Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose the Right Resin for 3D Printing

Are you still confused by so many types of resins? Those who are new to desktop resin printers will inevitably not find the right resin, and wonder why it can't be simpler? Due to different needs, manufacturers develop various kinds of resins for users to meet their 3D projects. Once you find the resin that meets your expectations and master how to use, it will be a further leap forward in your SLA 3D printing.

There is no denying the fact that resin 3d printers have a great performance on 3D prints with intricate details and high accuracy, compared with FDM another popular 3D printing technologies. (Is FDM or SLA better?) Specifically, they have wide applications such as animation, engineering, dental, jewelry and other fields.

Indeed, resin for SLA printers is a very magical material, which can be found in many different states. Before curing, it flows as a liquid in vats. After solidify, its characteristic will change according to the hardness. For example, it can be as soft and flexible as gels and rubbers, but it can also be as rigid as a hard hat at construction sites.

This article lets us understand how to choose the right resin for 3d printing according to the different properties of the uv resin from Anycubic, and their field of application. If you are a beginner, hopefully this list below will give you an answer. If you are a Pro, you can also find your own resin here.

As the best seller in Anycubic resin family, Standard Colored UV Resin, the best resin for beginners, is inexpensive and easy to use. Due to the classic formula, the printing success rate is high and the performance in many aspects is stable.

An upgraded formula based on the classic formula, Anycubic Standard Resin + is here. It makes the smell less strong, but also improves accuracy, toughness and adhesion for higher printing success rates. Moreover, there are up to seven color choices of the resin to meet the needs of users, including the most popular colors in the market, so try more colors!

Frankly speaking, it might be hard to achieve an outstanding performance in a certain feature. This also explains the important reason that why there is a need to produce resins with different properties.

When we print some functional parts that require to be bent or rubbed repeatedly, so we need the resin that has mechanical properties to make 3d prints more durable and not easy to break. At this point, general resins seem to be unable to meet this demand. Here Anycubic ABS-Like Resin+ has what it takes to handle it. It is an industrial grade resin in Anycubic resin family, because PUA (polyurethane acrylate) is added to the formula, and Anycubic ABS-Like Resin+ obtains the perfect balance between tensile strength and toughness.

Anycubic ABS-Like Resin Pro upgrades the formula on the basis of ABS-Like Resin+ to enhance mechanical strength. Compared to the standard resin, it has 52% higher tensile strength and 60% higher flexural strength, withstanding repeated bending, hole drilling and dropping without crack.

Anycubic Plant-based UV Resin is the best Eco resin, the greenest and safest choice in the Anycubic resin collection. As we all know, UV resin is toxic to human body and environment if mishandled. On the one hand, long-term direct contacting uncured resin without safety precautions will cause disease. On the other hand, residual liquid resin contains pollutants that can be harmful to the environment. To change the problem in positive ways, Anycubic Plant-based UV Resin is launched to minimize the hazard, which is made from green and pure natural soybean extracts.

Anycubic Plant-based UV Resin + is an upgrade to the resilience brings both good toughness and strength to 3d prints, making them easier to shape and more resistant to bend. It is also has no pungent or irritating odor and is free of BPA and benzene harmful chemicals for less worry when printing. 

However, it is important to notice that the Eco resin is safer than many other resins, but not 100% safe. So we still suggest wearing gloves and masks, and maintaining indoor ventilation during printing to avoid skin allergy. And don't throw away any residual uncured resin if it's not fully cured.

If you're looking for a user-friendly resin or your workshop doesn't allow to use isopropyl alcohol that is somewhat dangerous, Anycubic Water-Wash Resin+ you should try it. In Anycubic UV resin family, it is the only resin that can be cleaned with water instead of IPA, because of hydrophilic groups in the formula for better solidify with water. This means that you can save your budget on IPA as well as time spent on cleaning 3d prints. What's more, fast printing is its another feature, thanks to low viscosity of the resin. To be specific, low viscosity makes it has great fluidity and requires shorter exposure time during printing, which helps to improve printing speed.

Water-washable resin benefits from water, but water also can break your 3d models. If you don't dry them before curing, the surface of the model is easy to be brittle. And soaking in water for too long also can cause cracks. For storage conditions, whether to save unused resins or finished models, keep them away from water and humid space as much as possible. Water-washable resin loves water more than any resin.

Last but not least, being washable doesn't mean being safe. The residual liquid contains hazardous material that will pollute the environment, so do not pour it directly into the sewer, and it should be treated by fully curing or heating to evaporate the water.

When it comes to DLP and LCD-based SLA 3D printing, are you still confused to them? If you're a serious hobbyist who has high requirement for precision and details but on a limited budget, look into the affordable and high-accuracy Anycubic Photon D2, and you will achieve the next level of 3d printing with Anycubic DLP Craftsman Resin which is developed to take full advantage of its high-precision printing.

When discussing 3D printing, most people focus on the resolution of 3D printer. But experienced makers know that the materials used are as important as the printer in order to make the final results look fine. Thus, DLP printing deserves better resin. They are used in the dental, jewelry, and engineering industries to print detailed objects like miniatures or jewelry.

In addition, a magical power of Anycubic DLP Craftsman Resin is ceramic powder applied to scatter the light inside during printing, so that the resin will strongly react to the light and layers texture will be effectively decreased on the surface.

Even if you choose a resin that is right for you, but you have the wrong slicer settings of resin 3D printing, it may cause the print to fail, or the result is not ideal. These settings include several parameters such as layer height, exposure time, light-off time, bottom exposure time, lifting distance, lifting speed, etc. These settings will more or less affect the final result. Of course, we also have Resin Settings for Anycubic Photon Series 3D Printer for reference.