Moai uses a 405nm 150mW laser and can work with light-sensitive resin designed for said wavelength. However, there are other factors affect print quality and success rate, and we cannot guarantee every resin for 405nm will work with Moai printer.

For optimal results and hassle-free printing, we recommend you use Peopoly resins as they are most optimized for Moai.

Peopoly standard resin is a UV curable acrylate-based resin developed for laser SLA printer. It responds to 405nm UV light and has a follow mechanical property:

• Hardness (Shore D): ASTM D2240 82
• Tensile strength at break (Mpa): ASTM D638M 60
• Elongation at break(%): ASTM D638M 8%
• Young's modulus (MPa): ASTM D638M 830
• At 25C degrees, the viscosity is 600cps. Density is 1.13
• Shrinkage post cure is 6.5% and is consistent for acrylate-based resin

The ideal printing temperature is 20 to 30C. The higher the temperature, the lower the viscosity and requires less UV energy to cure.

These numbers are very important because they tell you about what temperature you should have your resin at and the shrinkage numbers for accuracy.

In the user guide, we recommend laser energy at 61 with default Cura profile. This is selected to ensure high print success rate for new users. Use can dial laser down to increase PDMS lifespan. Using the default Cura profile, the user can print using laser energy between 57-61 for Moai. 57-58 are preferred by experienced users who have been using Moai for production. However, if you find large print not sticking well at a lower energy level, it is best to increase to a higher level. We also have users reported using laser energy at 55/56 but with slower print speed in Cura. Moai is designed for experiments and customizations so find the best settings for your application. An example of lower laser energy can be found here.

Lower energy leads to lower shrinkage during printing and smaller laser spot size.

Moai resin comes in 6 colors, and while they are very similar chemically, there are subtle differences besides appearances. In general, the darker the color, the higher the resolution and requires more energy to cure. The difference is small but is observable. For clear and green resin, they overcure more than other colors at 61 and thus may lead to shorter PDMS lifespan than other colors. Black and Gray has the best resolutions and requires slightly more energy to cure.

Moai resin is not very light-sensitive and can be kept in the vat with vat cover inside of the printer with the door closed for 2-3 weeks without issues. Make sure to mix up the resin and expose the PDMS layer of the vat to air before printing. Please keep environment temperature below 40C for storage with 20-30C being ideal storage temperature. You can find several printable Moai related add-ons, including vat cover in Moai Thingiverse group.

Post-Processing