nanoDLP

Okay not sure this is a new idea but it just popped into my head as I was trying to tune in a new resin.

I will call it MicroSlicing (ms) and it is named after the idea that a stepper can do MicroSteps which are kinda make believe steps between real steps...

What I propose is Micro Slices which are slices that are in theory 'thinner' than the specified slices...maybe this is akin to continuous printing but here is how I think it might work.

Say you choose a step size for Z like 100 nm

Then the slicer not only generates the usual images that are 100nm apart but it also analyses each image and generates say 10 intermediate images between each main image.
The images are displayed sequentially spread out over the cure time of the layer.
I do not expect the stepper to actually move for each image (may or may not even be possible depending on the HW) but what the slicer does is find large continuous areas
on the main image and maybe the next main image...it then removes some these large areas in the intermediate generated images..this is akin to how the auto calibration
plate works in nanoDLP.  The goal, as I think you can, see is to reduce total cure time for large areas while smaller areas get the normal cure time.

My thinking here, and possibly I have this backward, is that large exposed areas get alot of light into an area which can result in bleeding or over exposure of areas
that are supposed to remain unexposed in that plate.  in particular a problem when you have two larger areas separated by a smaller unexposed area.
Also small exposed areas like one or two pixels might need the full exposure time just to cure enough to stick well to the previous layer and not break apart.

What I find is that I am often walking a line where I want more exposure time to keep my prints from pulling
apart and be sure my small details get put down but I also find that large details that are close together need less exposure or I start to loose the open areas
between them.  Think like small holes in a generally filled in area...the holes either get closed up from over exposure or the print pulls apart in some area due to under exposure.

Ideally the slicer could figure out that a large exposed area containing small unexposed areas might need a little less UV than other areas that maybe have the opposite ratio of exposed to unexposed.

Well there is my big thought for the day...

Thanks for all the hard work that goes into nanoDLP

Darren