Fashionable 3D printing is an open supply success story. The fast rise and refinement of hobbyist 3D printing is a direct results of open growth by the group. Through the years, we have seen many concepts put to the take a look at and plenty of of them appeared foolish at first. That is why we applaud the CPSdrone workforce for their current experiments in underwater 3D printing.
Why would anybody wish to run a 3D printer underwater? The CPSdrone workforce’s preliminary motivation was cooling. Your typical FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) 3D printer works by melting thermoplastic filament after which extruding that molten plastic to type an element. Warmth is critical for extrusion, however dangerous for nearly every part else. In an excellent world, the extruded plastic would cool sufficient to solidify the second it bonds with the earlier layer. Most printers have cooling followers to hurry up that course of, however the CPSdrone workforce figured that water might do it quicker—thereby enhancing overhang and bridging efficiency.
Is can also be doable that the buoyancy of the filament in water might additional enhance overhangs and bridges, as gravity would have much less of an impact.
To check their theories, the fellas at CPSdrone needed to submerge a 3D printer. They selected a Prusa i3 clone because the take a look at topic. That required some waterproofing, however most likely not as a lot as you are pondering. Opposite to the favored notion, electronics can work underwater. Deionized water has very low conductivity and that helps, however electronics may even work in salty, high-conductivity water so long as there aren’t uncovered contacts too shut collectively. If the resistance (a perform of distance and conductivity) is low sufficient and the voltage excessive sufficient, you get a brief circuit and that is an issue. In any other case, every part retains working so long as important corrosion would not happen.
So the CPSdrone workforce solely needed to coat contacts that have been in shut proximity in waterproof epoxy to forestall shorts. Additionally they swapped out conventional ball bearings for Delrin bearings that may’t corrode. Lastly, they embedded the recent finish in a brick of silicone. That retains the water from cooling the recent finish, which should stay at a excessive sufficient temperature to soften the filament for extrusion.
Submerged in a fish tank of deionized water, this modified 3D printer truly labored fairly properly. There have been some mishaps with the workforce’s alternative of silicone for the recent finish, however total it was successful. Assessments in a pool weren’t as promising, because the printer ended up failing through the workforce’s go to to a neighborhood pool.
The true query is whether or not any of this was worthwhile. The submerged printer did appear to deal with overhangs higher than the management printer, however not sufficient to make us wish to go purchase fish tanks for our printers. The distinction in bridging wasn’t substantial sufficient to be conclusive.
Both approach, this take a look at was very fascinating and we’re comfortable that the CPSdrone workforce was courageous sufficient to tackle the problem.