3D printing, an additive manufacturing process, builds an object by printing one horizontal layer at a time. The thickness / height of each layer is referred to as the layer resolution and also as the z-axis resolution or the layer height.
It is an important parameter for 3D printing as it directly affects the surface quality of the printed parts, the printing time and most importantly, the printing costs. As the layer resolution decreases, the visibility of the printed layers increases & vice-versa. A low resolution print will have a rougher surface than a high resolution print as can be seen in the image shown below. Print resolution comes at the cost of printing time. The parameter is directly correlated to the printing time as when we increase the layer resolution from 200 microns to 100 microns, for example, the printing time almost doubles and vice-versa.
For most structural and functional applications, you shouldn't need to place much emphasis on layer resolutions. The standard layer resolution parameters used by us should suffice. Fine surface quality requirements typically come into play for applications such as architectural scale models, figurines, etc.
In general, mechanical objects such as tools would not need the same layer thickness requirements as that of organic objects such as figurines.
A comparison of different layer resolutions / layer heights of 3D printed parts
At Fabforma, we utilize different standard layer resolution parameters for different 3D printing technologies:
For FDM, the layer resolution commonly used varies between 100 – 200 microns;
For SLS, the standard layer resolution used is 60 microns;
For Polyjet, the standard layer resolution used is 16 microns;
For SLA, the standard layer resolution used is 50 microns;
For DLP, the standard layer resolution used is 25 microns
Please note that the more commonly stated
layer resolution parameter differs from the
x-y resolution parameter. You may learn more about the
x-y resolution parameter
out here.
