Module 3 - 3D Printing#

This week we identified the advantages and limitations of 3D printing, as well we learned how to apply design methods and production processes using 3D printing.

3.1 PrusaSlicer#

In order to start the process of 3d printing, I downloaded the PrusaSlicer Software. In this link you can find all the instructions for Windows,Linux and MacOs. I used homebrew with the command brew install --cask prusaslicer. Also here you have a tutorial that I used to better understand the 3D process.

3.2 Preparation#

Once we enter the application, we need to choose the type of printer that we will use for our work.

In the red section we click on Printer -> Add/Delete Presets and we look for Prusa Research and we selected the printed that we will use.

Also we can chose the Filament, depending on the material properties you want, and the print setting, I have it on “0.30 mm QUALITY” because it’s a good compromise between the quality and speed of the printing. Finally in the green are , we have the button to add the file of the object we want to print, we need a STL file, that we can export from OpenSCAD. After we added our flexilink we press the “Slice Now” to proceed to the final step of exporting pe G-CODE file. In my case I didn’t need any support for my flexilink, but it can be useful if you have an element that is printed with an overhang angle less than 45°.

3.3 Printing#

Every printer has a SD card that we need to use. We introduce the SD card in our computer, and we put the exported G-CODE file inside . Now that the SD card contains our G-CODE, we insert it back into the printer and we can start printing. After doing this steps I printed my flexilink . You can see the result bellow.

From the first try, i could observe that some parameters needs to be adjusted, the strip width could be smaller and also the holes needed to be adjusted in order to use a LEGO piece, so I made this changes by changing the value of the parameters in OpenSCAD, easy to do, due to the construction of the code. Unfortunately i didn’t have the time to also print the LEGO block , but I had another idea for the compliant mechanism that I will describe bellow.

3.4 Group compliant mechanism#

Even if Thibault Maucq had the same figure as me, we came with an interesting idea for combining them and create a compliant mechanism using our flexilinks. Using the modules created in the code for the satelite beam and adjusting some parameters, we also created the additional parts needed. We took the code OpenSCAD of Thibault for the satelite and added this module to create the missing part that will serve as a platform for the catapult.

module platform(height, beam_length, beam_width, holes_r_int, holes_r_out, tip_holes) {
    // r_dif used to make the object a valid 2-manifold
    r_dif = holes_r_out - holes_r_int;

    // union to combine all the components
    union() {
        // Beam in the center
        translate([holes_r_out*2 - r_dif, -beam_width / 2, 0]) {
            beam(height, beam_length, beam_width);
        }
        translate([beam_length/2 + 2*holes_r_out,0,0])
        rotate([0,0,90])
        beam(height,10,beam_width);

        // First holesPiece at the start of the beam
        translate([holes_r_out - r_dif / 2, 0, 0]) {
            rotate([0, 0, -90]) {
                holesPiece(height, tip_holes, holes_r_int, holes_r_out);
            }
        }

        // Second holesPiece at the end of the beam
        translate([beam_length + 3*holes_r_out - r_dif*1.5, 0, 0]) {
            rotate([0, 0, -90]) {
                holesPiece(height, tip_holes, holes_r_int, holes_r_out);
            }
        }
    }
}

All the parts where exported as STL files and introduced to PrusaSlicer for printing. The STL files can be found on this link.

The idea was to make a type of catapult, based on the basic idea of ​​the satellite beam. I think we succeeded, you can see the result below.