Formlabs announced the launch of its Form 4 and Form 4B 3D printers to help professionals go from prototype to production.
The new flagship resin 3D printers set a new standard for additive manufacturing with Somerville, Massachussetts-based Formlabs’ proprietary new Low Force Display (LFD) print engine. It’s the company’s first new printer in five years and its fastest.
The new printers update the company’s library of industry-leading resins, new automated post-processing, and an improved user experience. Form 4 is up to five times faster at print speeds, unlocking new levels of productivity for product designers, engineers, manufacturers, healthcare professionals, and innovators to take design risks and accelerate time to market.
“Form 4 is a huge leap not only for Formlabs and our customers, but also for the entire 3D printing world,” said Formlabs CEO Max Lobovsky, in a statement. “More than a decade ago, Formlabs created the desktop SLA 3D printer category and set a new standard for accuracy, reliability, ease of use, and affordability in 3D printing.”
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He said the firm built on the strength and insights gathered from more than 130,000 printers on the market and over 300 million parts printed to deliver the Form 4.
“Its reliability and new level of speed will transform how our customers develop new products,” he said.
As the company’s fourth generation of desktop resin 3D printers, Form 4 takes performance to new levels by delivering blazing fast print speeds, extreme reliability, industry-leading material properties, excellent print quality, and intuitive operation.
3D printing’s progress
Ten years ago, Netflix prophesied 3D printers as the next “home computer” with the potential to fuel a new industrial revolution. Formlabs said Netflix got it half right — a decade later, the industry has matured and Formlabs went from a Kickstarter to the market leader.
Formlabs said it has inspired an innovation boom with 3D printed surgical instruments, Formula 1 car production, custom toys from Hasbro, and even parts sent to space. The company said the new printers can achieve maximum print speeds of over 100 millimeters per hour; complete small parts in minutes and most prints in under two hours; Produce 11 dental models in nine minutes and six splints in 35 minutes; and print two times to five faster than Form 3+ depending on material.
Form 4 Highlights
Blazing fast print speeds: Prints two to five times faster than Form 3+ depending on material, enabling same-hour iteration or batch production with masked stereolithography (mSLA) technology. It can complete most prints in under two hours and small parts in minutes of cycle time. And it can achieve maximum vertical print speeds of 100 mm per hour.
LFD print engine: A departure from laser and galvanometer technology, Form 4 features an ultra-high power backlight (16 mw/cm2), proprietary release texture, Light Processing Unit 4 (LPU 4), and dual-layer, flexible film resin tank.
Reliability: Industry-leading print success thanks to validated print settings, precision heating, force sensing, and debris detection.
Parts that always fit: With 50-micron pixels, highly collimated light, advanced pixel smoothing, and light touch supports, Form 4’s print quality is unmatched, the company said.
Intuitive to use: Anyone can learn to print in 15 minutes – featuring automatic resin handling, instant material changes, automated post-processing, and quick release build platform technology.
40% lower cost per part: Delivering affordability with long-lasting resin tanks (75,000+ layers) and Light Processing Unit (1M+ layers), 33% lower resin pricing, 30% larger print volume, and 3.5 times higher throughput.
“We support all hardware categories at Microsoft. Form 4 is our go-to choice for projects needing tight tolerances and engineering-grade materials,” said Mark Honschke, additive prototyping lead at Microsoft, in a statement. “It produces high-performance parts with amazingly fast print times and makes it possible for our model makers to produce multiple iterations in a 24-hour period.”
“Form 4’s speed and materials versatility enable us to create multiple prototypes and manufacturing aids every day,” said Bruno Alves, development engineer AM/IM at Ford Motor Company, in a statement. “The printer has already changed the way we design and produce parts, helping us drive efficiency in our product development.”
Industry-leading materials
In addition to the new printers, Formlabs is introducing six new resins to its industry-leading resin library, including: Four newly reformulated general purpose resins that take advantage of the Form 4 ecosystem to print two to five times faster than Form 3 with improved toughness and color. It also has fast model resin, for high-speed prototypes and production of orthodontic models. And it has precision model resin, for highly accurate dental models that always fit.
Additionally, Form 4 is validated to use 17+ other performance materials from Formlabs’ materials library, with new materials to be added regularly. Form 4B, designed for innovative healthcare professionals in the dental and medical industries, is compatible with 15 additional biocompatible materials.
Form 4 (starting at $4,500) and Form 4B (starting at $6,300) are available today at Formlabs.com.