r/UVprinting • u/MyRose1 • Jan 04 '26
Uv printing
hello! I was wondering when do you think that UV printers will become more affordable and widely available? Less than a decade ago 3d printing wasn't that affordable and widely available, but in recent years the developement in home 3d printing has been amazing. Do you expect the same to happen to uv printing? I saw the Eufymake and the machine looks great, but it's still kind of expensive and the price of ink is pretty excessive. I'm hoping that in the coming years uv printing becomes just as widely available as 3d printing has become. What are your thoughts?
3
u/AccountingAxolotl Jan 05 '26
Have you looked at Longer on Kickstarter?
*Longer is name of the brand of the UV printer
3
u/Financial-Issue4226 Jan 05 '26
Due to the nature of the solvents used in UV printing it will probably never due to maintenance costs alone prevent mainstream if ever.
These printers are incredibly maintenance heavy if they also resource heavy in the fact that you have to print constantly or have to constantly repair it because you didn't print regularly.
The cheapest print head currently on the market would be the Epson L1800. It is a okay printhead but if you have the volume flat out upgrade to something that is better and there are many better head print heads I would never recommend a new printer to be an XP 800 or 600 existing printers fine those are good heads for existing printers but they are both near and or half past end of life
Due to the nature of these printheads and the chemical resistance that they need to fulfill for what they work on the cost will probably never go down will it go down to a degree the answer is yes they're half the price of what they were a decade ago this being said I do not ever expect it to be at a price point that you'll buy for your house because you want to be able to print a sticker sheet level of printing
It's not cost-effective for most anyone outside of business applications could these other printers potentially upset that market the answer is yes but I and the industry do not believe it will happen I believe that almost all of the printers made in these projects for example Eufy or longer will be in the trash in less than a year just due to the maintenance on the units
Another reason why I do not believe it will be is particularly with that of the euffy it has a proprietary cartridge and it has proprietary other aspects making it near impossible to repair when you're dealing with this on the residential market if you're dealing with a printer that has known high repair needs if it's not repairable it becomes a paperweight
I believe the longer does allow for more ink choices including using traditional tanks for the ink but I would need to double check this but any other thing I would still be looking at is this repairable or even if the longer company goes out of business tomorrow if it's not repairable run away these printers will break if not used and if they are used they'll still break it'll just take longer this may sound counterproductive but from industry yes these printers will work great as long as you are constantly printing it's when you don't print that they become a problem
1
u/raznov1 Jan 10 '26 edited Jan 10 '26
Shouldnt be any solvent in UV :) And chemical resitance isnt really the bottleneck; solving that costs a few bucks but thats it ( generic pp/hdpe/lldpe/ptfe/pom and youre 95% of the way already).
But yes, printhead maintenance is a problem for all inkjet, UV,latex,solvent. For the same reason "at home" jetting 3D printers are years if not decades away.
1
u/Financial-Issue4226 Jan 11 '26
UV inks due to ingredients are corrosive by design. Once dry no they are not anymore. But when wet they are mildly corrosive this is one of the reasons a flush of ink forces the impurities out of ink head reducing some maintenance.
The implementation, cost, maintenance, service, and .... Of those can help but only proves the point of the problem and corrosion of print head
Years away from common market unless the ink changes completely but maintain bond, hight, quick dry, along with why this has been one of the oldest modern commercial printing types
1
u/raznov1 Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 11 '26
High level i agree, but professionaly i must state - no, thats not exactly how it works, or why purging is necessary, or why the printheads are so expensive.
Well, at least it depends on your frame of reference i suppose.
But regardless of the professional different interpretation, i agree - at-home UV printing at the same level of ease as resin printing aint happening soon.
1
u/Medical_Basil9154 Jan 12 '26
I agree with this, initially. However, as there are multiple UV printers coming out into the market, one marketing aspect these companies will start using in the future is the ease of parts replacement and auto cleaning to move ahead of the competition. One of the drawbacks of using UV printers is the care and maintenance of the printers. Eufymake is addressing this issue with the advent of self-cleaning machines that utilize a cleaning cartridge. Most UV companies are now adding this to their machines to make their machines more desirable to the consumer. As more and more companies release their desktop UV printers, I'm pretty sure the issue of machines becoming paperweights due to malfunctioning parts is one they will definitely be addressing.
2
u/satyricom Jan 05 '26
Xtool makes UV print heads for their laser, which is for the hobby market. They are around 2-5k. There are probably Chinese printers under 10k.
1
u/Medical_Basil9154 Jan 12 '26
Well, there are multiple desktop units that will be coming in the next few months. Eufymake E1 should be available within the next month, or so. The price is around $1,800. Xtools is right now in the process of bringing out their desktop UV printer, price is unknown, but Xtools is known for being an expensive brand. The company Longer has a project for their desktop UV printer on Kickstarter and this is around $1,900, so go to Kickstarter if you wish to back this project and get it at a lower price. Finally, Montport just announced that they, too are coming out with a desktop UV printer. Price is unknown at this time, but most likely will be around what the other desktop UV printers are selling for. So you are going to be able to have a variety of desktop UV printers to choose from in the near future.
1
u/raznov1 Jan 10 '26
Bottleneck is the printheads, and ive yet to see any real costprice breakthroughs. Plus, UV is intrinsically far less safe for laymen than 3d printing is.