Omar Seif El Eslam - Fab Academy 2022

3D Scanning and Printing

Assignment requirements:

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).

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).

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).

Assessment criteria

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

In this week we want to test the design rules for our 3D printers.
We Have Prusa 3D printers Mk3 and Mk2.
Using Ultimaker Cura slicer software, we have prepared the stl files that will help us define the 3D printer rules.
I will mention the result of each.

Overhang

Overhang wasn't our best and it gave acceptable result at 3mm overhange distance, others were messy from my point of view.

Clearance

In clearance test, the 0.1mm clearance didn't move at all, 0.2mm is moving but tight so it would be a good clearance if you want just to make it move without alot of free space, and all of the above are moving freely and nice.

Angle

In angle test all angels were fine, only the 0 angle one showed a little mess, I would go for the 40 degree angle to be in the safe side as I think with longer distances angles under 40 degrees will make a rough outer surface.

Bridging

What I can say about this, perfecto, bridging up to 20mm is totally fine.

Wall Thickness

In this test, any wall thickness under 0.5mm didn't which was a bit logic because we use 0.4mm diameter nozzle.

For the clearance between 2 walls 0.3mm and above where good and dimensions under that didn't show up as plastic bonded together.

Dimensions

The cube should be 20mm outside dimension and 10mm inside, for us the outer dimension was pretty close and inner dimension had a tolerance of 0.1mm.

I think the tolerance in 3D printing is also a function of part dimensions, means the bigger that part the bigger the tolerance you will get (correct me if I'm wrong please).

Anisotropy

This was a practice to see how the orintation of printing affects the part.

Surface Finish

This was a practice to see how layer height affects the part the right part was printed with 0.2mm layer height and the left smooth nice one is 0.1mm layer height.

OK Now we are done, here's a photo for you.

Individual Assignment

I should design a model that could not be made subtractively and 3D print it, so I decided to design a rose head I wanted to do it long time ago.

Practice

I have a started with a practice to design an enclosure for the programmer board I made in Week 4.

After knowing the tolreance I should use I implemented that to my design in solidworks.

This is rendered photo of the design.

I printed the top of the enclosure with the orintation shown in the picture to have the locking pins in the strongest case when it be parallel to printing axis.

This is a video for the assembly, play sound to hear the tick.

Design

I'm using solidworks for 3D designs normally but I passed the CAD week without using blender so I decided to use blender to create my model.

I followed this tutorial and designed the rose as I wish.

It may not look like a real rose but I'm fine with it as a first trial and first design with blender.

3D Printing

I used Ultimaker Cura software for slicing.

Using the original prusa profiles for mk2 and mk3 printers, with 0.2mm layer height and enabled supports (touching build plate), material used is PLA+ eSun.

It's not my first 3d printing or my first design but I was very excited about it, I watched the 3D printer and once finished I started to remove supports.

After removing supports it had a rough surface so I used a sanding paper and made it smooth.

I printed it with supports because I was a bit afraid to fail if I printed it without supports but I went for another trial to print without supportsn only with brim but the part moved in mid printing process so I will increase the brim and print it again, but half of it were already done and the angle was good and much better the surface with supports added.