kelvinASo, Viscious Lithography Manufacturing is a trademarked process name, meaning that I or someone else needs to think of possible alternative names for this process. I'd like to avoid a Honda / Lego / Disney like situation.
Names I've thought of:
- [Film / Suspended] Lithography Printing
- [Film / Suspended] MSLA
- Suspended Film Additive Manufacturing
- Suspended Masked (Stereo)Lithoghraphy
- Suspended Film Stereolithography
As you might be able to tell, I'm biased towards "suspended" and an abbreviation that begins with S. Since the plastic film on rollers is the main thing that differentiates the current form of VLM from top down or bottom up MSLA, I think something MSLA related makes the most sense.
Alternatively, there's no reason why the same method can't be used for laser or DLP light sources, so "Masked" wouldn't apply to them.
Suspended Liquid Stereolithography has a nice look to it, but there's already an additive manufacturing "SLS", and someone might figure out a way of using powders and a laser instead of UV resin and a UV source to build a part, perhaps though static electricity or a slightly sticky film. Considering that SLS and DMLS are similar processes but use different materials, the same naming convention may apply with this naming situation too.
I'll continue to think about it.
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I just thought of "Suspended Liquid StereoLithography" (SLSL) and it sounds good enough for my science. Could even be written like (SL)^2 ("Ess ell all squared") or sometihng. Why is there an "A" in SLA anyway?
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I've always been a fan of words rather than acronyms. I have a hard time remembering FDM, for instance. None of the component words inherently MEAN anything to me, and I have to try to remember all of them to remember the acronym. SLA is similar, but worse, because it's a single obtuse word. SLS/SLM have a cool word in there (laser!) that's buried in a dumb acronym.
My favorite name in all of 3d printing is simply "resin." Yeah, it's SLA or DLP, but screw that name. It's resin printing. Much simpler, much more evocative.
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