Entry Seven - An Aside into 3D Printing
An Aside - Learning 3D Printing
Trying to Master the Art, Science and Technology of 3D Printing.
As I was putting my proposal together, I decided that one easy way to create an integrated cube would be 3D printing it with the right material. That started me on a journey of teaching myself all about 3D printing. There is a 3D printing laboratory at my high school and I live close to a community college that also has 3D printing facilities open to county students, so I was able to get lots of hands-on experience. There are three important components to 3D printing the ”ink” or the material you print with, the design code that tells the printer how to print, and the printer itself. Out of these three, I felt most comfortable with creating the design because I had used computer-aided-design (CAD) programs before. Figuring out how to optimize printer parameters to get the structure you want is challenging. It is also very dependent on the printer you are using. You need to make sure the print bed is level, the mount for your structure is sturdy enough to hold the item while it is being additively built, but not so strong that you damage your structure when you are trying to cut out the mount. The temperature inside the print compartment has to be just right – so the “ink” or filament, especially plastic based ones, neither coagulates nor drips during the print process. It has to be delivered layer by layer in a very controlled fashion. I experimented with a lot of different approaches to mounting my pieces, controlling the temperature and humidity inside the print compartment, and trying different filament materials. With some materials, I had to warm up the print compartment with a foil blanket to keep the filament from solidifying. With other materials, I had to blow a fan to cool the compartment, so the filament would gelify and not run too freely. In the end, I ended up building a heater circuit to keep the print compartment at a constant temperature optimized for each print material. A picture depicting the progression of optimization on two simple pieces is shown in the picture below – it was always very satisfying when I finally nailed the conditions to exactly print the structure I had designed.
Top: Six tries printing a sieve structure with carbon fiber. From 1 through 6, experienced complete failure, then delamination of layers, then warping and finally success. Bottom: Three tries printing a cube with carbon fiber. Warping to delamination to success.