The Form 4L Ecosystem
Complete Your 3D Printing Experience
Looking for a large-format resin 3D printer? Compare Formlabs Form 4L with the Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K S side by side.
Formlabs Form 4L
Cost
Form 4L offers industry-leading technology and support so you can optimize production and reliably print most large parts in under six hours. Go from design to finished part in fewer steps than ever with a streamlined, end-to-end ecosystem. Leverage our extensive resin library, designed to deliver industrial- grade parts that are up to any challenge. Formlabs printers are trusted by tens of thousands of professionals around the world.
BENEFITS
APPLICATIONS
* Use Form 4BL for biocompatible printing
Technology
LFD is a new generation of masked stereolithography (MSLA) 3D printing where reduced peel forces lead to incredible surface finish and unmatched accuracy. Formlabs Light Processing Unit (LPU) 4L is designed to deliver 600K - 1.9M layers of consistent print performance and takes only minutes to replace using a tool provided with the printer.
Light Intensity
16 mW/cm² optical power intensity delivered to the cure plane.
Print Speed
Up to 80 mm/h with Fast Model Resin, 24 mm/h on average across all materials.
XY Resolution
Light Source
Backlight Unit with 145 uniform-wavelength (LEDs) and custom lens array of plano-convex lenses for highly collimated and uniform light even at high power.
Build Volume
Materials
A wide range of materials for prototyping and production from soft silicone to flexible, tough, durable, and rigid varieties. Polyurethanes for end-use parts, specialty materials for high-temperature applications, and castable patterns.
A comprehensive library of resins for dental and medical applications is available on Form 4BL, including 12 materials for biocompatible parts. Third-party materials using Open Material Mode.
All Formlabs materials come with optimized print settings to guarantee industry-leading print success and reliability. Formlabs resins are designed with user safety and minimum odor in mind.
Ease of Use
Pre-tuned support settings with light touch supports are available for every material to facilitate support removal.
Automated washing and post-curing solutions designed for Form 4 and with validated settings for each Formlabs material
Consistent printing and a wider variety of material options, including highly-filled materials. Debris detection.
Quick, easy, and tool-free with Build Platform Flex. Prevents part breakage and potential injuries while removing parts.
Reliability
"We’ve pushed Form 4BL to its limits, and it hasn’t failed a single print. Its reliability under pressure has been outstanding."- Brian Albers, 3D Printing Engineer, St. Louis Children’s Hospital
A new Release Texture and a durable Flexible Film Resin Tank minimize peel forces during printing. Plus, the built-in Resin Level Sensor and Z-Axis Force Sensor ensure consistency and performance.
In the event of an issue, error messages display QR codes that lead to support articles to get you back up and running as quickly as possible.
TYPICAL DIMENSIONAL TOLERANCES
1-30 mm features: ±0.15% (lower limit: ±0.02 mm)
31-80 mm features: ±0.2% (lower limit: ±0.06 mm)
81-150 mm features: ±0.3% (lower limit: ±0.15 mm)
Software
Formlabs' free print preparation software, PreForm, has validated print settings for all Formlabs resins for easy, optimized printing, and the option to fine-tune settings for peak performance.
You can also use the online Dashboard to manage a fleet of printers, monitor prints, track materials and consumables, and work with your team.
Support
All Formlabs hardware comes with one-year warranty and email support provided by a dedicated staff. Purchase a Pro Service Plan to extend your coverage further and get access to additional benefits like hot-swap replacements, dedicated phone support, training, and more, so you can stay focused on growing your business.
Cost
The $9,999 starting price includes all the essential tools required to start printing and access to the powerful software and online Dashboard. The Form 4L Complete package for $19,999 also includes custom-developed automated post-processing tools and a premier service plan for a turnkey solution.
Buy from Formlabs via sales or the online store, or purchase through one of our distribution partners.
Company
Formlabs brought SLA 3D printing to the desktop in 2011 and SLS printing to the benchtop in 2021, and has become the market leader in both technologies, selling more than 130,000 printers. The Form 4 is a 4th generation product, powered by a proven technology that has been used to print over 400 million performance parts.
Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K S
Cost
Phrozen's Sonic Mega 8K S offers a low-cost entry into the world of resin 3D printing. It’s ideal for hobbyists, students, and anyone getting started with resin 3D printing, but does require a great deal of tinkering and a significant time investment to achieve successful prints.
BENEFITS
APPLICATIONS
Technology
Phrozen’s Sonic Mega 8K S MSLA resin 3D printer uses an LED and an LCD photomask to shape the layer image onto the bottom of the tank. The LCD screen is not durable, which means that it requires frequent replacements.
Light Intensity
N/A
Print Speed
Around 5-15 mm/h based on slicing real-life parts in slicer software using various resins and settings.
XY Resolution
43 μm
Light Source
405 nm ParaLED® Matrix 3.0
Build Volume
Materials
Phrozen offers a limited selection of materials, especially for professional applications. Functional resins have inferior mechanical, thermal, and creep performance, resulting in parts that are often brittle, dimensionally inaccurate, not functional, or don’t fit together.
Materials are not validated on the printer, which results in more failed prints, overall lower quality, and time and material waste during settings testing. The part may fail during use or simply not meet the specifications, necessitating reprints.
Low-cost resins also have strong odors requiring ventilation and may contain more hazardous chemicals.
Ease of Use
Supports with large tips and dense structures add time for sanding, reduce surface quality, and increase post-processing time.
Manual post-processing tools increase the likelihood of exposure to isopropyl alcohol and potential spills.
Manual mixing is required periodically. The lack of resin mixer means no debris detection, fewer material options, dimensional accuracy issues, and print failures.
Tools required to remove parts. Risk of part breakage or injury while removing parts. Not compatible with flexible build plates.
Reliability
Low-cost resin printers typically have a 60-70% print success rate out of the box. This causes project delays from unexpected failure, resin waste from failed prints, extra labor costs from reprints, and worry from not knowing what will happen after pressing “print.” Tuning the printer can increase the print success rate but requires additional time and experimentation.
Resin tanks are flimsy and the film breaks easily. In case of failures, the resin can cover and damage critical optical surfaces of the printer, requiring a lengthy clean-up or replacement.
TYPICAL DIMENSIONAL TOLERANCES
N/A
Software
Phrozen's Premium Slicer doesn't come included with the printer purchase, but costs an additional $299.
It offers a very limited set of features and is only available for Windows. Each print requires a lengthy manual setup and each new resin type requires tinkering to dial in print settings, wasting time and materials.
There’s no logging system on the printers, no remote print monitoring, and no online dashboard to manage printers, print jobs, or materials.
Support
Phrozen hardware comes with 3-12 months of limited warranty and there is little or no support provided for customers other than self-service online. Knowledge base is limited and customers often need to rely on community forums to debug their printers.
Cost
The Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K S starts at $1,499 for the printer. Manual Mega S post-processing solutions are available, as is the separate purchase of Phrozen's barebones Premium Slicer software. There is no option for professional service.
Software
Founded in 2016 in Taiwan, Phrozen is an emerging company that develops resin 3D printers predominantly for hobbyist and personal use.
Do you have more questions about the differences between these solutions?
See and feel Formlabs quality firsthand. We’ll ship a free sample part printed on Form 4 to your office.
See how Form 4L, our next generation large-format resin 3D printer, takes the speed, accuracy, and reliability of Form 4 to a completely new scale.
In this white paper, learn how SLA technologies work, why thousands of professionals use this process today, and what you need to know to explore how SLA 3D printing can benefit your work.
Speed at scale. Large prints in under 6 hours.
Stunning parts that always fit.
A wide range of applications to help you excel in your work.
Forge Motorsport reverse-engineered an underperforming part, 3D printed a new design, and tested it on a vehicle for five months before committing to tooling.
Forge Motorsport reverse-engineered an underperforming part, 3D printed a new design, and tested it on a vehicle for five months before committing to tooling.