6. 3D Scanning and printing¶
What should I learn this week?¶
Learning outcomes¶
- Identify the advantages and limitations of 3D printing
- Apply design methods and production processes to show your understanding of 3D printing.
- Demonstrate how scanning technology can be used to digitize object(s)
Have you?¶
- Linked to the group assignment page
- Explained what you learned from testing the 3D printers
- Documented how you designed and made your object and explained why it could not be easily made subtractively
- Documented how you scanned and prepared an object (for 3D printing)
- Included your original design files for 3D printing (both CAD and common format for 3D printing)
- Included your hero shots
Group assignment:¶
- Test the design rules for your 3D printer(s).
- Document your work and explain what are the limits of your printer(s) (in a group or individually).
- Document your work to the group work page and reflect on your individual page what >you learned.
Individual assignment:¶
- Design and 3D print an object (small, few cm3, limited by printer time) that could not be easily made subtractively
- 3D scan an object, try to prepare it for printing (and optionally print it)
This week´s TimeTable.¶
Sunday to Wednesday Program
| Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| organicing my week, studying the lesson and documentation | working on my final project then starting the group assignment of the week | 3D design of the individual assignment and working on my final project | Study and improve documentation skills | 3d printing objects and working on my final project | Catch up with the documentation from previous weeks in order to fullfil the course standards. | class and next week timetable organization |
Advantages and limitations of 3D printing (FDM)¶
Advantages¶
- No dust made by the machine so it can be allocated at an office.
- Low noise and fumes level in comparison to CNC routers, plasma, and laser CNC machines.
- Less material waste of additive manufacturing in comparison to sustractive manufacturing.
- Thanks to support material, you can print almost anything you can imagine.
Limitations¶
- Very slow process
- High cost compared to other technologies
- less strenght in the printed parts in comparison to injection molding.
Resin 3D printing Process¶
1) Cad model¶
I used Fusion 360 to create a roller for a 4th axis for a laser engraver machine.
after that I isolated the model I wanted to print, and used the tool save as mesh with the right click button.
Slicer and parameter explanation.¶
To slice the STL file I used Lycheeslicer free version, and the configuration was for the creality Halot One resin 3D printer al a 0.05mm layer height.
I mostly used default parameters since creality halot one was one of the default printers on the slicer.
I printed with no supports, and used a clear creality UV resin. If you need to use supports, the slicer lets you choose from light, medium or high supports, and also makes you watch some adds in the free version.
To print in a resin 3D printer you must wear latex gloves to protect your skin and better to wear a face mask because resin smells. You can pour the resin into the reservoir till the mark beyond the estimate volume showed on the slicer.
If the printer is properly calibrated you just have to press file and select the file of your archive to print.
after printing you should remove the pieces from the plate with a scraper. and then wash it with Isopropil alcohol.
I used a washing and curing machine to fullfill that purpose, first I washed the pieces for 2 minutes, but I realized that was not enough after curing the pieces because some lumps on the surface of the printed part.
After washing the printed parts you can select the curing station in cure mode and 2 minutes is usually enough
The UV LEDs are in the back of the machine, and a reflective platform rotates and you can choose the rotation speeds in fast, medium and slow.
This is the finished 3d printed part, after printing I could notices much higher precision than FDM 3d printed parts because 8mm rods fitted perfectly in the hole without drilling the hole.
You can access the fusion 360 file of the printed part in the link below:
3D Scanning¶
Photogrametry¶
Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant imagery and other phenomena (wikipedia)
The main advantage I see with photogrametry is that you only need a computer and a camera to process the data and create a functional 3D modeling, the main disadvantage I see is that it is very dificult to obtain a highly precise model if you dont take a lot of proper pictures and do not master the meshroom software parameters.
Photogrametry process¶
For scanning I have chosen photogrametry, since it is a very interesting process.
The software I used was meshroom. All I had to do was to load pictures of the object and the computer started to process the images.
At the right of the screen we can see in real time how the model begins to take shape.. In this case I took 29 pictures but had no luck, and took around 10 minutes to process the images, acording to what I have been searching the object I wanted to scan was too glossy so thats the reason it didn t work well, so I tried putting some masking tape to try again.
I putted the masking tape all over the 3d printed part.
The second time I took 41 pictures and the 3d model improved, I will try later with more photos and edit the result in meshmixer to get a better result.
I followed Michael Harmon´s Youtube video to export it as a mesh object.
I opened it in meshmixer to remove all the noise from the model.
to do that I used the plane cut tool
an then the transform tool to rotate it
The object was not so Pretty but it is printable
You can download the meshmixer file in the link below.