Formlabs’ Features in the Form 4

Formlabs has sold more than 130,000 3D printers since it launched the Form 1 in 2012, making it one of the best selling professional 3D printer makers. Widely adopted by product design firms for prototypes, Formlabs’ machines have successfully expanded to the medical and dental market as well as low-volume production of end-use parts for automotive, light-manufacturing, and consumer products.

More than a decade ago, Formlabs created the desktop SLA 3D printer category. Before then, professional-grade SLA 3D printers were only available from the likes of 3D Systems and EnvisionTEC (now Desktop Metal). They were large production units costing upwards of $150K – and still are. Formlabs not only innovated on SLA, but introduced a number of industry firsts, including the resin cartridge system, a vast menu of engineering- and medical-grade resins, and most recently automated part removal.

In its shift from SLA to LCD, Formlabs brings its years of innovation with it in terms of what customers have always liked: an integrated ecosystem of hardware (including post-processing machines), software, materials, automation, and support.

The the trade-off for Form 4’s LCD speed is a small difference in print resolution when comparing the Form 4 to the Form 3+ (50 microns in the XY vs. 25 microns). The Form 4, being LCD technology, lists resolution slightly differently – it has a 50-micron pixel size, yet, couple this with “pixel smoothing,” which is technology in a printer’s slicing software, and the resolution of the Form 4 should effectively equal the Form 3+ in most applications.

In addition to being much faster – Form 4 can complete “most” print jobs in about two hours – it is larger than the Form 3+ yet still smaller than the Form 3L (335 x 200 × 300 mm). Formlabs is introducing a second generation Form Wash with Form 4. It can also be adjusted to Form 3 build platforms as it’s backwards compatible for Formlabs desktop units.

Formlabs says the higher speed and larger print volume results in 3.5 times higher throughput than the Form 3+. Couple this with new resins that are 33% lower cost and you have what Formlabs says is a 40% lower cost per part.

In addition to the Form 4, there’s the also-new Form 4B ($6,300) for dental and medical applications.

An Alternative to Injection Molding?

Formlabs CEO Max Lobovsky emphasized in Form 4’s product launch presentation that this new machine is an “industrial approach” to LCD, which remains the most-applied technology for hobby-level resin 3D printers.

As an example, Lobovsky pointed to its LCD screen that will last for “a million layers” of printing. Typically LCD lifespan is counted in hours of printing time, not layers, with 2,000 to 3,000 hours of printing before it should be replaced. This makes it a bit hard to compare. Formlabs told All3DP that a million layers is between 2,800 and 5,000 prints. Likewise, the Form 4 resin tank, another consumable, is designed to last “75,000 layers”. Formlabs lists the resin tank longevity of its Form 3+ in the standard hours of print time (600-800 hours) not layers, so, again, apples to oranges.

Lobovsky wants to position Form 4 as an alternative to injection molding for small manufacturers. “We’re not yet at the Holy Grail of matching injection molding for producing plastic parts,” he says, “there’s still more work to do on materials, reliability, and driving down cost-per-part, but with Form 4 we made a really big step, and I’m excited to say that for many parts, 3D printing is now faster than injection molding.”

More Affordable Materials

Form 4, like all Formlabs’ printers, features a mess-free, easy to use, material cartridge system, not bottles. In addition to validated materials and detailed print profiles, you can purchase a license to “open” the material settings and use any resin you wish. But the big news in materials is that they are cheaper, Formlabs says, starting at around $99 per liter instead of $150 for Form 3+ materials. Not only cheaper, but several have been enhanced to deliver better mechanical properties, the company says.

The Form 4 is compatible with 23 resins in all with more in the pipeline. Six new resins enable the Form 4 to print two- to five-times faster than the Form 3+.

The Form 4B for healthcare can accommodate 15 additional biocompatible materials.

We’ll have more details on the Form 4 and Form 4B as they are released.

Form 4 Tech Specs & Price

• Technology: LCD (Formlabs is calling its take on LCD “Low Force Display, LFD”)
• Build Volume: 200 x 125 x 210 mm
• Layer thickness (Z resolution): 25 – 300 microns
• XY resolution: 50 microns
• Print Speed: up to 100 mm / hour
• Camera: Built-in
• Materials: 23 validated, optional license for open material platform
• Price: The Form 4: $4,500, Form 4B: $6,300
• Shipping: May 1, 2024

Formlabs Form 4

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