UK-based manufacturer Photocentric has established itself in the additive manufacturing sector by developing LCD-based 3D printing systems and photopolymer materials aimed at scalable digital production. Since its founding in the early 2000s, the company has combined in-house material formulation with hardware development to deliver cost-effective 3D printing solutions for industrial, research, and design-driven environments. Its range includes devices such as the LC Titan and LC Opus, which are used in sectors ranging from automotive to healthcare. In an interview with 3Druck.com, founder Paul Holt discusses Photocentric’s approach to advancing additive manufacturing through scalable technologies and automation.
At the center of this strategy is JENI, a modular, autonomous platform integrating LCD 3D printers with robotic post-processing and AI-controlled workflow management. The system is designed to address key challenges in industrial-scale additive manufacturing, including labor intensity, process variability, and cost-efficiency. JENI enables continuous, unattended production and shifts the cost structure toward material usage rather than machine overhead—positioning it as a potential alternative to traditional injection molding in specific contexts.
In addition to its core manufacturing technologies, Photocentric maintains precision engineering capabilities in the UK and an operational presence in the US. The company is also engaged in parallel R&D efforts, including the CosmicMaker project in collaboration with the European Space Agency, which explores in-orbit 3D printing, and a Battery Programme focused on advanced energy storage materials. Through partnerships with research institutions, government bodies, and commercial partners, Photocentric is actively bridging technology development with real-world applications in digital manufacturing.
Interview with Paul Holt
In an interview with 3Druck.com, founder and Managing Director Paul Holt discusses the development of LCD-based 3D printing, the company’s focus on scalable production, and the transition toward autonomous digital manufacturing. He highlights how Photocentric aims to address limitations in additive manufacturing by combining hardware innovation, materials development, and automation to enable broader industrial adoption.
How do you currently view the evolution of the LCD-based photopolymer 3D printing market, and which industries are showing the greatest interest in Photocentric’s technologies and solutions?
Photocentric Founder and Managing Director Paul Holt
When Photocentric invented the 3D printer using a liquid crystal display (LCD) as the selective light mask in 2014, we began with a simple off-the-shelf car reversing screen. It’s fantastic to reflect on how much progress has been made since then. From the very start, we believed the concept was going to be transformative, but at the same time, we didn’t have engineering or manufacturing capability in-house at that point to scale the invention ourselves.
In contrast to the complex engineering behind laser or digital light projector (DLP)-based 3D printers, LCD was strikingly straightforward: it was just a screen, a VAT, a platform, and a linear drive. These machines weren’t just easier to make—they could be built from very low-cost components and were extremely durable with less required maintenance. Traditional UV light solutions can degrade screens through heat generation, but by using blue light, we dramatically extended the screen lifespan.
When Photocentric launched the first LCD 3D printer, the LC10, at TCT in the UK in 2016, many of our competitors viewed it as a non-professional novelty item. We saw it differently—a scalable platform that could disrupt the 3D printing market by offering lower costs and increased productivity. Fast forward 11 years, and LCD has become a dominant technology in small-format vat polymerization, though most of these machines are now manufactured in China. In contrast, we decided to keep engineering design and manufacturing in the UK.
LCD printers are now used in nearly every application previously dominated by lasers and DLPs—dental models, automotive and electronic components, sporting goods, injection molding tooling, to name a few.
Additive manufacturing has seen rapid growth in recent years. Which innovations, technological advances or materials do you consider most transformative for the future of mass production?
Compared to other methods, LCD screens cure the entire build area in seconds, which means they can produce significantly more output at a much lower cost.
In 2017, Photocentric was one of the first companies to specify a monochrome screen in a 3D printer. At the time, screen manufacturers were puzzled by our request to remove the color filters—a step that resulted in more light being passed through. Today, 3D printing as an industry is influential enough to justify purpose-built screens, and we’re now seeing very high-resolution 16K monochrome screens being developed with polarizers removed—further boosting light transmission. These advancements have brought the market faster printing, pixel resolutions down to 20 microns, and better resulting part quality.
Paired with collimated light arrays, the results we’re achieving are unlike anything seen before—high-quality printed parts at prices that make this technology widely accessible. Although there may be little need for further improvements in pixel pitch, competitive pressures within the screen makers make it inevitable that we will see even higher resolutions in increasingly larger formats.
LCD 3D printing has been transformative for additive manufacturing, but it still requires human interaction to handle the platform through all necessary post-processing steps (reclaiming, washing, rinsing, drying, thermal and UV curing), all of which create variability and add to cost. The greatest transformation to come—which will determine the future of mass production—is the integration of LCD 3D printers into autonomous robotic systems.
Photocentric is leading this shift with JENI, the very first fully autonomous digital mass manufacturing platform. JENI eliminates the need for manual labor, enhances consistency, and utilizes AI optimization throughout the process. This dramatically lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO), making the cost of parts almost entirely dependent on material cost. The advent of autonomous mass manufacturing machines capable of producing millions of parts in a week brings the requirement for much lower-cost resins into sharp focus. JENI is capable of producing up to two tons of product in a single day—making it clear that materials, not machines, are now the primary cost focus. We see JENI as the heart of Industry 4.0 and core to the factories of the future.
From your perspective, what are some of the main challenges your clients encounter when integrating additive manufacturing into existing production environments, especially at industrial scale?
The core issue with 3D printing is that it’s too expensive, too slow, and in general, the parts don’t match the performance of injection-molded ones. That said, 3D printing remains ideal for prototyping, custom part production, jigs, and fixtures. These applications don’t scale significantly, which may explain why additive manufacturing has struggled to achieve the scale of traditional manufacturing industries to date.
The solution lies in expanding digital manufacturing into mass production across all sectors. That market is significantly larger and truly scalable.
We believe the path forward is through autonomous, robotically controlled arrays of LCD 3D printers, combined with functional, affordable resins. This will be transformative for manufacturing, not just 3D printing. The biggest challenge here isn’t technological—it’s mindset. Although this technology is applicable to many industries where injection molding is commonly used, in our experience, the early adopters have been those companies who embrace change, explore the possibilities, and the opportunities it brings. Like many transformations, most companies will still prefer to wait until others have proven the technology before taking the leap.
As such, the early adopters of digital mass manufacturing are not specific industries, but the most entrepreneurial thinkers within those sectors. They’re attracted by the lower environmental impact, reduced inventory, design flexibility, supply chain resilience, and faster time to market—at a reduced cost.
Looking ahead 5 to 10 years, how does Photocentric envision the future of additive manufacturing evolving, and what key developments or strategic priorities are you focusing on to help shape that future?
We envision a future where the analog process of injection molding dovetails into a new digital autonomous process. Parts will be designed with the capability of being made by either of these routes—depending on the stage in their lifecycle.
Digital mass manufacturing processes will enable faster product launches at the start, extend product life at the end, and offer flexibility during supply chain disruptions, tooling delays, or when production demands fluctuate. Digital manufacturing machines such as JENI will be housed in lights-out factories, autonomously producing parts, with orders being managed remotely, and operators simply sending designs to machines and collecting parts off conveyors shortly after.
This opens the door to a new kind of factory—automated, efficient, and crucially, local. In five years, these machines will likely be integrated into many existing manufacturing sites. While they may not be highly visible to the average consumer, they’ll be quietly driving a shift toward digital production behind the scenes.
In 10 years’ time, we anticipate seeing purpose-built dark factories, located close to the points of use, large-scale assembly plants, or urban centers. This will facilitate the first break away from outsourcing manufacturing to Asia and back to local markets.
For the first time in over half a century, it will cost the same to produce an item wherever you are in the world, and therefore they will be made near the point of need. This will change the world’s supply lines and make domestic manufacturing the best choice—the right choice—the most sustainable approach, with benefits for both businesses and broader society.
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