Week05 | 3D Scanning and Printing

3D Printers Available in Oulu Super FabLab

We conducted tests for the group assignment in the FabAcademy course using different 3D printers. Here is a list of printers available in Oulu Super FabLab and our experience with them:

Industrial-grade FDM printer. Known for high-strength and large-volume prints.

Desktop FDM printer. Reliable for detailed and precise prints. Can run overnight as it has actual extinguisher.

Mid-to-large format FDM printer. Good for medium complexity and high-quality prints.

Legacy FDM printer. Useful for basic prototyping and testing.

Compact FDM printer suitable for small to medium-scale prints.

There are two Ender 3 Pro printers. Their printing resolution is lower than the Prusa printers, as confirmed by our tests. The results are detailed in the 3D printer test section.

Affordable FDM printer. Suitable for educational purposes and simple prototypes.

Two Prusa printers are available, and we performed several tests with them. Their resolution and surface quality are very good:

Reliable desktop printer with consistent high-resolution output.

Fastest and most precise FDM printer in the lab, ideal for detailed prints.

For resin printing, the following printer is a good option for making acoustic and optical phantoms:

High-resolution resin printer for precise surface and fine features.

Slicing Software

• Prusa Slicer – For Prusa printers:

User-friendly slicer with excellent presets for accurate FDM printing.

3D Printing Characterization Report

For the group assignment, we tests design rules using Preusa CORE One 3D printer. All tests were performed using predefined slicing configurations to evaluate mechanical and geometric behavior.

Printer Settings

• Rafts: No
• Support: With Support
• Layer Resolution: 0.2 mm
• Infill: 15%

Anisotropy

A part of the model that sticks out horizontally parallel to the build platform. This can cause layers to lose structure when printed without support.

Clearance

Distance required between two moving parts (e.g., gap between a gear and joint).

Angle

The angle at which the overhang extends from horizontal.

Bridging

Distance between two intermediate supports of a structure.

Overhang

For this rule design, we tested two different long overhanging with and without support. We tested also overhanging test with different length. The differences clearly can be seen with and without support.

This is the results of different overhang length:

Dimension

This test was to check how printer can accuracy print a model:

Infill

Variation in mechanical properties depending on the print direction.

Wall Thickness

Thickness and uniformity of printed walls.

Surface Finish

Surface texture and smoothness, two tests were done for this test with two different printer, the white printed is with resin printer and the black one is with Prusa Core ONE printer.

Feature	Observation
Angle	No visible issue until 20°; arm length not significant enough to cause deformation.
Bridging	No major issue until 8 mm. Deformation visible beyond 8 mm.
Overhang	Deformation clearly visible when horizontal extension exceeds 2 mm without support.
Dimension	Inner diameter: 9.89 mm; Outer diameter: 20.01 mm
Anisotropy	Shape acceptable but dependent on layer orientation. Mechanical properties vary with print direction.
Wall Thickness	Walls appear good; holes have smoother corners. Thin walls reveal printer limitations.
Surface Finish	0.1 mm layer thickness used for the Prusa Core ONE printer. The resin printed sample shows a smoother and finer surface finish, while the Prusa Core ONE (FDM) printed sample has visible layer lines and a rougher texture due to the layer-by-layer filament deposition
Infill	One sample shows higher strength; another shows more uniform surface distribution.

Summary

The tests demonstrate:

• Overhang performance is highly dependent on support and horizontal span length.
• Bridging performance degrades significantly beyond 8 mm unsupported span.
• Anisotropic behavior is evident in layer-based FDM printing.