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Nov 2016

Does anybody know what the ‘generally accepted’ numbers are on both resolution range and tolerance for FDM, SLA, SLS and Polyjet printing.

I understand that there’s a lot of factors involved with each technology, but I’m looking to get a general order of magnitude comparison for a presentation that is not too far off.

Thanks!

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    Nov '16
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    Nov '16
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@Filemon

I would suggest checking out the design guides Protolabs, and a couple other prototyping shops, give to customers for these tolerances/resolutions. Just keep in mind that these shops use professionally equipment so their tolerances tend to be tighter than the average consumer machine will be able to produce. There really are not an industry-standard accepted tolerances, but these should give you a good idea of the range.

SLA from Protolabs 29

SLS from Protolabs 19

SLA vs. SLS vs. FDM from MIT 69 (see page 4)

SLA vs. SLS. vs. Polyjet from 3D Systems 38 (see chart at bottom)

There’s a lot of good resources on this out there, since additive manufacturing had been around for awhile. Just gotta know the right places to look!