3. DAY 2 & 3 - 3D model making time

• 3D printer cost - we paid around $1,200.  Now there's an improved version worth only $985
• Material used - ABS 1.75mm filament plastic (Acryonitrile Butadiene Styrene - same sfuff lego's made from)
• Alternative material - PLA (polylactic acid) - derived from renewable sources such as corn starch and biodegradeable
• Model size - 140mm x 140mm x 135mm
• Printing time - depends on the height and volume.  Prints can take as little as little as 2 minutes or as long as 8 hours pending the complexity
• Colours - white, red, green, blue, yellow and transparent
• Extrusion temperature - around 250 C
• Material cost - around $30/kg

This printer essentially is constructed from 3 stepper motors (2 for the horizontal plane and 1 for the vertical plane), a heating element for melting the filament, a heated platform to keep the material warm during the process, a roll of plastic 1.7mm diameter filament, a frame and an onboard circuit board

Printing of a 3D solid is via an STL file.  This file is formatted via printer specific software on a computer and this information is then transferred to the printer via USB cable.  The information is based on "layers" which are in turn printed consecutively until the print is fully completed. 

So sample print time:

 Here we were printing a small wine glass

 The stem builds quite quickly (and accurately)

Not sure if you can see it, but on a "slight" angle such as the base, you can see the 0.2mm "stepping".  At the very base of the cup is a disposable part called the "raft".

Below are a couple of more "sample" 3D prints produced with the UP3D printer:

 What is it?  Half an owl of course - what else?

 Bearing housing:

This is a nut and bolt made with a 2mm pitch.  Nice tight fit with a 0.2mm clearance between the two

This is a 3D bracelet created as a single print.  Given the two lips on either end, this bracelet could not be normally manufactured in pieces and assembled.  It can only be created as a 3D print.  Link to video:

http://youtu.be/6o1chNIFOXo

I didn't make this one.

Anyone recognise this tea pot?  Yes, it's the 3D max sample teapot.

An example of a solid gear made in green ABS filament:

To print this wine glass, I made a 4 pronged base (see opposite).  This ensured the print remained adhered to the base plate whilst printing.  The "raft" and "extra support" was then trimmed off.
For tall prints, extending a temporary base is a good idea.  It could save a couple of hours of printing.

Note, for the long "stem" I later found it printed more accurately if it had a fan blowing on it as it prints extremely fast and doesn't have a chance to harden before the next layer.

Not sure if you can see the resolution here on the right, but that was the intent of building this model.

The early dot matrix printers would print at 60 dpi.  Now we have laser printer printing at 1800 dpi (30 times as fine).

Our 3D printer has a resolution of 0.2mm per layer.  In line with laser printers, how long will this figure drop until we see no visible lines with the naked eye?

An example of a 3D model of a building printed using this printer.  Printer time around 2 hours.

A problem I found when printing this, was that the corners would "lift" up.  In hind sight, I should have made some temporary radial supports like the cup above, which I could them trim off.  I almost felt as if it would have been better if the base plate cooled down somewhat.




All the samples above were brought along for display at the conference - so that the audience could see some variation in usage as well as the quality of the print.  However people all like samples, so we went busy on the production line printing...