5. 3D Printing and Scanning, Tyler Andrew, Noah¶
This week’s group work was to test the design rules for your 3D printer. While groups in the past used a design tester they found online, such as this one, we wanted the group work to involve every member of the group, so we decided to each design a smaller part of the test. We printed our models on a Bambu lab A1 mini, at the default profile of .16mm fine
Work Distribution¶
- Andrew Puky Clearance Test
- Tyler Russel Bridge test
- Noah Smith Overhang test
Clearance test - Andrew Puky¶
Clearance in a 3D-printed component is intentional space between two mating surfaces to allow them to move freely without contact. It is necessary in applications where components need to fit together tightly but have some freedom of movement to account for printing process variations.
The aim of a clearance testing process is to produce testing samples for various gaps in order to find an optimal clearance for a 3D printer and material.
We found that it only worked to about .3mm. After that the parts were fused together.
Bridge test - Tyler Russel¶
A bridge in 3D printing is a horizontal section of material that connects two raised areas of a 3D printed object.
An effective and strong bridge can save material and print time, more efficient and higher-quality prints, and reduces the need of supports on the print. A poor bridge however, can cause print failure do to not being strong enough to support a complete bridge. As seen below.
In Fusion 360 I created one bridge and then modified the size of it to create many more bridges of varying sizes that I could test. Honestly I could not pull a defined conclusion from testing because the largest and smallest bridge failed while the 26.22 mm bridge failed. This could come from a variety of reasons from adhesion, spaghetti, temperature and many other probable causes.
Overhang Test - Noah Smith¶
Overhang in 3d printing are the parts of the print that are not directly supported underneath. An overhang can lead to bad print quality, due to the plastic physically drooping, and even print failures. In order to fix overhangs, supports are used. Supports are easily removed parts of a 3d print that are placed directly under overhangs.
The easiest way to test overhang is to create a bunch of them, and look to see how the print turned out. I did this by making half of the gateway arch, with the final being 85 degrees.
Overall, the final print showed that after about 50 degrees, the bambu a1 mini started to struggle, and leave minor print artifacts, and at above 70 degrees it would have major flaws.
Design files¶
The files of all 3 tests can be found here