3D Printing
FDM Printed Parts
3D Printing is an Additive Manufacturing technology that turns digital design to tangible 3D objects.
You can see more details on how I learnt about this technology in the 3D Printing Week. The machine I used is the Ultimaker 2+.
I have designed multiple parts in my final project to be manufactured using 3D Printing.
The first part I decided to print is the back part of the box that carries the water tank and electronics.
After I saved the file as STL, I opened it with Cura. I used the following settings:
- Layer Height: 0.1mm
- Wall Thickness: 0.8mm
- Top/Bottom Thickness: 0.8mm
- Infill: 50%, infill dictates how rigid your print is
- Print Speed: 60mm/s
- Material Used: PLA
- Printing Temprature: 215
- Nozzle: 0.4mm
- Print Bed Temprature: 60
- Support was enables and set to everywhere becuase I have tracks for the acrylic.
- Support Pattern: Zig Zag.
- Support Density: 5%.
The print took 15 hours and needed 30 minutes of post processing to be able to remove the support generated in the tracks.
The next part I printed was the left and right joints. I also used Cura asn set the same settings.
The print took around 11 hours and the result is seen below.
The last thing I printed is the funnel. The funnel was self supported and didn't need any support. I used the same settings as before since I used the same material and the results were great.
The result is seen below and I so much like how it turned out!
SLA Printed Tank
I decided to print the water tank using SLA since I want it to be water proof.
The printer available in the lab is the Form2 and I used clear resin to print the tank so I can see the water level.
The settings I set in Preform are seen below.
I tested the tank by filling it with water and leaving it over night to make sure it doesn't leak. When I came back the second day it was all good :)
You can download the STL files HERE.
