The 3D Printer

The 3D printers of the FAB LAB of the Scientific University of the South are the PRUSA model I3 MK3, with the following technical specifications:

Charging the Filament

To load and remove filament, it is done from the printer dial, pressing once we enter the MENU, go down and locate "Remove Filament", so that the extruder heats up and gradually releases the used filament from the top of the placement head.

To load filament the same step must be performed, with the difference that the action when placing must be very delicate to avoid breakage, verify that the tip of the filament is cut at 45°.

Initial Settings

Together with my colleague Hans we did all the print tests uploaded in the Academy, the link is left at the end of this section. Once downloaded they are imported into the Prusa Slicer program, to add settings.

Here is the link to the PRUSA SLICER program and the steps to follow for the importation

First we open the PRUSA SLICER program, in our case we have the latest version, we go to "FILES" then to "IMPORT" and choose "IMPORT STL", since the files we have are in that format. We will repeat this procedure for all the tests of this group assignment. On the other hand, for the following tests we use the PLA FILAMENT with a plate temperature of 60º and a nozzle temperature of 250º.

TEST OVERHANG

THE FIRST

In this test, we placed Grid supports on the print overhang, in the SLICER we were able to accommodate this and place a prudent infill for the size of the part.

The next test is an L-shape modeling, the supports are generated in the SLICER. Evidence of the results is uploaded.

TEST CLEARANCE

THE SECOND

This test develops moving volumes separated from each other, the challenge is to use supports that are not complex to remove.

Thanks to the previous configuration of supports, fill and printing style we were able to achieve them in the Prusa.

TEST ANGLE

THE THIRD

The first test without supports went quite well, the lamination was fast and also the result was quite uniform, an excellent result was achieved and it is also a contribution of the filament we used, the right temperature.

TEST OVERHANG

THE FOURTH

This test has straight cantilever, no tilt, with the intention of increasing the complexity of printing, it came out quite well!

TEST BRIDGING

THE FIFTH

The test developed contains elements aporticados separated one from the other, that is to say that the printer will have to make bridges in cantilever, the result after the lamination was quite well, incurring in the cleaning of the surpluses served to improve the finish.

TEST WALL THICKNESS

THE SIXTH

The test developed contains elements aporticados separated one from the other, that is to say that the printer will have to make bridges in cantilever, the result after the lamination was quite well, incurring in the cleaning of the surpluses served to improve the finish.This test is to measure the printing accuracy and detail of the extruder in both concave and convex areas.The following test shows small rectangular holes as small walls on the other side. The printer was able to make the print as found in the modeling, only there is a lot of excess filament and it did not come out as clean as the reference.The result came out fine, except for the excess filament on the outsides of the part, but nothing that a lint wipe won't fix.

TEST DIMENSIONS

THE SEVENTH

In this test we printed the model without complications, however the numbers were not so clear.

TEST ANISOTROP

THE EIGHTH

This test is the smallest, fastest and the print result came out very well.

TEST SURFACE FINISH

THE NINTH

The semi sphere test is printed on rectangular base, the final finish was quite good and there was no excess of filaments around.

TEST INFILL

THE TENTH

In the last test, he touched the cube, with the number in depth, the finish came out pretty good.

The Modelling part 1

- The first step is to create the shape from BLENDER, so we go to ADD, MESH, UV SPHERE and the shape is created in the work plane.

- To configure the sides we can do it from the object configuration, in this case with the letter "I" we will set the Thickness value to 0.03mm, which is the minimum value for printing.

- To start drawing the faces on the solid, the Cut tool (K) is used, so that the design on the faces is drawn on the vertices.

The Modelling part 2

- To make the thickness of the drawn faces, select all the volume with the letter A and then with "I" we give a Thickness of approximately 3mm.

- To select the faces we use A and with right click and then DELETE, we delete ONLY THE FACES.

- With the excesses eliminated we solidify the part through ADD MODIFIER, Solidify and give it a Thickness value of at least 3mm.

The Modelling part 3

- To create the cylinder we do it from ADD, MESH, CYLINDER, scale it to the desired size and proceed to locate the precise position.

- After determining the height, scale and shape, we continued with the rotation of the element to achieve its maximum slenderness, I inserted faces and solidified the element.

- To laminate in the SLICER, the program launched a warning of loose extrusions, when you go to modify you see that the volume has quite thin formations, so it is decided to make another shape

The Modelling part 4

- To create the cylinder we do it from ADD, MESH, CYLINDER, scale it to the desired size and proceed to locate the precise position.

- With the creation of another cylinder, we add internal faces with a minimum thickness of 3mm.

- By performing the lamination, we can determine the printing time, which would last approximately 2h 15min.

A bio aquatic scan

I conjunction with the Marine Biology course, I was able to scan the carapace of an aquatic turtle, I leave the file for your review, I can indicate that the scan was done with the program POLYCAM for iphone and thanks to this I could download the file in the extension .glb.

A detailed cranial scan

With the Bio Marine career, we were once again able to scan a piece, in this case a sea turtle skull. It was a little more complex to perform the scanning of this element because I had to keep it in height to allow taking 360° photos, here are the results.

Scanning our friend

I was able to scan one of my work colleagues from the Cientifica Lab, I did it only taking about 500 photos around him, going slowly and capturing details little by little to make way for the program to process it, it should be noted that a postproduction is done in Blender to allow some textures to be shown.