A Side-by-side Comparison

Formlabs Form 4B vs. Asiga Pro4K80

See why the Formlabs Form 4B is the leading open 3D printing solution for dental labs, practices, and orthodontics.

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Formlabs Form 4B

Complete Cost

$12,006

The $7,699 starting price includes all the essential tools required to start printing, access to the powerful PreForm software and online Dashboard, as well as Open Material Mode. The Form 4B Complete Package for $12,006 adds automated post-processing tools and a three-year premier dental service plan for a turnkey solution. Buy from Formlabs via sales or the online store, or purchase through one of our distribution partners.

Cost of Ownership

Resins

Model for thermoforming costs $79/L

Model resin costs $99/L

Biocompatible resins start at $249/L

Resin Tanks

Tank cost per liter ~$5/L

Tank cost: $119

Tank Lifetime
75,000+ layers with any Formlabs material. For example: Print approximately 340 prints of clear aligner models (22 mm tall), in any resin, at 100 µm layer height. Conservatively, tank cost per liter printed is less than $5/L.

Service

Service and warranty are part of the complete package and include superior benefits, such as personalized onboarding, phone and email support, and hot swap expedited replacement in the event your printer needs service. Formlabs provides direct support to customers.

Users with five printers or more in the same site can benefit from a special Production Service Plan.

Applications

Supported Dental Applications & Materials

15+ validated indications

A wide range of indications on a single printer, validated, tested, and directly supported by Formlabs.

Open System

Open material mode is included, enabling the freedom to print your favorite third-party resins. 50+ third-party resins validated and counting.

Learn More About Formlabs Open Platform

Print Speed

11 aligner models in 9 min

8 splints in 54 min

10 surgical guides in 48 min

10 restorative models in 1 h 52 min

On average Form 4B is more than 2x faster than the Asiga Pro4K80 across all indications when comparing print time estimates for equivalent resins and layer thicknesses.

For a full list of print speed by indication, check out this article.

Technology

Print Technology

MSLA

Low Force Display™ (LFD)

A new generation of stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing where reduced peel forces lead to incredible surface finish and part clarity.

Learn More About MSLA

Wavelength Light

405 nm

Build Volume

20 x 12.5 x 21 cm

7.9 x 4.9 x 8.3 in

Ease of Use

Software

Advanced and optimized for dental

Formlabs’ free PreForm Dental software is the gold standard when it comes to ease of use. Intuitive functionalities and presets for key indications such as models, splints, and surgical guides help users set up prints automatically, taking care of the orientation, support generation, and material selection in one click.

Users can tailor the workflow to their business needs, systems, and production environment with Formlabs Production Pipeline, an automation solution that streamlines every step from design submission to getting your models printed on a fleet of Formlabs dental 3D printers without human intervention.

Resin Dispensing

Automatic Resin Handling

No Mess: Automatic resin dispensing eliminates the need for manual intervention, resulting in reliable prints and a clean workspace.
Streamlined Workflow: Resin level sensing and automatic resin dispensing ensure optimal resin levels are maintained with 3x fewer interactions.
Reliable: Consistent, precise, and automated resin dispensing for reliable completion of prints.

Resin Identification

Automated resin identification when a cartridge is inserted.

Post-Processing

Automated Wash and Cure

Resin Mixing

Automated, with debris detection

Part Removal

Quick, easy, and tool-free with Flex Build Platform. Prevents part breakage and potential injuries while removing parts.

Print Resolution

50 μm XY resolution

Accurate, repeatable prints with a smooth surface finish.

Restorative Model Surface Accuracy

The 50 μm XY resolution with pre-tuned anti-aliasing for subpixel resolution results in superior fine and sharp feature performance, and helps deliver an unrivaled accuracy of final parts.

On average, Form 4B and Precision Model Resin produce dental models with:

99.7% of surfaces within 100 μm of CAD model**
95% of surfaces within 50 μm of CAD model**
69% of surfaces within 25 μm of CAD model**

Monitoring

Integrated camera for better remote monitoring and traceability.

Asiga PRO 4K80

Complete Cost

$28,980

The Asiga Pro4K80 printer starts at $24,990, which includes the printer and a basic Asiga Flash curing chamber. Asiga doesn’t offer its own washing solution, only a more expensive Asiga Cure 2.5L that retails at $3,990 to cure resins for biocompatible applications; so total cost of an equivalent system would exceed $30,000.

Cost of Ownership

Resins

Model for thermoforming start at $125/kg*

Model resin start at $150/kg*

Biocompatible resins start at $200/kg*

Resin Tanks

Tank cost per liter $26/L

Tank cost $130

Tank Lifetime
Users are forced to replace the tank after only 5 L of printing. This means for every liter of resin printed there is an additional cost of $26 for the tank and more than 5x waste generated from resin tanks compared to the Form 4B.

Service

Service is available through resellers, and there’s no hot swap option available.

Ease of Use

Supported Dental Applications & Materials

15+ indications

A wide range of indications with hundreds of materials to choose from. Resin validation is done by the resin manufacturer, users have to manually download and upload the settings to the Asiga Composer software.

Open System

Choose from a vast library of third-party materials with no additional license required but for the additional cost of $26/L due to the requirement of changing a tank after every five liters printed.

Print Speed

12 aligner models in 29 min

8 splints in 1 h 47 min

13 surgical guides in 1 h 23 min

11 restorative models in 2 h 6 min

Print times are based on Asiga Composer print time estimates using the same parts and equivalent resins and layer thicknesses for a fair comparison.

Technology

Print Technology

DLP

Digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing is a resin 3D printing process that uses a light projector to cure liquid resin one layer at a time.

Wavelength Light

385 nm (405 nm available on request)

Build Volume

21.7 × 12.2 × 20 cm

8.54 × 4.8 × 7.87 in

Ease of Use

Software

Outdated and with fewer features

Asiga’s free Composer software doesn’t have any presets and has a complicated and outdated interface resulting in a frustrating and poor user experience.

“Asiga’s Software Composer is quite outdated and feels clunky compared to others.” - Institute of Digital Dentistry

Asiga Funnel has not been released yet.

Resin Dispensing

Manual

Messy and Inconvenient: Manual resin dispensing can be messy, with a higher risk of spills.
Additional Workflow Steps: Requires manual monitoring and adjustment of resin levels, adding time and effort to the printing process.
Inconsistent Reliability: Greater chance of human error with manual resin pouring contributes to frustrating print failures.

Resin Identification

No system to verify if the correct resin is inside the resin tank before a print.

Post-Processing

Manual

Users have to purchase a third party wash unit or an ultrasonic bath and spend $3,990 in the Asiga cure unit.

Resin Mixing

Manual mixing is required periodically, no debris detection

Part Removal

Manual one-at-a-time part removal with tools. Risk of injury while removing parts.

Print Resolution

56 μm XY resolution

Accurate, repeatable prints with a smooth surface finish.

Restorative Model Surface Accuracy

56 μm XY resolution.

93% of surfaces within 50 μm of CAD model (official Asiga claim).

As a reference, and based on Formlabs’ internal testing, the same restorative models printed on the Form 4B yielded a better surface accuracy compared to the Asiga Max UV* (both printed at 50 μm layer thickness).

Results:

Form 4B: 97.4% of surfaces within 50 μm of CAD model

Asiga Max UV: 91.3% of surfaces within 50 μm of CAD model

_{*Results of Asiga Ultra will be published once available.}

Monitoring

No camera

** Using Precision Model Resin and 50 µm layer height. Tested using a full arch restorative model with dies. Four models were printed per print job on three different printers and post-processed according to the recommended settings.

Do you have more questions about the differences between these solutions?

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