The range of resin options keeps growing, and choosing the wrong bottle can cost you time, print runs and clean-up effort. ANTINSKY builds a family of photopolymer resins that spans everyday prototyping all the way to castable, dental and engineering use. This guide walks through the family so you can match each bottle to the job instead of guessing.
The Core Line: Standard, Lite and Tough
Most projects only ever need one of three bottles. These three cover the full spectrum of daily resin printing and are the ones we restock most often.
- Standard Resin — the balanced everyday workhorse for miniatures, figures, models and general prototypes. Good detail, fast settings, low price.
- Standard Lite — lighter and more translucent-tending, ideal for larger parts where weight and a softer appearance matter.
- Standard Tough — impact-resistant and bend-before-break, built for functional parts, connectors, hinges and anything that snaps under load.
How to choose between them
| Use case | Best resin | Why it wins |
|---|---|---|
| Miniatures & display pieces | Standard | Sharp detail at a friendly price |
| Large models & masters | Standard Lite | Lower weight, softer finish |
| Functional & snap-fit parts | Tough | Impact and flex resistance |
| Casting for jewellery | Castable | Clean burn-out, fine walls |
| Dental models & guides | Dental | Biocompatible-adjacent formulations |
| Harsh real-world parts | Engineering | Heat, static and flame resistance |
Practical Selection Rules
If you are not sure where to start, follow this order:
- Is it decorative? Pick Standard Resin.
- Does it need to survive rough handling? Move to Standard Tough Resin.
- Is it a big part where weight matters? Reach for Standard Lite Resin.
- Do you need casting, flexibility, heat resistance or static control? That is where the specialty line takes over.
Exposure notes for each core resin
Every resin wants its own exposure time. As a rough starting point on a standard 4K LCD at 0.05 mm, expect bottom layers around six to eight times your normal exposure, then tune from your test print.
- Standard — the fastest curing of the core three.
- Lite — a touch less tolerant of overexposure; watch for slightly thin walls.
- Tough — needs a little more curing time to reach its full impact strength.
When Specialties Pay Off
Beyond the core three, ANTINSKY covers niches that a single general resin cannot. Castable resins burn out cleanly for jewellery lost-wax casting. Dental resins hold dimension for models, guides and dentures. Engineering resins bring flame-retardant, anti-static and high-temperature formulations for production-grade parts. If your project crosses into any of these worlds, the specialist bottle is a genuine upgrade, not a marketing line.
Getting the Most From Any Bottle
- Shake well. Pigments and fillers settle; a full minute of shaking prevents cloudy or soft areas.
- Print a calibration test when you open a new colour or batch. Even the same resin varies slightly between batches.
- Store in the dark and out of heat to extend shelf life and keep viscosity stable.
- Filter the vat after a failed print to remove cured chips that cause new failures.
Reading a calibration print
A proper resin test exposes small structures of increasing size. Look for the first wall that comes out clean and fully formed: if thin features melt together, you are overexposed; if they vanish or stay soft, you are underexposed. Only change one variable at a time, and re-test after changing printer, film or season — colder workshops can raise viscosity and shift the ideal exposure by a noticeable margin.
Common failure and the resin fix
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudy, soft details | Underexposed or unmixed | Increase exposure, shake longer |
| Fused thin walls | Overexposed | Lower exposure, ease bottom layers |
| Parts tear off supports | Suction or weak supports | Add drain holes, re-angle part |
| Yellowed surfaces | Over-curing in UV | Shorten final cure, lower lamp |
Whichever bottle you choose, the whole ANTINSKY resin line is stocked at innostation3d.com, where you can compare Standard, Lite and Tough side by side and order the right one for your next project.