Innovations in the 3D Printing Space
As the popularity of 3D printers, custom manufacturing and the creator/maker movement continues to grow, friends, and colleagues have taken deeper interest in how they too can leverage the latest technology and techniques for their development.
In this collaborative post, RIT alumni, Rachel Samaroo and Bryan Smith share some of their learnings on 3D printing. Rachel is a leader in the Consumer Product and Packaging space with a background in Industrial Design and Human Centric Approaches. Bryan has focused on the software engineering space for the larger half of his career and recently began prototyping electromechanical systems utilizing 3D printed parts.
Rachel and Bryan share commonly asked questions and thoughts below.
Q: Can you tell me about your experience with 3D printing?
Rachel:
I have spent my career transforming ideas into physical and relatable products. Digital tools like animations, virtual reality (vr), and 3D printing have revolutionized the ability to create beautifully finished, functional prototypes and products. I have used 3D printing as a tool for over 15 years; printers ranging from FFF (FDM), SLS, SLA, to Metal fabrication have made creating finished prototypes and products significantly faster and more affordable. I am delighted to have witnessed the advances in 3D printing over the last decade. Seeing the development of materials like metals, woods, with additional color options has been exhilarating. The industry I work within provides amazing opportunities and challenges to work and learn.
Bryan:
Nearly all of my professional experience has revolved around software development but I have maintained the dream of being able to innovate with hardware, software and electronics as well. As a means to expand my understanding outside of pure software, I took the plunge to buy my first FDM 3D printer. I spent time learning CAD tools like Fusion 360 and 3D sculpting tools like ZBrush. It has been really fun to go from a concept to a fully polished working prototype.
Q: How are you pushing the limits of what is possible with 3D printing?
Rachel: I have been integrating smart technology experiences into consumer products and packaging. Most recently, I embedded an NFC chip into a printed ABS part. When the consumer tapped the smartphone and product together, it initiated a custom app download that allowed an avatar to enter the user’s space via augmented reality. Once in AR, an engaging tutorial of how the product works began through an immersive experience.
Bryan: I’m innovating on several conceptual ideas that require integrating 3D printed parts with microcontrollers, and custom software. I’m pushing the limits of what has been possible before in terms of speed, by going from concept to working prototype in days instead of months or years. In one recent build, I was able to validate a novel 3D printed device with complex mechanical/software functionality while I waited for more expensive machined parts to be shipped.
Q: What types of materials do you have experience with and what have you learned about using these materials?
Rachel: I have experience using a wide range of printed materials:
- Wood PLA prints in good resolution (quality) and is a biodegradable material. The parts can be sanded and stained and have a striking resemblance to wood. Wood PLA prints are light in weight because the material is composed mostly of PLA with a fraction of wood fibers added to the composite.
- ABS allows me to use a material that I would use in actual production. It is important to have consistent and uniform high temperatures when using this material.
- Full Color Sandstone allows graphics to be layered into the print. The end result can be dull, so I usually apply a clear coat which gives it a finished look! These prints tend to be more brittle.
- Nylon is one of my favorite materials to use; SLS printers use a powder for support, resulting in minimal cleanup. The parts are strong and can have some flex.
- Precious metals such as silver and gold are beautiful but materials are expensive in comparison.
- Steel is functional and strong but also heavy - similar to a die cast part.
- Carbon Fiber is functional and strong. Proper ventilation is important when using this material.
- Resin prints are durable and print in excellent resolution. You also have an option to print out of clear; the clear material does have a yellow tint, but there are ways of minimizing it.
Bryan: I have used wood PLA, ABS, TPU, and Metal/PLA composites. Wood PLA is really neat in that you can produce something that looks like wood and has some of the same sanding characteristics. ABS is a bit more fickle than PLA but allows you to post-polish with more “passive” techniques. Metal/PLA composites are a bit more brittle, but post-polishing can have a nice looking effect. Each filament type requires slightly different print settings (temperature, bed-leveling, and consideration towards different tolerances/layer heights).
Q: How do you choose which materials to print out of and when would you choose one over another?
Rachel: I determine the materials based on how I want the parts to function. For an appearance model, I might use a more brittle material, but if it's functional, I choose materials that have similar properties to what I will use in production. For instance, if I’m designing and printing a custom kitchen tool, I’ll use ABS or metal instead of a brittle PLA material. If I’m designing and printing a bottle cap, I might use Wood PLA to achieve the aesthetic look.
Bryan: Since I tend to realize prototypes that often integrate with other hardware, I think about the durability, tolerances, and strength of the material I’m about to use. I also think about how the final fit and finish will need to look and whether that might require a different material. The complexity of the print might also dictate the type of material.
Q: How are you combining your experience with software and 3D printing?
Bryan: One of the key concepts in software engineering is iteration over short periods of time. In the hardware world, iteration happens more slowly over months or years. I treat 3D printing almost like the software development process by producing something functional and iterating quickly. On a few occasions I have proven out my concepts first with 3D printing and then had those parts professionally machined with other materials (for either safety or durability). The time and chance for expensive failure was heavily reduced by being able to prove out the working concepts with a 3D print before moving to a machining process.
When it comes to combining software and hardware, the prototypes I build often involve software development with stepper motor control, other SW integrations, with lighting, timing sequences and loops that typically move 3D printed parts or are held in place via 3D printed parts.
Q: When would you use a FDM printer vs an SLA printer, and what are the differences?
Rachel: FDM printers use spools of materials and print in layers or steps. SLA printers use resin as a material and a laser cures the material - layer by layer resulting in a high quality print. I choose the printer based on the material and quality that I need.
- I use FDM printers for quicker prints or if I want to use a wood PLA or Carbon Fiber material.
- I use SLA printers for parts made out of clear or rubber. SLA Printed parts also tend to print in a better quality or resolution.
Q: What experiences do you have with post-processing parts you’ve printed?
Bryan: Post-processing my prints has certainly been a learning process. I have mainly tried 4 different methods with various different outcomes.
- Sanding/Priming with filament and filler/putty
- This method is really time-consuming and tedious for complex prints. The process difficulty can vary based on the material but works well to smooth out the print lines on an FDM printed object.
- Epoxy coating and curing with another material
- While this method results in some loss of detail on a print, it has the benefit of adding some strength to a print and lets you achieve a good degree of smooth-ness.
- Acetone vapor
- It’s tough for me to get a good ABS print on my printer due to the setup of the print-bed, but the acetone vapor creates a nicely polished look by melting the print-lines better than I can do by sanding.
- Ironing, non-planar slicing and sanding/mold casting from a 3d print
- Mold/casting from 3D prints is great to be able to reproduce the exact same part multiple times. I plan to explore non-planar slicing more in the future.
Q: What are some of the most common issues new users have when 3D printing?
Rachel: When I unboxed my 3d printer, I was ecstatic! I couldn’t wait to start printing - but the printer didn’t give me instructions past the initial setup and loading the printer with material. What software should I use and what settings do I use to export the stl file? I had to turn to crowdsourcing, colleagues, and friends for troubleshooting and advice. I remember the first time I printed a part, it was 25% larger than I intended, because of a scaling/conversion export issue. I think these are common initial headaches. Figuring out and understanding the right steps and configuration is key to being able to produce prints confidently.
Q: Did you have to learn new software when you started printing?
Bryan: For creating new works there was a fair amount of new software to get acclimated to, such as ZBrush for 3D sculpting and Fusion 360 for CAD. For printing those assets, I needed to use tools such as MeshMixer, Cura and Slic3r. These tools are relatively straight-forward to get started with but also provide more advanced options to really perfect the prints.
Q: What printed project are you the proudest of and why?
Rachel: I’m proud of many prints that I have worked on. In the industrial design space, printing on-demand has allowed for faster approval times and a level of excitement from clients early on in the project. A print that I’m most proud of is a personal one; my niece (one year old at the time) kept taking and playing with my computer mouse. It was completely adorable, but the mouse was not safe for her with small removable parts and a laser light.. I looked online but I couldn’t find a toy that I felt was safe and suitable for her. My solution was to design and model a custom toy mouse; I made an appropriately scaled model for her grip, removed small parts, transformed the scroller into a nose, and added eyes and ears, to inspire pretend play. I printed it out of Wood PLA. Once the print was complete, she moved her wooden printed toy around as if she were working too and she looked so proud of herself. It was simple but exceptionally rewarding because I created a toy that sparked immense joy for someone important to me.
Q: What was your learning curve like to get started, and do you have any quick tips?
Bryan: Typically when learning something new I tend to ask myself a wide breadth of technically extreme questions when getting started and dive deeper vertically into the task at hand very quickly. With this method of learning, I quickly found what was possible to do on my printer (i.e common failure modes, fastest stable print speeds, best precision settings, best print orientations, best filament for the job).
One of the most helpful suggestions I can offer is to learn the common failure modes of 3D prints and printers and build around those failure modes. An example is: if your large prints are likely to fail (e.g spooling issues, hw issue), figure out how to break your parts up into modular parts or look into the tools others have created to help address these issues. There’s a great community of folks who release open source tools for various printers to help address hardware issues or help detect issues as they are happening.
Separately, there are parts libraries that can make life a lot easier to build things from threaded components and snappable blocks, to CAD models.
Some mind-shifts worth noting are: It’s helpful to remember with a 3D printer, you have a tool to fabricate more tools. Going from a scarcity of tools to an abundance of tools requires a mind-shift (i.e. it’s ok if you make a throw-away tool, you can print as many as you need). Additionally, treating parts as throw-away until they’re perfect is a relatively new concept in the fabrication world.
Q: What’s next for you in this space and where do you predict the industry is headed next?
Rachel: I am excited for the future of 3D printing! Print quality has already vastly improved and print beds are becoming larger. Additionally, material costs are decreasing, and there has been significant innovation in materials and processes, especially in the medical space. I think the future of printing will focus on post-processing innovation, support material cleanup, temperature control/insulation, and built-in ventilation.
The next step for me in this space is to continue creating innovative designs that may not exist yet, in a thoughtful, sustainable, and user-centric way. With technology at our fingertips, I am eager to incorporate more smart-app experiences in the consumer product and packaging space.
Bryan: I’m going to continue to explore how I can combine software with custom hardware together in new innovative ways. The potential to create new custom prototypes is virtually limitless.
In terms of the industry, I think there are some natural outcomes unfolding, such as an increase in the number of people who have access to 3D printers, and improvements to the materials available. The quality and speed of printing is also evolving quickly. As tools become better and more affordable, access to items that were once prohibitively expensive naturally come down in price. I can imagine in the future some amount of high-volume production may shift to a model of highly customizable production at scale.
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