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The Visitech technology glossary

DLP imaging, direct imaging lithography and additive manufacturing carry a vocabulary that is half acronym. This is what we mean by each of them — in plain terms, written by the engineers who build the hardware.

A to Z

Every term, defined

Search for a term, or narrow the list to a theme. Every entry links to itself, so you can send a colleague straight to the definition you meant.

16 terms

#

3D printing
The everyday name for additive manufacturing: building a part up in layers from a digital model.
µSLA
Micro-stereolithography: stereolithography at feature sizes measured in single microns, for micro-optics, microfluidics and other parts where the resolution matters more than the build volume.

A

Additive manufacturing
Building a part by adding material layer by layer from a digital model, rather than cutting it away from a block. Also called 3D printing; the term is preferred where the output is a production part rather than a prototype.

B

Build area
The area a machine can expose without moving the substrate — for a multihead or scrolling system, the area covered by the whole arrangement.
Build size
The dimensions of the largest part a machine can make, in all three axes.

D

Direct image sintering
Sintering a whole layer at once by projecting its image onto the powder bed, rather than tracing it with a scanned laser spot. Visitech's term for the DLP approach to powder bed fusion.
DIS
Direct image sintering — Visitech's term for sintering a whole layer at once with a DLP light engine, rather than tracing it with a scanned laser spot.

M

Maximum build area
The largest area an additive machine can expose in one layer, using however many heads the configuration has.

P

Part
One finished item produced by an additive machine.
PBF
Powder bed fusion — the family of additive processes that build a part by fusing successive layers of powder, of which selective laser sintering is one.
Polymer
The resin an additive part is built from in stereolithography, and the material class the resist films used in lithography belong to.
Powder bed fusion
The family of additive processes that build a part by fusing successive layers of powder. Shortened to PBF.

S

Selective laser sintering
Powder bed fusion in which a scanned laser fuses the powder point by point. Shortened to SLS.
Sintering
Fusing powder into a solid with heat, without fully melting it.
SLS
Selective laser sintering — an additive process in which a laser fuses powder layer by layer. Its DLP equivalent exposes a whole layer at once instead of tracing it.
Stereolithography
Building a part by curing liquid photopolymer with light, layer by layer. A DLP engine cures a whole layer in one exposure.

Still not clear?

Ask the people who built it

A definition only goes so far. Tell us the substrate, the line/space you are aiming at and the format, and we will come back with what it means for your machine — usually within two business days.