Carbon (3D printing company)
Carbon, Inc.
Carbon is an American company that manufactures industrial resin 3D printers built around a process it calls Digital Light Synthesis, which uses a continuous light and oxygen-controlled curing process to produce polymer parts with…
Definition
Carbon is an American company that manufactures industrial resin 3D printers built around a process it calls Digital Light Synthesis, which uses a continuous light and oxygen-controlled curing process to produce polymer parts with production-grade mechanical properties. Its systems target manufacturers needing end-use polymer parts rather than only prototypes, and the company also formulates its own engineering resins designed to match properties of injection-molded plastic.
Overview
Carbon set out to address a common criticism of resin-based 3D printing: that printed parts, while often visually precise, historically had weaker or less predictable mechanical properties than injection-molded plastic parts, limiting resin printing mostly to prototypes and non-structural pieces. The company's Digital Light Synthesis process was built specifically to produce polymer parts intended for functional, end-use production rather than only visual prototypes. Mechanically, Digital Light Synthesis projects a continuous sequence of ultraviolet images through an oxygen-permeable, UV-transparent window into a pool of liquid resin, curing cross-sections of the part as the build platform rises continuously rather than stepping layer by layer with the pauses typical of conventional stereolithography. Precisely controlled oxygen at the window surface prevents the resin from sticking there, allowing continuous rather than layer-by-layer movement, which Carbon states improves both print speed and the isotropic, layer-line-free strength of finished parts compared to conventional resin printing methods. Within the additive manufacturing landscape, Carbon differentiates itself from desktop resin printer makers like Formlabs by focusing on industrial production volumes and engineering-grade material properties rather than desktop precision at lower cost, and from metal-focused competitors like Desktop Metal by working exclusively in engineered polymers rather than metal alloys. In practice, manufacturers use Carbon's systems and materials for end-use parts such as footwear midsoles, automotive components, dental appliances, and medical devices, where the combination of geometric complexity achievable through 3D printing and mechanical properties closer to injection-molded plastic makes production-volume polymer printing viable rather than purely prototypical. Limitations include the significant capital and material cost of an industrial system relative to desktop resin printers, and a resin and hardware ecosystem that is largely proprietary, meaning users are tied to Carbon-formulated materials rather than a broad market of third-party resins. Applications only needing occasional low-volume prototypes may not justify the investment compared to a desktop stereolithography printer. The continuous curing process also depends on tightly controlled resin chemistry and equipment calibration, so consistent output at production scale requires more rigorous process monitoring than a hobbyist desktop machine printing occasional one-off parts. Companies adopting Carbon's systems generally do so after validating that a specific part's mechanical requirements, volume, and geometry favor 3D printing economics over the tooling investment a traditional molding process would otherwise require, since the up-front qualification work for a production part is substantial regardless of which additive process is ultimately chosen, and switching processes later after a part has been qualified tends to be costly enough that the initial choice is made carefully.
Key Features
- Digital Light Synthesis continuous-curing resin printing process
- oxygen-controlled curing window enabling continuous rather than stepped layer printing
- engineering resins formulated to approach injection-molded plastic properties
- focus on production-volume end-use polymer parts rather than only prototypes
- software for print preparation tuned to the continuous curing process
- isotropic part strength without visible layer lines
Use Cases
Alternatives
Frequently Asked Questions
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