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WEEK 05

3D PRINTING AND SCANNING

Fab Academy 2017 at Fab Lab Barcelona By Trinidad Gomez Machuca

Learning outcome W05

Identify the advantages and limitations of 3D printing and scanning technology.

Apply design methods and production processes to show your understanding.

3D PRINT

For this assignment i would like to explain everything about 3d print, in this case i want to know what kind of 3d printers exist in this lab, what kind of material, files, settings, etc. Fist of all you have to know the especification of your machine. the most important are two the REP RAP: 0X0X0 CM Oonly works with PLA, ABS and Filaflex and the ULTIMAKER: 20X20X20 CM Oonly works with PLA and ABS. These two are the most common to use for print plastic, in this lab there are a other kind of 3d printers, where you can 3d print more complex materials like the resin 3d print but i only going to explain the PLA and ABS ones because this two are the ones that i'm going to use fot my final project.

NADA NADA

MATERIALS

PLA: Poly(lactic acid) or polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) is a biodegradable and bioactive thermoplastic aliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch (in the United States and Canada), tapioca roots, chips or starch (mostly in Asia), or sugarcane (in the rest of the world).

PLA

ABS: Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is a commonly used thermoplastic as it is lightweight and can both be injection molded and extruded. It has better mechanical properties than HDPE and less brittle than PLA but handles higher temperatures better for applications such as extruder's and X-carriages setups without a fan.

ABS

FILAFLEX: is a thermoplastic polyurethane, Similar to Arnitel, maybe not as strong and more reactive to solvants, but easier to use, Print temperature 245 °C at low speed (e.g. 30 mm/s)

ABS

SUPPORT AND RAFT

You'll need support if the design of your model does not has like a base,so if you have a small or big cantilever you need to know how activate this setting other wise it will fall and you would not have nice model.

SUPPORT SETTINGS

Raft is for make sure that your model will be attached to the base, when the 3d printer is working, the base or the nozzle are moving a lot and sometimes can move your model and make a mess. To save material sometimes is convinient to use lacquer but for example if you want to print on fabric you sould not use raft.

RAFT SETTINGS

This happen when you let the 3d print alone and you don't use raft after a while

WHEN YOU DON'T USE RAFT

INFILL AND RESOLUTIONS

Infill is important to know and control depending the purpose of your model. For example If you want to 3d print a joint that needs to receive a lot of force, you will need to have a very solid and stong piece but if you want to print like a toy or a test, you dont need to infill a lot

INFILL

Resolutions depend on the final quality that you need for your model. Here in the picture you can see the same model with a lot of polygons, but the conventional 3d printers do not have a micro resolution, so if you need it you need to change to a 3d printer that has this kind of resolutions such as formlabs that use resin and are able to print something with a lot of details in a very small scale.

Gray model was made in a PLA 3d printer and the white model in a formlabs.

RESOLUTION

SHELL

Also know as outline or outer perimeter, the shell represents the outer wall of a 3D print. Used in plural (“shells“) in conjunction with a number to describe the maximum thickness given to the outer wall. You can see in the video the shield is on color green.

FILES

After you design in your favorite software you have you will have a lot of kinds of files, in my case because i used Rhinoceros i have .3dm and depend on you software you will have a different one first convert it to a mesh, then to s .stl and before you convert it to g-code, you have to exported to .obj, so if you want to print it you have to pass it to the 3d print machine software, Makerbot, Rep Rap, Ultimaker, etc and you will have a special kind of design

Design file: Rhinoceros 3DM

tresdm

Universal file: OBJ

obj

Mesh file: STL

stl

3D Print File: G-CODE for MAkerbot thing

makerbot

DOWNLOAD OR SCAN OR DESIGN

1. The esiest is to download, there is a lot of places where you can do this, the most famuse is Thingiverse only write what type of object you need, download the .stl file and print.

Descargar

Once i downloaded the model of a usb, and then i subtract it from a scan model and i made a customized usb. But first i divided, I made a boolean mesh.

3d Mike

I bought the smallest usb I found, I measured it and I made the exact form in the rhinoceros.

3d Mike

Then i made the boolean mesh again in the final form, in this case Mike's head. I subtracted the 3d form.

3d Mike 3d Mike

I sent it separated the two pieces in the 3d print.

Mike model

When i had the two pieces i glue the usb and that's it. I have mike's head for USB.

Mike model

Mike USB

Trini USB

2. For scan there is a lot of ways, but the most common is o use a knect with Scanect software. After scannign is recomended to fix the mesh with special software for do it, so the nouse or the empty espaces can be fixed

Scanner

3. Fos designing there a lot of software to use, the one that i'm going to use this time will be Rhinoceros.

Myself

Trinidad

FINAL RESULT

Here is the final result where you can see how the filaflex works with a scan model.

LIMITATIONS

Although is an amazing machine, the time still being a problem in this tool, I rather to spend more time to design something in 2D that can be lasercut machine for fabricating something in 3d than this unless is complete necesary, lásercut is faster. Another thing that i think it is important to mention, is the relation with the scale, you can not do something big, unless you divide a model and then assemble it, it's not bad but if you want to build a big prototype, maybe it's better to think in an alternative for the fabrication process.

SOFTWARE USED

//Rhinoceros

//Skanect

//Ultimaker

Links for the Assignment

3D Scanning and Printing

3D Scanning and Printing Class

3D Scanning and Printing Assignments and Assessment

This is Fab Lab BCN Wiki of the Machines here you can find the parameters for the machines, it is very helpful but some of the machines are changed to its is better to ask to the tutors

Also the link For booking in Fab Lab Barcelona this link is very helpful

DOWNLOAD

Here is the Trini's obj model


Fab Academy 2017 Fab Lab Barcelona Trinidad A. Gomez Machuca
IAAC trinidad.gomez@iaac.net