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 following test presents an inverted L-shaped modeling where supports are generated that can be generated in the software we use to be able to print it in 3D. Here I show images of the generated supports and the printed result. The objective with the printing was to obtain the result without excess material and the shape to be correctly printed on both vertices and sides. Also, when removing the supports, do not affect the shape of the volume.

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.

This test helped us to identify the tightest thread and the level of special adjustment that we could possibly use for a project that uses precise embones and requires a much more precise adjustment, the result of this test was quite good, we did not need support in any way, what we did notice is that the extruder was throwing the extruder at the time of the printing process, some filament hairs, we verified that it was part of the trajectories made.

TEST ANGLE

THE THIRD

The first test without supports is the angles, where the modeling presents volumes that change their angle. The 3D printer was able to achieve a good result according to the reference presented in class. With the test we wanted to know how far the printer can print without supports at different angles. Thanks to the result we identified that we did get a good result but the detail of the print (vertices) was not so neat.

TEST OVERHANG

THE FOURTH

The second test is very similar to the previous one but the modeling presents a right angle where the flying distance of each prism increases. The result came out well and similar to the reference in class. In the next test, we change the printing speed so that the cantilevers can cool down enough to be stable to receive the next layer.

TEST BRIDGING

THE FIFTH

The next test has the concept of porticos where the modeling varies the distance between the supports and in the end achieve a bridge to see if it is possible. The result came out well with a lot of filament around it but after cleaning it a little you can get the result. To obtain the test result, we lowered the extruder temperature from 200° to 230° and also slowed down the speed to achieve the overhangs in the first layer (so that they cool down faster as they come out of the extruder).

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 the test we were able to print the model clean and according to the reference, however the numbers found were not so clear. We wanted to achieve a tower print that defined in the last layer the numbers marked on the model, although it was achieved, the numbers are not clear despite the high temperature.

TEST ANISOTROP

THE EIGHTH

This test is the smallest, fastest and the printing result came out very well compared to the class reference. We secure the print with balsa so that the tower type print does not move or drag when printing.

TEST SURFACE FINISH

THE NINTH

The next test was about seeing the finish and changing the figure from orthognal to sphere that the 3D printer was able to make and obtain a good result. In order to achieve the highest and deepest points of the shape, the temperature is varied to a further 20° degrees to achieve the smoothest possible shape.

TEST INFILL

THE TENTH

And the last test, the 3D printer was able to perform and have good detail in the finishing of the test. The number 15 is seen very clear and clean throughout the depth of the cube. For this last test we kept a temperature from the previous test so it didn't come out very clean inside the number and there was a bit of overrun inside it.

A disclaimer

In the images shown as a capture from the prusa slicer program, you can see a congiruration of the type of filament used which is ABS, when we have used PLA, however in the temperature settings, these have been corresponding to PLA, following the recommended temperature indications in the same roll of filament, here is a screenshot of the same screen with the configuration that was used at this time.

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.

Why is not substractive

My model is not subtractive and must be printed together because the idea is to contain a complex element and that it does not come out of the cylinder, so I tried it 3 times, the third time, the model was embedded in the same prism, the result was quite good.

About the scanner

I chose this 3D scanner, by recommendation, the result is much better than other applications that I had tried in the past, here I explain the steps, first I started by downloading the application, I leave the link here

From here we can select the object, better if it is on a flat surface and there are few things around it, so that we can focus on only that element, from the sgt image we can verify the first capture through video, the software allows 150 photos.

After that we can press the red button for the capture, automatically when we press DONE, it will send us to the processing, here I waited approx. 5 minutes.

After loading the processing, the whole model came out, from here we can see that it is inside the purple box, what I did was to cut it more detailed to finally download it in a GLTF file, I can open it in any modelling program to start configuring it.

Here is a video of the object in AR to show the level of detail of the scan.

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.