Background
3D printing is an additive process of creation. Not unlike an inkjet printer, a printer head draws a slightly extruded image, steps up one level, draws another, another, and so on until a 3D thing is formed. There are many 3D printing processes including Vat photopolymerisation, material jetting, binder jetting, material extrusion, powder bed fusion, sheet lamination and directed energy deposition (which are rundown here).
Additive manufacturing posts...
- Mathematica model..? (no) | 2017 Mar 01 | 5 minute read
- Performance testing MakerBot Replicator II | 2017 Feb 25 | 4 minute read
I am forever in awe of math derived computer geometries. I would love to learn how to write scripts that generate models in a CAD application soon. For the first draft, I decided it would be much faster to sketch a model based on visual cues and test it in a 3D printer. I used Autodesk Maya for this sketch. This little thing fits within a 35mm radius sphere. I am trying to push the tolerances of machine to an extreme here. The first pass I will try 1.2mm wall thickness with some temporary scaffolding. I am forever in awe...
The lab has a many 3D printers. I started with the MakerBot Replicator 2, which is a material extrusion printer which only uses Polylactic acid (PLA) plastic. "PLA is a biodegradable and bioactive thermoplastic aliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch (in the United States and Canada), tapioca roots, chips or starch (mostly in Asia), or sugarcane (in the rest of the world)." Wikipedia The first operations are testing the limitations of the machine. ZhaoWei and I tested two models. The first, Zhaowei had on hand giving us time to draw the second while the machine printed....