SLA printers use a laser to harden resin polymer to create smooth and highly precise 3D designs. Their resolution is very high (higher than FDM) and the range of material properties is very broad. High temperature resistance, transparent prints, biocompatible materials are some of the possibilities. Our Formlabs printer has a build volume of 14.5 x 14.5 x 17.5 cm.

Our soldering stations can be used for the construction or repair of various electronic devices. We stock all of the base requirements for work with electronics, including oscilloscopes, power supplies and a pulse generator.

Our laser cutter can cut or engrave shapes on a 2D plane into materials including acrylic and wood and (thin) metal. This is particularly useful for the construction of housings and mechanical, or accurately marking patterns. The most often used materials are (high quality) multiplex, acrylic sheet (PMMA), and MDF. We keep a diverse stock of materials, ready to be used in LPL projects. The laser cutter uses a vector drawing as input file, via Adobe Illustrator, so prepare your design in a compatible format (e.g. .svg, .eps).

These two machines can cut 3 dimensional shapes from a piece of stock materials by removing material with a mill bit with very high accuracy. They can be used for plastics, wood, foam and some kinds of aluminium.

The milling process needs to be pre-programmed and simulated in CAM software. The large CNC mill (1000 x 600 x 110 mm milling volume) is controlled by open-source GRBL software and can work with designs from most 3D design software packages. The smaller Zmorph mill (235 x 250 x 85 mm milling volume) controlled by Voxelizer software, using vector designs as input.

The Shaper is a handheld machine capable of milling 2D shapes into wood, plastics or foam. Using special markers it knows where it is placed on the surface of a material. The LCD screen guides the user while cutting complex shapes, correcting for user errors. This makes the Shaper very easy to use, and it has a theoretically unlimited work area. This machine also takes vector designs as input.

The cutting plotter is able to cut out designs on thin sheets of material such as vinyl, paper or plastic sheet. This tool is often used in conjunction with the transfer press to print vinyl designs onto textile or other materials. It can cut out any shape within a 12×12 inch surface

Our UV Lithography device can perform soft lithography and masking using a UV-LED light-based source.

Our sewing and embroidery machine can function as a traditional sewing machine but has the added automation function which allows it to sew complex patterns independently of its user. Sewing patterns can cover an area of up to ~26 x 18 cm.

A heat/transfer press can warm and exert forces on materials across a wide surface area. We often use it for sublimation or vinyl printing onto surfaces such as textiles, plastics, cardboard, wood, ceramic or metal. Sublimation printing can be full colour, but is limited to polyester textiles and plastic surfaces. Vinyl printing is mono-colour only (unless multilayered), and can work on most heat-resistant surfaces.

Laminate your design in plastic for added robustness.

Our (mostly digital) tools become even more useful when combined with conventional fabrication tools! The adjacent Job Shop is well supplied in tools such as saws, drills, a mill, lathe, welder and bending machines.

Note: just like our digital tools, conventional tools require some prior experience and/or instruction to operate safely and effectively. As always: if you are not 100% sure/comfortable, ask our staff to help/advise you!

Aside from the common calipers, rulers, spirit levels, etc. the lab also features a range of micrometers, balances and scales and other accurate measurement devices.
Our 3D scanners can create digital scans of objects (~2 cm-5m) with an accuracy of up to 0.04 mm.
Our particle counter can be used to test local air quality, for instance to determine the effectiveness of your prototype smog-filter!
IR camera’s and probes are available for accurate thermal measurements.