Week 5 — 3D scanning and printing

This week’s topic: 3D scanning and printing.

Individual assignment

Your personal work for this week — notes, photos, design files, and reflections.

Group assignment

Guangzhou (Chaihuo) — group documentation: design-rules testing for the lab’s 3D printer (FDM).

Abstract

The group runs a deliberate design-rules campaign on the specific printer(s) available at the site: overhangs and bridging, clearances and gaps, wall thickness, and angles (supported versus marginal versus unsupported surfaces), aligned with Fab Academy “Testing Design Rules” guidance. The outcome is a short, evidence-backed design-rules sheet—slicer settings, nozzle/layer height, filament, and pass/fail or measured limits—so future work on that machine starts from documented capabilities instead of guesswork.

1. Printer, filament, and slicer baseline

Record machine model, nozzle, bed, filament type/brand, and the baseline slicer profile used for all tests.

Several FDM machine form factors were visible in the lab; the documented tests refer to the specific printer and slicer profile your group selected.

Several different FDM 3D printers in the lab — Figure 1: Different 3D printers on site (tie results to one chosen machine).

Retrieving filament or stock for 3D printing from lab storage — Figure 2: Retrieving 3D printing material — match filament type to the baseline recorded above.

2. Test geometry and procedure

Describe the test print(s) or calibration suite (e.g. overhang tower, bridge span sweep, clearance pins, thin walls, angle chips) and what each probe measures.

3. Results

Present photos and a compact table: what worked, what failed, and any measured dimensions versus nominal.

3D-printed design-rules test coupons on a build plate — Figure 3: Coupon probing walls, gaps, bridging, etc. — mark pass/fail regions.

Inspecting 3D-printed design-rules test coupons on the build plate — Figure 4: Inspecting printed test coupons — note warping, stringing, and feature quality before tabulating results.

3D-printed part testing maximum overhang angle — Figure 5: Overhang / angle capability for this printer.

A source capture was also saved as 3d-print-test-parts.heic; the JPEG 3d-print-test-parts.jpg is used here for broad browser compatibility.

4. Recommended design rules

Summarize actionable limits (min wall, max unsupported angle, minimum gap for moving parts, etc.) for classmates.