A popular plant based plastic, PLA is often the first filament of choice for individuals new to 3D Printing. But it’s not used by newbies exclusively – it has many applications.
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3D Printing Education Center
3D Printing terminology and technology are constantly evolving. This area of the site is a resource designed to help you get started! In the links below, we cover everything from the basics (What is 3D Printing?) to the more case-specific (PLA vs ABS). Check out the articles in our 3D Printing Education Center below, and please contact us if you have any questions. Also, if there’s a topic you would like to see covered, please let us know!
3D Printing Basics
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3D Printer Filament
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In Education
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Types of 3D Printers
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SLS 3D Printers (Selective Layer Sintering) create objects from a powder base, using lasers to selectively melt and fuse together a finely controlled quantity of powder into the desired object.
SLA 3D Printers (Stereolithography) use laser technology and liquid resin tanks, solidifying an object’s structure layer by layer as the previously cured layers are withdrawn from the resin.
FDM 3D Printers (Fused Deposition Modeling) work primarily by extruding semi-melted plastic (or similar materials) onto a print bed, in a layer by layer fashion – building the desired object incrementally.
The term 3D printing is all encompassing. It describes a process – creating a solid object from a computer aided design file (CAD) in a layer by layer fashion. But there are actually three different underlying technologies.
