Superseding Three Resin Printers With One: How a Service Bureau Scaled Up With Form 4L

Additium3D is a Spanish service bureau that offers companies an end-to-end solution from pre-print services such as consulting, 3D design, and scanning, to additive manufacturing with 3D printing including fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), and selective laser sintering (SLS). While adopting a low-cost resin printing enabled Additium3D to increase productivity and improve pricing, this came at the cost of health and safety. “Print failures, dust, and the toxicity of Phrozen resins overwhelmed our production facility,” says Guillermo Navarro, Director at Additium3D. 

Resin printing allowed Additium3D to gain a major client, but the health risks were impacting everyone, and the 30% failure rate of prints was costly. In 2025, Additium3D replaced their three Phrozen printers with one Form 4L.

As additive manufacturing experts, Additium3D selects the optimal printing method based on the client’s requirements for mechanical properties, aesthetics, project timeline, and cost per part. Navarro says by way of example, “If the client wants to optimize for price or needs parts printed directly in color, we go with FDM. If they need high productivity, mechanical strength, and isotropic properties, we recommend SLS with Fuse 1.”

Additium3D started offering their SLA 3D printing services with three Phrozen printers, but found that health concerns from resin and issues with reliability made them more costly than they’d originally thought. Though Form 4L has a higher upfront cost, Additium3D found running the same job on a single Form 4L resulted in higher throughput at less cost — especially when factoring in labor costs. 

Additium3D was able to fit 125 figurines on a single Build Platform L thanks to PreForm’s part placement and compact supports. Additionally, less labor was needed for Form 4L prints as a single build platform could hold more parts, meaning fewer interactions with the printer. Lastly, less post-processing time was needed for Form 4L parts due to fewer support marks and an easier workflow.

Workplace safety has been top of mind for Navarro since the severe floods in October 2024, when he was trapped inside his factory. In addition to the material damage to the company, Navarro and his brother suffered physical harm. He says, “After such an experience, we made the decision to prioritize health over profit maximization. The best part is that we discovered the economic difference was minimal, thanks to the great advantages of the Form 4L in terms of reliability.”

Top among the issues with Additium3D’s low-cost resin printers were health and safety conditions. Navarro says, “The toxicity of Phrozen resins overwhelmed our production facility. My brother even needed medical attention due to eyelid irritation caused by exposure to these resins.”

Formlabs resins are developed without the use of 4-Acryloylmorpholine (ACMO), a harmful and hazardous chemical found in many other resins. Additionally, resin cartridges and tanks are designed to reduce resin exposure, while Form 4 Series 3D printers feature automatic resin dispensing and smart sensors to improve user safety and experience. From printing through post-processing, Formlabs workflows are developed for user ease and safety. After using Form 4L, Navarro says, “The cleanliness of our production facility and our health and safety conditions have improved. Additionally, our client now refuses to accept any other print quality, and they are willing to pay more for better parts.”

Additium3D started with three Phrozen Mega 8K 3D printers as the combined build volume matched their production requirements. However, Navarro says, “Phrozen print times were not as fast as calculated in their software, reducing the productivity in some cases up to 50%, as it was not possible to make two print shifts per day and machine.” While one Form 4L has a comparable build volume, the print speed and reliability of Form 4L enables Additium3D to exceed the output of three Phrozen Mega 3D printers.

The speed of Form 4L enables Additium3D to average two large prints per working day, printing prototypes and end-use parts, including mid-size production runs of high-end decorative pieces and figurines.

Failed prints result in wasted resin, time spent reprinting, and mess that requires manual clean-up. While a printer can be fast, if the part has to be reprinted, this can double the expected time to part, which is why speed combined with reliability are key.

For batches of prints, consistency of print quality is also important. “We got tired of throwing away parts for different defects,” says Navarro of parts from the low-cost resin printers. “Not only parts that failed during the printing process, but also surface defects such as pinholes, resin cracks, layer shifts, warping, and layer separation that become very visible after having the parts painted.”

With Form 4L, Navarro has found that less than one percent of parts fail or have issues. This metric aligns with independent, third-party testing of Form 4 and other resin printers, which found that Form 4 has a 98.7% print success rate.

Every step in a workflow matters when it comes to efficiency. PreForm, Formlabs’ print preparation software, enables users to set up parts for printing with one click. With other slicers, Navarro found that the software would miss placing supports in key places, or place supports in undesirable areas based on piece geometry.

Light-touch supports are easier to remove and result in smoother surface finishes, for less time spent post-processing and finishing. Additionally, PreForm’s print time estimates and material usage give service bureaus the information needed to quickly quote price and time to clients.

Additium3D began printing with Clear Resin V5 and White Resin V5, as they were most suitable for the projects they’ve received. These are general-purpose resins formulated to leverage the technology of Form 4 Series 3D printers. Additium3D uses White Resin V5 is used for looks-like prototypes for client presentation, as well as for parts that need to be painted.

Beyond general purpose resins, Additium3D has been working with Elastic 50A Resin, a soft, transparent elastomer with a 50A Shore durometer, for a client who requires test parts with very high flexibility. Durable Resin, similar in strength and stiffness to polyethylene (PE), is also a frequently used material, ideal for squeezable prototypes, low-friction assemblies, and jigs and fixtures undergoing significant impacts.

As Additium3D takes on new projects, they are scaling up their 3D printing options, installing the Fuse Ecosystem for SLS 3D printing and post-processing, considering Form 4B so that they can add biomedical resins to their material options, and even the potential of adding a second Form 4L to further expand their throughput. All of this is in service to their mission of providing their clients with professional, high-quality parts and services.   

To learn more, explore Formlabs 3D printers or contact sales.