Resin 3D printing is great for quality but the speed is known to be quite slow in some ways. Depending on what resin printer you have, the speed mainly depends on the Z-axis or the height of the model. I decided to research how to speed up resin 3D prints and share my findings in this article.
To speed up resin 3D printing, you need to get a DLP or an MSLA 3D printer and choose a resin with shorter curing times. You can also orient your model in a certain way to print them quickly. Making hollow models helps as well but the best results come from using Vroom settings in your resin 3D printer.
You can find out the details behind speeding up your resin prints, so keep on reading to finally get faster models.
How Can I Make Resin Print Faster?
To make your resin print faster, you can purchase a high-speed DLP or an MSLA 3D printer that prints whole layers at once, use a resin with shorter curing times, reduce the number of layers of the print through proper orientation, and try making hollow models with fewer layers for a definite decrease in print time.
The following is a bullet point list of all the possible things you can do for making resin print faster.
Get a DLP (Digital Light Processing) or an MSLA (Masked Stereolithography) 3D Printer
Use a Resin With Shorter Curing Times
Orient Your Print to Reduce the Print Time
Use Vroom Settings
Try Resin Stacking
Get a DLP or an MSLA 3D Printer
One of the best ways to speed up resin 3D printing is to get the right type of printing technology. DLP & MSLA 3D printers are great at printing fast because they cure resin in whole lasers rather than using a direct laser to trace the areas to be cured.
These resin 3D printers also have the benefit of being able to cure layers in less than 3 seconds compared to more traditional resin printers which cure layers in 8-10 seconds in some cases.
If you check the resin model below that has 2,120 layers in total:
With an RGB screen 3D printer with a normal curing time of 8 seconds, it would take around 6 hours and 50 minutes.
Do keep in mind, the estimated print times aren’t perfect, but are a decent representation of how long a resin 3D print would take.
With a 4K monochrome 3D printer with a normal curing time of 2 seconds, it would take around 3 hours and 18 minutes
You can see that having a normal curing time of 2 seconds rather than 8 seconds cuts down your printing time by more than 50%.
A good example of an MSLA 3D printer would be the:
Anycubic Photon Mono X (1.5-2.5 seconds per layer curing)
Elegoo Saturn (1.5-2.5 seconds per layer curing)
Elegoo Mars 2 Pro (2-3 seconds per layer curing)
These have modern monochrome screens that last longer than the older RGB screens (2,000 hours vs 500 hours), and usually come in 2K or 4K resolutions, the higher, the more powerful for the size of the screen.
You also have DLP 3D printers like the:
Flashforge Hunter (1-2 seconds per layer curing)
Anycubic Photon Ultra (1.5-2.5 seconds per layer curing)
There aren’t many desktop DLP 3D printers for average users like us but the Anycubic Photon Ultra is a modern machine designed to be the first desktop DLP 3D printer for normal users. I even got an early model which I reviewed so check out the Anycubic Photon Ultra Review.
The reasons DLP 3D printers are more expensive is that their screens are said to last 20,000 hours, which is 10x the number of hours as MSLA 3D printers.
Orient Your Print to Reduce the Print Time
The next most significant thing you can do to speed up resin 3D prints is to use an orientation that reduces the number of layers your models have.
As you know, the number of layers a model has will be directly proportional to how long the print will take, so if you can orient prints either diagonally or horizontally, then you can print models a lot faster.
The vertical Pikachu Tail has 2,120 layers and would take over 3 hours to 3D print.
The vertical Pikachu Tail has 74 layers and would take under 10 minutes to 3D print.
By using a better and more horizontal orientation for this model, we could save over 3 hours in printing time.
For some models, it may not be feasible to make it horizontal, but you can usually rotate models at an angle to reduce the number of layers without an issue.
There’s another idea that’s worth mentioning here.
You can actually take a model and split it horizontally so you have two pieces that have a flat surface which can be put on the build plate, significantly reducing the height of the model.
Once the models have been printed, you can re-attach the parts afterwards, but it will mean some extra post-processing to get this done. It should be fairly easy to do though.
To stick resin parts together, you can use an adhesive like superglue or even apply uncured resin to the parts and UV cure it so it hardens and bonds.
Depending on the model, it may also affect the quality since it can show a seam/line, but you can always fill the seam with resin and cure it, then sand it to make it blend in.
If you are going to paint the model, it shouldn’t make too much of a difference to the surface quality, especially if it’s a simple model.
It’s definitely something you can do with your models if the extra post-processing isn’t too much of an issue. You will be dividing your prints into two halves or perhaps three parts, but really speeding up the procedure in general.
Use a Resin With Shorter Curing Times
Some resins have a short curing time while others have significantly higher ones. If you want to speed up resin 3D printing, choose a resin that comes with a short curing time for the best results.
A number of factors determine how long do the resin prints take to cure. A brief description of each of them are given below:
Resin Type: The curing time also depends greatly on the type of resin you’re using. The Siraya Tech Fast, for instance, cures very quickly compared to other resins.
Resin Color: The color of the resin is also a noteworthy factor that dictates the time taken by the resin to cure. Lighter and clearer resins are known to cure faster than darker, opaque resins.
Room Temperature: Resin prints don’t cure as well in a room that’s too cold or too hot. If the room temperature is below 20°C (68°F), the resin model may take a long time to cure or might cause print failures.
There are both fast-curing and slow-curing resins available to purchase. The following is a list of some of the popular ones. Do note that the curing times written below are those that have worked for different 3D printer users on their specific 3D printer.
These are user submitted normal curing times, so there will be variance depending on the environment, but there are trends of some resins having shorter curing times than others which can speed up your resin printing times.
Let’s now take a look at one of the fastest curing resins available for purchase today.
Siraya Tech Fast (Green)
The Siraya Tech Fast Resin on Amazon is a high-quality resin that costs about $37 for a bottle of 1 kg. One of the resin’s biggest selling points is its rapid curing time.
People who have been printing with this material say that they cannot believe how fast this resin cures and becomes ready for use.
One person writes that he bought the Siraya Tech Fast Green and they couldn’t be any happier with their purchase. They mention that a Normal Exposure Time of 1.8 seconds is all that takes for the resin to cure.
However, they do that on their Qidi Tech I-Box, which is an MSLA 3D printer with a 4K monochrome screen, so that point of having a speedy resin 3D printer really factors in here.
At the time of writing, the Siraya Tech Fast has a stellar 4.8/5.0 overall rating on Amazon with 86% of the total customers leaving a 5-star review. It’s definitely the best resin to purchase if you’re after fast resin printing.
Miniatures, figures, and other small models will take less time to cure as compared to larger models, simply because there is less material that needs to solidify in. Therefore, you can also make smaller models to speed up your resin 3D printing.
Use Faster Lifting & Retraction Speeds (Vroom Settings)
Another way of making resin print faster is by implementing faster lifting and retraction speeds, also known as Vroom settings. This is a recently popular technique where the key idea is to increase your speeds for lifting and lowering the print bed.
You can actually get really good results by using fast lifting and retraction speeds. It lowers the total printing time as well as retains the overall quality of the model.
To put it simply, you basically increase the value of the following 3 settings in the ChiTuBox slicer:
Bottom Lift Speed
Lifting Speed
Lifting Retraction
The settings are termed differently in the Lychee Slicer:
Lifting Speed (Under Burn In Layers)
Lifting Speed (Under Speed)
Lowering Speed
The default values in Lychee Slicer are 25, 65, and 150mm/min for both Lifting Speeds and Lowering Speed respectively. To use Vroom settings, input 180 or 240mm/s, depending on what suits your printer the best for all three of those settings.
For the EPAX E10 resin 3D printer, people have had great success using 240mm/min or 4mm/s Lifting and Lowering Speeds. This has brought about 25% faster printing with no noticeable compromise in quality.
How Do You Use Vroom Settings for Resin Printing?
You can use Vroom settings for resin printing by simply increasing the Bottom Lift Speed, Lifting Speed, and Lifting Retraction in your slicer software. The most commonly used Vroom values are 180 and 240mm/min.
You can easily use Vroom settings in your 3D printer by going to the “Settings” area of your preferred slicer software and finding the lifting speeds.
In ChiTuBox, you’ll find these settings under the “Print” tab. Once you do, change the Bottom Lift Speed, Lifting Speed, and finally the Retract Speed all to 180mm/min, as specified in the image below.
After that, simply click on the “X” button to close the window and save your settings.
You’re now free to run a test print and see if using Vroom settings has brought about a noticeable change in your print times. After finishing the model, check to see if the quality was retained or not.
Using Vroom settings does not stop here. You can choose to go further and implement 240mm/min instead of 180mm/min to really dial in those lifting speeds and get quicker results like never before. Most people are using 240mm/s and they’re very satisfied.
A helpful tip here is to use lower Bottom Lift Speeds if you print in a cold environment or without an enclosure. This will help keep print failure to a minimum when using high Vroom settings.
Uncle Jessy has gone in-depth about using Vroom settings in the video below.
He has compared the prints of different resin 3D printers with and without Vroom settings and with and without G-Code modification. It’s definitely worth a watch if you’re after a visual explanation of this whole process.
The neat part is that you can even increase your Vroom settings beyond 240mm/min. The maximum that has been recorded to bring favorable results is a whopping 600mm/min, although it may or may not work on your 3D printer setup and additional G-Code tweaking might be required.
The gist of Vroom settings is that they ultimately boil down to what resin 3D printer you’re using. Uncle Jessy found out that the Elegoo Mars 2 Pro works best at 240mm/min lifting and retraction speeds while the original Elegoo Mars is better off with 180mm/min.
However, some users have had to modify their G-Code first before using these fast lifting speeds. That’s because the firmware basically limits them from going out of range with these settings and some tweaking is required.
If that happens for your printer, you won’t have any significantly reduced print time. It’s worth using the AmeraLabs Town (Thingiverse) model for a quick working test of the Vroom settings that gives you results in under an hour.
Still, Vroom resin printing is definitely the way to go for getting faster prints, but you do need to do some experimentation here to get the perfect Vroom settings for your specific 3D printer setup.
One user reported that he got his Vroom settings to work by lowering the Light-off Delay setting in their ChiTuBox slicer, so you can try the same if you run into any issues with the technique.
Try Resin Stacking
Resin Stacking is a technique where you attempt to print several models at once in stacks. You basically build a floor above the models on your build plate and print even more models on top of it to fully utilize the build volume.
On the positive side, this can allow you to speed up the printing time dramatically per model, especially when you’re trying to make multiple copies of the same model.
However, the major catch here is the huge potential for failure. This is a very recent printing technique that hasn’t been explored fully or mastered by many just yet.
There’s a lot of post-processing that needs to be done and that alone can affect print quality and turn out to be quite time-consuming as well. It’s perfect for volume printing if you tweak the settings and layers properly.
It’s worth looking into the following video by Uncle Jessy who has tried running multiple test prints using the Resin Stacking technique.
How Fast Does a Resin Printer Print?
An SLA resin printer prints at an average rate of 30-60mm/hour, depending on the type of the resin 3D printer. The Voxelab Proxima 6.0 reaches about 25mm/hour. The Anycubic Photon Mono X reaches speeds of 60mm/hour while the Anycubic Photon Mono SE & Original Prusa SL1S reaches speeds of 80mm/hour.
The following is a table that mentions some of the best 3D printers alongside their print speed.
3D Printer
Print Speed
Anycubic Photon
20mm/h
Elegoo Mars 2 Pro
30-50mm/h
Elegoo Saturn
30-40mm/h
Peopoly Phenom
30mm/h
Anycubic Photon Mono SE
80mm/h
To talk about the Anycubic Photon Mono SE (Amazon), it’s currently one of the fastest resin 3D printers that you can buy. It’s got a 6.08-inch 2K (2560 x 1620) monochrome screen that’s four times faster than regular RGB screens.
This means that the exposure time of each layer is cut down to 1-1.5 second, which is quite amazing for a resin 3D printer. You can expect the machine to deliver a maximum speed of 80mm/h for excessively rapid 3D printing.
In addition, the Photon Mono SE uses LCD printing technology which cures a whole resin layer at once. This also allows the unit to print quite fast.
It’s worth noting that the printing technology, whether it is SLA, LCD, or DLP, plays a huge role in print speed as well. The typical print speed of an SLA 3D printer is around 20mm/h.
This is considerably less when compared to the Elegoo Mars 2 Pro, which is an MSLA 3D printer. The average speed of that machine is about 30-50mm/h.
Then at last, you have the likes of the aforementioned Anycubic Photon Mono SE which are the fastest out of the whole bunch of resin 3D printing technologies.
Are Resin Printers Faster Than FDM Filament Printers?
Resin printers are faster than FDM filament printers when you have several small models to print since they can cure whole layers at once. FDM printers are faster for tall prints and you have more flexibility with them for increasing the print speed. You can change the nozzle size with FDM 3D printing.
Resin 3D printing has come a long way from where it first started out. It only had SLA technology to work for it in the past, but now more advanced techniques have come out and they’ve made resin 3D printing a lot faster.
Therefore, there’s no straight answer to the question, “Are resin printers faster than FDM?” since both of them excel in their own ways.
When you 3D print 1 3D Benchy in Cura with an FDM 3D printer, it takes around 1 hour 54 minutes, while the same 3D Benchy with an MSLA 3D printer takes around 1 hour 30 minutes.
Now we’ve got three 3D Benchys in Cura which takes around 5 hours and 46 minutes, while three 3D Benchys in resin printing takes the same 1 hour 30 minutes.
Filament – 1 hour and 55 minutes per 3D Benchy
Resin – 30 minutes per 3D Benchy
Here’s an even more significant example with nine 3D Benchys which takes around 17 hours and 15 minutes for a filament 3D printer, while it still takes just 1 hour and 30 minutes to 3D print those nine 3D Benchys with an MSLA 3D printer.
Filament – 1 hour and 55 minutes per 3D Benchy
Resin – 10 minutes per 3D Benchy
Now here is where the adjustments in 3D printing can make a difference. The picture below is 9 3D Benchys but with a 1mm nozzle and a 0.75mm layer height instead of a 0.4mm nozzle with a 0.2mm layer height.
The time changes drastically, going from 17 hours and 15 minutes to just 3 hours and 37 minutes. Although this is a lot quicker, the decrease in quality would be very significant since the layer height is almost four times higher than the 0.2mm standard.
Other parameters like infill density, layer height, and wall thickness can be optimized to achieve faster prints.
If you want a mixture of speed, high quality models, and volume, resin 3D printing is definitely the optimal technology to go with.
For objects that are larger and require strength, filament 3D printing is optimal because it has a much larger build plate and has several materials to choose from that have amazing durability and physical characteristics.
The following video by Formlabs shows a comparison between popular 3D printing technologies and their respective speeds.
How Long Do Resin 3D Printers Take?
Resin 3D printers typically take anywhere from 15 minutes to 6-8 hours to 3D print a model. The taller the model, the longer it takes to 3D print since the model is printed layer by layer. You can orient models horizontally to print faster to reduce layers. Monochrome resin 3D printers cure layers faster.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common 3D models and see how long they take to print.
This Dobby model takes around 3 hours and 50 minutes to finish printing, as shown by the Lychee Slicer below. You can download this model from Thingiverse.
The David’s Cranium model takes about 5 hours and 20 minutes to print when scaled up, as shown by Lychee Slicer. You can download this model from Thingiverse.
The Superman model is a nicely detailed model that takes about 7 hours to print when scaled up in the Anycubic Photon Mono X, as shown in Lychee Slicer. You can download this model from Thingiverse.
If you’re looking for more platforms to get your STL files from, I highly recommend reading Where to Find STL Files for 3D Printing for a guide on where to find some great STL files.
Hopefully you’ve found this helpful in learning how to finally speed up your resin 3D prints the right way.
Michael Dwamena is the founder of 3D Printerly, a platform dedicated to simplifying 3D printing for hobbyists and professionals alike. Owns over 20 3D printers (filament and resin) and has plenty experience 3D printing. Michael has authored over 900 articles, helping millions navigate the exciting world of 3D printing.
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