Short guide to printing objects using 3D printers

Three-dimensional printing (3D printing) is the process of printing an object as it was designed with a 3D software, usually requires a previous slicing with a 3D printer software, this facilitate the printing of the object step by step. Many 3D printers use a solid resin filament is used as "ink" a header heat the filament and then printing use it to print the designed objecets.

The 3D printer machines that this book works with are made by Ultimaker company, the models worked with are:

Ultimaker Original and Ultimaker Original+,
Ultimaker 2, Ultimaker 2 to go, Ultimaker 2 extended, Ultimaker 2 extended +, Ultimaker 2+ Connect,
Ultimaker 3 series, Ultimaker 3 extended,
Ultimaker S5,
Ultimaker S3.

This guide may be useful when printing objects from other manufactures such the models produced by Aleph Objects, Airwold 3D, AIO Robotics, 3D Maker, Sindoh, Voxeljet, Mcor, Materialise NV, Fusion3, FormLabs, EnvisionTEC, Creality, Carbon 3D, among others.

3D printers

3D printers follow instructions on a file that gives it the steps to print segment by segment an object until its completion. They use a solid material, usually a solid resin at room temperature, the filament is loaded into the printer header which heat the resin, liquifying it, the segments are printed and in a semiliquid segments added one at a time to the plate, the segments are the building blocks of the object, they are fused due effects of the gravity force while at the time they solidify when reach room temperature, at the time that the complete object is printed. The company Made In Space is developing 3D printers to be used in microgravity for 3D printing in planets with lower gravity or during interplanetary travel.

3D printing files can be stored in USB drives and then inserted in the printers USB slots. Newer printer versions can also work with files stored in computers or also use Bluetooth, wife and cloud services to access these files.

User interface

3D printers can be used and controlled with a touch screen frontal panel and also with a traditional frontal LCD panel and a dial to select the printer options and the files stored in a USB drive. Other 3D printers can be controlled with a computer connected to them.

They use an internal software to operate, most of the time the user interaction with the printers is to select the file to print and press start to begin the printer.

Newer 3D printer versions recognize what was the last file added to the usb drive, the older version allow to select the file with a dial located in the front of the printer while reading the files also in the screen located in the front of the printer.

The material used to create objects may vary, the current most use material is Polylactic acid (PLA), but other materials are also used. 3D printers liquify and then print the object while is solidified when returned to room temperature.

3D printers most used format is .stl, but they also work with the following formats: OBJ, X3D, 3MF, 3DS, OBJ, AMF, STEP, COLLADA, PLY, FBX, 3MF, IGES, among others.

Materials

One of the most common material used with 3D printers are resins of Polylactic acid (PLA) they come in a spool that is placed in one of the spoon holders of 3D printers to be used as a printer material. 3D printers may also work with the following materials:

Polypropylene (PP)
Polyvinyl acetate (PVA)
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
Polylactic acid (PLA)
Tough PLA,[29]
Copolyester (CPE)
Nylon
Polycarbonate (PC)
Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU 95A)
Breakaway
Thermoplastic elastomers (TPE)
Metals,
Ceramics.

Luminous PLA also can be used in some 3D printers, these are materials that absorb light energy and glow in the dark while release the absorbed energy. Many Ultimaker printers are not capable to print Luminous PLA.

Other options

Many 3D printer machines allow the use of more than one filament and colors, these options can be selected in Cura, the software will instruct the printer how to use the filaments.

3D printer use

The use of a 3D machine can be summarized to 3 steps, loading a filament, selecting the file to print and wait until the object is completed.

The steps to use a 3D printer are the followed:

Turn on the printer: The on off button is located in the back of the printer.

Choose and load a filament

Select a spool of filament, it can be a resin pla filament of any choose color, or another material. Check that is not the filament is not bended or melted, if it is, cut the bended or melted part.

Put the filament spool in the spool holder in the back of the printer, and insert it into the 3D printer following the printer instructions (sometimes this is pressing a button to allow the filament be introduced into the printer). Put the spool in the holder in a way that the filament is oriented towards the machine filament input feeder.

Load the filament using the frontal menu in the printer, select the chosen resin type. If the filament does not reach the header, select load material again, when it reaches the header will extrude the material.

Wait until the material is printed in an extension of the long of 2 arms extended, and select the option accept. confirm if this is the case or in case of failure, reload the material and confirm.

If the filament is not entirely loaded and does not reach the header and stays in the middle of the hose, it could be due the material is bended, if this is the case, unload it, cut it and restart the process. In some printers the header blinks in blue when is not heating and in red when is heating

Select the file to print

Input the USB drive into the 3D printer, then select the object to print. Wait the minutes or hours that are indicated in the printers frontal screen.

Choose the material used and load it, in case that the material is not detected, select the material and confirm. If necessary take the previous material out and reinsert, then if the material is being extruded, confirm when material is being extruded. If the file is not detected, use a .stl format instead.

Print the file

In the LCD screen choose the Print option, the building plate will be heated for a few minutes, then it will print the object, this time can be a few minutes or a few hours the time will be displayed in the LCD screen.

When the object is completely printed the message will be shown in the LCD screen.

Final steps

Wait two minutes after the object is printed in order to allow the base and object cool down, then Unload the material using an spatula.

Remove the USB flash drive.

Clic the return option, material, unload material, let the filament exit the printer.

Push the button to take the filament out of the printer, ant put the resin in its box.

Turn off the printer.

Cura (free software)

Since 1970 many 3D printer manufacturers designed their own software, but their software was not designed to operate in other 3D printer machines. In 2012 David Braam created the first 3D printing free software, Cura. This software allow the slicing of 3D objects and add the instructions that the 3D printers require in order to print a complete object using small slices or segments that are fused into a complete object. It also allows make modifications in the object and also allows changes of the 3d printing process such are speed, temperature, among others.

The company Ultimaker continued the developing of Cura since 2015, renaming it as Ultimaker Cura.

The main function of 3d printing software is slicing the 3D object, this will allow to create each section of the object at once in an stablished order, the format used is .slt, the files generated can range from 10 MB to 1 GB. .SLT files can be saved into the USB drive. Once the .slt file is generated it can be printed in a 3D printer with just a file saved into a USB drive. The software also indicates the time required to printer a file with the model of printer selected.

Other adjustments

Other adjustments that can be done with 3D printing software are speed, size of the object, temperature, etc. The speed selected can affect the quality and the shape of the object printed.

Objects that do not have a heavy base may require to add a flat base at the base to avoid that the head of the printer move the object while printing it. Users can modify this selecting printing settings option (it is located below the monitor option and above the model window), there choose the "build plate adhesion" and add an adhesion type, these could be: Skirt, Brim and Raft.

When one of the pieces does not touch the surface of the printer place, support can be added, select the option generate support, support placement everywhere, this will increase the printing time a few more minutes, but it will allow the accurate and complete printing of all the segments of the object.

Requirements

Cura software use less than 1 GB of space and requires less than 500 MB RAM, it can be installed in many operative systems, including Linux, Windows and Mac OS.

Creation of 3D objects

Cura can be used to create 3D objects, but other software can also be used, among them can be named Blender (also free software), Autodesk 3Ds Max, Siemens NX, SolidWorks among others. They can generate 3D objects and also 3D texts.

Use of free 3D object designs

Other option for 3D printer users is to print objects designed for other users, they are available in many websites that have a list of 3D objects and the option to download the objects, some designers are benefited by donations given by the user of their objects.

External links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_(software)

References