Photocentric resin on Elegoo Mars (including flexible)

After using my Elegoo Mars for the past several months I have been really impressed with some of the models I have printed, including some lovely prints for clients, however, one section of the workflow that I think requires additional work is the post processing. Using moderately expensive IPA to wash parts is not really ideal, it's flammability prevents it's use in ultrasonic cleaners and if you attempt to use water and traditional ultrasonic cleaning additives to clean conventional resin it leaves you with a strange gooey sort of consistency on the surface of the models.

With that in mind I recently decided to try and use water washable resin with my Elegoo Mars, I was originally going to procure some Elegoo brand water washable resin, however it was sold out before I got my hands on some and I was told it would be over a month before a restock. After doing some additional research I discovered a company based in the UK called Photocentric. They produce a large range of UV resins that should be compatible with the Elegoo Mars, and they appear to be a more reliable source of water washable resin.

In their range of LCD UV resins they currently offer three types of resin, hard, firm and flexible. As I was needing some material to do some model printing for a client I opted for the hard resin, they currently offer all three resins in black only, but a white coloured resin is 'coming soon' according to their website. I also recieved a bottle of the flexible resin to test, as I have not seen many people printing flexibles on the Mars.

Using the published guidance on the 'Support' section of the Photocentric page I made a set of material profiles in ChiTuBox. Beginning with the 'hard' resin I printed one of the Town calibration artifacts from Ameralabs, this model turned out very well, with extremely good detail. The flexible resin showed good detail however missed off the detail on the very top of the thin tower.

Front side of the Ameralabs test peice, hard on the left, flexible on the right.

Back side of the Ameralabs test peice, hard on the left, flexible on the right.

Side of the Ameralabs test peice, hard on the left, flexible on the right.

With regards to post processing I first immerse the component in warm soapy water and use a paintbrush to remove excess resin on the surface, I then transfer the component to a transparent bowl (glass or similar) full of water and then place that in my curing box under a UV lamp for 20 minutes and then curing for another 40 minutes out of the water, this is what is suggested on the TDS from Photocentric, at first I thought this to be a little excessive, however upon trying their method it truly does work exceptionally well, with significantly less surface tack than just curing in air.

In conclusion the Photocentric resins appear to work very well with the Mars, and they may be a more reliable source of water soluble resin than other Chinese based manufacturers. As well as being one of the few suppliers that offer a water washable flexible resin.

You can find the profile parameters on the 'Elegoo Mars Resin Settings' Google Sheet.