SprintRay has been granted a patent for a replaceable screen cartridge.
The patent is US12661850B1, assigned to SprintRay, Inc. of Los Angeles, and was granted on June 23, 2026. The patent’s title is “Replaceable Screen Cartridge System For Three-Dimensional Printers.”
In resin machines, the LCD panel acts as the patterned light mask that allows selected regions of resin to cure. The system depends on that screen, the light source beneath it, the resin tank above it, and the optical path staying in good shape.
But there’s one issue that operators will tell you about: LCD screens can be damaged.
They can be damaged by resin leaks, mechanical impact, wear, heat, or incorrect cleaning. When that happens, replacement can be challenging. The patent background describes conventional LCD replacement as laborious, involving multiple steps, masking tape, electrical connections, and skilled assembly work. This is absolutely true; we’ve replaced several resin LCD screens and it is not fun.
A Cartridge Instead Of A Repair Job
SprintRay’s idea is to turn that fragile screen assembly into a cartridge.
The patent describes an LCD cartridge assembly mounted in a cradle beneath the resin tank. The cartridge can be attached and removed using quick release locking mechanisms, including cam levers, snap features, slots, tabs, and related mechanical guides.
The cartridge may include the LCD screen, tempered glass, a screen module, a printed circuit board cover, connectors, a cable or HDMI connector, and optical elements such as a Fresnel lens. The cradle can attach to the underside of the resin tank and provide alignment, locking, and electrical connection.
A 3D printer operator or service tech could quickly remove a worn or damaged screen module and insert a replacement without rebuilding everything.
This would also allow SprintRay, or any company using a similar approach, to offer refurbished screen cartridges. The old module could be returned, serviced, tested, and put back into circulation.
That could reduce downtime, especially in dental and production environments where SprintRay has an established presence. A dental lab does not want a printer offline because a screen replacement requires careful disassembly and reassembly. They want their machine up and working as much as possible.
The Business Angle
This is also a potentially useful consumables strategy.
LCDs already function as semi consumable parts in many resin 3D printers. Packaging the screen as a cartridge could make replacement cleaner and more predictable, while also giving the manufacturer more control over the replacement supply chain.
That can be good for reliability, but it can also mean proprietary parts and higher replacement costs. The patent does not prove that SprintRay will commercialize the design. A patent is not a product announcement.
Resin 3D printing has improved enormously in print quality and software workflow, but maintenance remains one of the less attractive parts of the process. Resin handling, tank wear, film replacement, optical contamination, and screen damage all add extra work, which is sometimes messy, sometimes tedious.
A well designed cartridge system could shift some of that work from the operator to the manufacturer’s service ecosystem.
Via Espacenet
