause, so I probably couldn’t get away with swapping vats (Form3 calls them “tanks”). But the pour more in partway through idea would work. I’m going to have to take a look at giving that a shot.
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Well, glad I could be of assistance. 
Prusa makes both. Their first SLA model was someone else’s rebranded, but they have their own now.
I have two SLA printers (Nova3D Whale 2 and Elfin Mini 3), but haven’t used them in a while. It’s fussy and messy, as others have said. Some prints simply can’t be done well in FDM.
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