5. 3D printing and scanning¶
3D printing¶
It is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer control, with material being added together, typically layer by layer.
Fused Deposition Modelling¶
There are many techniques used by 3D printers but the most common one is Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM).
Note: This gif is misleading. You’ll wish it was this fast
FDM works using a plastic filament which is supplied to an extrusion nozzle which can turn the flow on and off. The nozzle is heated to melt the material and can be moved in X, Y and Z axes. The object is produced by extruding melted material to form layers as the material hardens immediately after extrusion from the nozzle.
Group Assignment¶
To test and compare between the different 3D printers at fablab a printing test was done. The comparison was between Prusa, Ultimaker 2+ and Ender. The details of the test are on my colleague’s website
3D printing¶
Designing¶
First, I started with designing the pen holder. I used Fusion 360 to model the design. The design is as easy as pi :)
The following images illustrates the designing process:-
1- I created a circle and added a text along its path
2- I created another circle to be the base of the pen holder
3- Then I extruded the text and the base.
edit the image
4- This is a side view of the final design
Finally, I saved the design as an stl file which you can download here
Modifying the file¶
I used Ultimaker Cura to modify the stl file. Those are the settings I chose:
After choosing the desired settings, we started the slicing process
This was the time needed to print the designs
Note that there are multiple designs as we were advised to slice and print the designs together to save time
Printing¶
For the purpose of printing the design. The Ultimaker 2+ printer was chosen after comparing the printing tests from different printers
The result¶
Here is the printed design; my PIn holder:
Here is a top view:
- Mistakes to avoid: Printing something tiny (1mm wide) and long like the point in my pen holder.
3D scanning¶
Three 3D Scanning apps were introduced to us: Trnio Plus, Qlone and Scandy.
I used Qlone to scan. The following photo is the result:
The scan is a bit distorted and the reasons could be: Scanning too fast or/and changing the position of the object
I attempted scanning another object and here is the result, it turned out pretty decent:
