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DLP 3D Printer - Comparison of Three Light-Curing 3D Printing Technologies (SLA/DLP/LCD)

2025-12-01

Light curing molding is the earliest 3D printing molding technology and is also a relatively mature 3D printing technology at present. The basic principle of this technology is to use the accumulation molding of materials. The shape of a three-dimensional target part is divided into several planar layers. A light beam of a certain wavelength scans the liquid photosensitive resin, causing the scanned part of each layer of liquid photosensitive resin to solidify and form, while the parts not illuminated by the light beam remain liquid. Eventually, all the layers accumulate to form the required target part, and the material utilization rate can approach 100%.

Recently, the development of light-curing 3D printers has been very good. Due to their high printing precision, which can reach the micrometer level, major 3D printer manufacturers have all launched related models.

However, many careful friends have already noticed that there is not just one type of light-curing 3D printer. Currently, there are mainly three types available on the market, including SLA light-curing 3D printers, DLP light-curing 3D printers, and LCD light-curing 3D printers. So, what are the differences among these three types of light-curing 3D printers? Let's take a look together.

I. SLA Light-Curing 3D Printer
SLA technology is the first generation mainstream technology of light curing. It has various translation names in China, such as stereolithography, stereoprinting, and light modeling, etc. SLA forming technology is not only the earliest rapid prototyping technology to appear and be commercialized in the world, but also one of the most deeply researched and widely applied rapid prototyping technologies.

The fundamental principle of SLA forming technology is mainly to utilize ultraviolet laser (355nm or 405nm) as the light source and use a galvanometer system to control the scanning of the laser spot. The laser beam sketches out the first layer shape of the object on the surface of the liquid resin. Then, the manufacturing platform descends a certain distance (between layers), and the solidified layer is immersed in the liquid resin. This process is repeated until the solid object is finally printed.

II. DLP Light-Curing 3D Printer
Digital Light Processing (DLP), which is also known as the second-generation stereolithography technology, emerged more than ten years after the advent of SLA technology. It has a development history of over 20 years. DLP technology was first developed by Texas Instruments and is a rapid prototyping technology that creates 3D printed objects by curing photosensitive polymer liquids layer by layer through a projector.

This forming technology first uses slicing software to slice the model into thin layers. The projector plays slides, and the light polymerization reaction occurs in a very thin area of the resin layer for each layer of image, solidifying to form a thin layer of the part. Then the forming table moves one layer, and the projector continues to play the next slide to process the next layer. This cycle repeats until the printing is completed. Therefore, not only is the forming accuracy high, but the printing speed is also very fast.

III. LCD Light-Curing 3D Printers
We have talked a lot about 3D printers based on SLA and DLP technologies above. Now let's have a chat about a new type of light curing product, the LCD light curing 3D printer.
The LCD light curing forming technology actually emerged only in 2013. The inventor is a technical expert from our country, but that's not the point. The key point is that this technology is open source and the core components are also very cheap.

Let's first talk about its forming principle. In fact, compared with DLP forming technology, the simplest understanding is that the light source of DLP technology is replaced by LCD, and the rest is basically the same. The imaging principle of the LCD liquid crystal plate is that after the optical projection passes through the red, green and blue primary color filters to filter out infrared and ultraviolet rays (infrared and ultraviolet rays have certain damaging effects on the LCD sheet), the three primary colors are projected through three liquid crystal plates to form a projected image.

However, due to the fact that this molding technology requires the use of high-power ultraviolet light irradiation and utilizes the extremely small amount of ultraviolet light that passes through for curing and molding. And LCD liquid crystal screens are inherently sensitive to ultraviolet light; they will age rapidly upon exposure. Moreover, this core component not only has to withstand the tests of heat resistance and high-temperature heat dissipation but also endure several hours of intense baking from dozens of 405 LED bulbs. As a result, its service life is very short. If used frequently, the core component, the LCD screen, is often damaged within one to two months.

IV. Comparison of Three Printing Technologies
Today, let's introduce and compare these three more common technologies: SLA, DLP and LCD.
Forming speed: DLP > LCD > SLA
Printing precision: DLP > SLA > LCD > FDM
Printing size range: SLA > DLP > LCD
The range of materials: (DLP ≈ LCD) > SLA
The lifespan of main components: DLP ≈ SLA > LCD
Machine prices: SLA > DLP > LCD
Consumable prices: SLA ≈ DLP ≈ LCD
Scope of Application:
SLA: Fine parts such as mobile phones, radios, walkie-talkies, mice, toys, electronic industrial casings, household appliance shells or models, motorcycle and car parts or models, medical equipment, etc.
DLP: Small precision parts, dental models, denture gingival guides, jewelry, R&D experiments, figurines, medical devices
LCD: Personal makers, entertainment. Smaller-sized models

V. The Differences Between SLA and DLP Two Forming Technologies
Both SLA and DLP use photopolymer resin as their consumables, and the principles of the two forming technologies are very similar. Therefore, when the industry studies 3D printing forming technologies, it often likes to regard these two technologies as the same type. However, there are still many differences between them in many aspects.

1. Mechanical structure. DLP uses the digital light source of a projector, while SLA uses an ultraviolet laser light source.
2. Forming speed. Due to the working principle of DLP, which projects the cross-sectional graphics of the product onto the surface of liquid photosensitive resin using digital micromirror devices, and enables the exposed resin to undergo photo-curing layer by layer, the printing speed is extremely fast; while SLA uses a laser beam to draw the object on the surface of liquid resin, from point to line and then from line to surface to form a solid model, so its working efficiency is much lower than that of the former.
3. Printing accuracy. Theoretically, both can achieve micron-level printing accuracy. The minimum spot size that DLP can achieve is ±50 microns, while that of SLA is ±100 microns. Due to the high power of the SLA laser, it is prone to large errors in the forming spot.

Additionally, achieving micron-level accuracy requires high standards for the main components of SLA, such as the laser and galvanometer. Generally, domestic galvanometers are hard to meet these requirements, and the cost will increase significantly to reach micron-level accuracy. In contrast, DLP is relatively easier to achieve micron-level accuracy. Therefore, the printing accuracy of DLP is higher than that of SLA.

4. Print size. Due to the limitation of the digital micromirror resolution, DLP can only print smaller-sized products compared to SLA.
Overall, both technologies have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, in practical use, DLP 3D printers clearly have more advantages.

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DLP 3D Printer - Comparison of Three Light-Curing 3D Printing Technologies (SLA/DLP/LCD)