Formlabs Year in Review: 2024 Highlights

In April, we announced our Form 4 masked stereolithography (MSLA) 3D printer and Form 4B for biocompatible printing. Delivering 4x the speed and 30% more build volume than Form 3/B+, Form 4/B redefines the industry standard for speed, accuracy, reliability, and material versatility and received glowing reviews from the likes of Tested and TechRadar.

Six months after releasing Form 4/B, we announced Form 4L and Form 4BL, large-format MSLA 3D printers. Built on the same groundbreaking Low Force Display™ (LFD) technology as Form 4/B, Form 4L/BL delivers most large parts in under six hours without compromising on accuracy or reliability.

Empowering scalable production of medical devices, or large prototypes before lunch, Form 4L/BL’s reliability, precision, speed, and ease of use is garnering rave reviews from the likes of Norm Chan at Tested, and users like Brose, Archer Aviation, and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

We pride ourselves on our expansive material library and the versatile materials that, with our ecosystems, consistently deliver exceptional parts. But we also know that there are challenges beyond those we have materials and workflows for and users pushing the boundaries of material science. As of this fall, Formlabs is open! Open Material Mode enables expert users to print with third-party materials and custom resins, and opens the Formlabs SLA and SLS ecosystems. 

Our material scientists took advantage of the groundbreaking hardware of Form 4 Series printers to develop new resins such as Fast Model Resin, Formlabs’ fastest printing resin. Our new General Purpose Resins, Grey Resin V5, Clear Resin V5, White Resin V5, and Black Resin V5 offer enhanced aesthetics, improved mechanical properties, and faster print speeds. Fast Model Resin can reach print speeds of 100 mm per hour at a 200 μm layer height, accelerating design and production timelines.

Released in September, Clear Cast Resin was developed specifically for industrial investment casting foundries for the direct production of casting patterns in-house at reduced costs, decreased turnaround times, and improved flexibility in iteration and production. 

Nylon 12 White Powder and Nylon 12 Tough Powder are materials that empower Fuse Series customers to expand their in-house capabilities. Nylon 12 White Powder makes advanced post-processing workflows easier than ever, for dyed, painted, and coated photo-ready parts that match your brand’s aesthetic and are ideal for medical applications where color contrast is necessary. Nylon 12 Tough Powder’s high ductility and low refresh rate make rugged, end-use parts more affordable than ever. 

To learn more about Formlabs materials, explore our material library or request a free sample part to evaluate materials for yourself.

This fall we livestreamed our 2024 Formlabs User Summit, a full day of application talks, SLS and SLA deep drive, and conversations with industry trailblazers like Youtuber ‪@TomStantonEngineering‬.

In a detailed, hour-long video, Shane Wighton of the YouTube channel Stuff Made Here visited Formlabs and, in front of the lead engineer for Form 4 (who used to work under Shane), breaks down an entire printer. Watch the detailed deep dive into the technology and hardware of Form 4 that’s fascinated so many.

With the blazing speeds and fine finishes of Form 4, we set out to show how 3D printing can compete with traditional injection molding — and the comments went wild with questions. So intense was the debate that we released a second video pitting two Form 4Ls against injection molding as both rushed to produce an actual part used in our printers. Let the debates commence!

Ford Motor Company is the sixth largest automaker in the world, producing over 4 million vehicles a year and employing over 175,000 staff worldwide. At the heart of Ford's European operations is Ford Cologne, including PD Merkenich’s Rapid Technology Center, which is instrumental in creating rapid prototypes for product development and responsible for designing all passenger vehicles for the European market from the ground up.

One in every three new vehicles coming off the assembly line today has at least one component manufactured by Brose — one of the five largest family-owned automotive suppliers in the world. Brose’s commitment to continuous improvement has led them to invest in new technologies like additive manufacturing and automation to streamline their processes and deliver innovative solutions for each of their customers. 

3D printing is at the core of multiple initiatives in Brose’s design and end-use manufacturing processes and has helped Brose adapt and respond to all the changes in the fast-paced automotive industry.

Arbutus Medical creates specialized procedure kits with high-performance single-use instruments so patients can receive treatment faster and doctors can spend their time treating instead of tracking down tools. 

Formlabs resin 3D printers are used to not only prototype medical devices, but to manufacture devices for human factors testing and pilot production. For the latest device, a Kirschner Bow, Postole worked with Phil Tsao, a Formlabs ambassador and founder of Ember Prototypes, a rapid prototyping, consulting, and product design firm, to leverage 3D printing to sprint from idea to commercialization in one year, even utilizing 3D printing for stopgap production, producing over 800 parts a month.

MOSOLF Special Vehicles GmbH is a leading special vehicle manufacturer based in Kippenheim, Germany. Their clients require a diverse range of custom and low-volume parts, where tooling costs render traditional manufacturing methods economically unfeasible. For MOSOLF, 3D printing presents an ideal solution.

Archer Aviation, Inc. a leader in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, is reimagining air travel with the development of the next generation of air taxis. When the advanced technologies division, a full design studio doing interior design for aircraft, tested Form 4L, they found that it increased the number of iterations the team could do in a week, putting their best FDM to shame and producing functional prototypes that required 80% less sanding and finishing.

The Rosenberger Group is one of the biggest global players in internet connectivity, manufacturing the high-frequency fiber optic and high-voltage connectivity solutions that power our global network. To maintain their success in a constantly changing industry (and to be a key driver of that change), Rosenberger has worked with Formlabs since 2017, leveraging both SLA and SLS technology at every stage of production.

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG is the leading global manufacturer of offset printing presses and produces a wide range of tools and automation solutions for the entire printing value chain, from some of the largest and fastest state-of-the-art printing presses to cutting and folding machines. They originally added SLS 3D printing to optimize prototyping and product development, but today the company uses 3D printed parts in series production, producing thousands of parts per year for around 15 different applications.

Prime Inspections helps oil and gas companies construct, monitor, and maintain pipeline systems by providing nondestructive testing (NDT) and field-joint coating (FJC) services. SLS 3D printing has significantly enhanced their ability to complete this work faster, safer, and more efficiently. “I don’t think we could have done it without having the Fuse printers. Going metal, the cost would outweigh the benefit. Not only are these printers fast, but as soon as I can dream up a part, 10 hours later it’s in my hands,” Burke says.

Unilever is constantly developing new products for everyday use, from personal care to home care, nutrition, and more. Packaging, including the design of a bottle, can sometimes affect customer perception as much as what’s inside. But for a “simple” plastic bottle, getting from a design on the computer screen to filling it on the manufacturing line has traditionally taken many months. With Formlabs SLA printers and Rigid 10K Resin, Unilever and Serioplast were able to reduce lead times by up to 70% and tooling costs by up to 90% to produce pilot runs of 200 units in only two weeks.

As one of the largest railway companies in the world, Deutsche Bahn is responsible for the mobility of more than 10 million passengers per day. With over 40 plants throughout Germany that service its fleet of passenger and freight trains, 3D printing is a key tool for producing manufacturing aids that simplify workflows, reduce costs, and help get trains back on the rails faster.