I am currently in my final year of university and was wanting to go down the 3D printing route for my major project (product design) as it is the future.
I was hoping for any suggestions people have of product ideas related to 3D printing or any processes you feel can have some innovative improvement.
I have about 8 months to experiment and make prototypes so it can be quite techy if necessary!
I understand I should be the one thinking of a project idea but my previous idea (cheap acetone vapour smoothing device for 3d printed parts) already exists as a kickstarter project so my tutor told me to head in a different direction. I was like bloody great… telling me 2months into the course.
I’ve been stuck for a while and thought all you experts are probably the best people to ask! I will ship the final thing to whoever gives me an idea as gratitude.
The 3d printing community is full of so many experimenters that it’s not so easy to come up with an idea that hasn’t been tried.
There are a few mechanical devices that haven’t been brought to the quality and price required for mass adoption, like filament diameter sensors or motor positioning. But the reason is that making these devices smaller, cheaper, and more accurate is incredibly difficult.
But what is more achievable is software, new methods of printing, better calculations, novel methods to print stuff that is otherwise impossible, or improvements in quality that were out of reach because of insufficient data and calculations.
Printing with filaments will always leave pattern traces of construction, the lines of the filament. SLA provides much more detailed resolution, and can eliminate construction lines in the final product. The light sensitive fluids are expensive and need to come down in costs. The strength of the light sensitive materials also needs to improve. The dental industry has uv sensitive material which meets this requirement, but is a little bit slower in curing. To be scientific, focus on the chemistry of the SLA printer fluids to make less expensive and stronger when cured SLA parts. To give you a head start, you will have to look at the history of SLA printing, look up patents on products, look at ingredients lists, research individual chemicals in the formulas and see what they do. Eventually you will arrive with a product with specific qualities. Even if those qualities don't match what you want, advertise it as what properties that fluid is best at. After several tries you will understand how the individual chemicals work and be able to design a fluid to what you want.
We still don’t have a 3d printer that is as easy to use as a microwave oven. We may never get there, but taking some of the printbed prep out of the process would make it easier for a novice to use a 3d printer.
actually the biggest problem i face with fdm is getting a right color filament for my design prototypes. I always end up compromising to live with whatever is available… i have been contemplating for quite some time and will begin experimenting mixing filaments. What is needed is a extruder which has a input of 2 or 3 rolls and which after a mixing hotend extrudes a resultant filament which is the desired color. This resultant filamant can then be used as a normal filament for a print… i am going to start with 2 to play around with…
Rather depends on whether you are doing software or hardware, and how willing you are to try to do something that may be a failure.
My personal suggestion (if you are hardware guy) is make a device for converting recycled plastic into filament, and extend the work of http://www.perpetualplasticproject.com/blog/2014/5/30/plastics-recycled-for-3dprinting .
@ekaggrat_singh_kalsi Thats actually a really good idea! takes alot of experimenting which is perfect for a major project. sounds very techy and may not be feasible but I’ll speak to my tutor about it on Wednesday and see what he thinks.
If he agrees then i’ll be intouch and maybe we can share our results from experimentation.
Cheers man!
@Eric_Davies Thanks for the reply eric! I think theres a product like that called the 3Devo https://3devo.com/
But its over 4 grand so maybe i can look into a more affordable method for hobbyists.
Thanks again!
@Eric_Davies Typically that is a bad idea because you get a mix of product with different properties or contaminates, and that leads to inconsistency in the product going through the print heads. The 3D printer market has already gone through several cheap recycled printer filament boondogles. Recycled plastics is not for the 3D printer filament industry.
@Lukas_Mathis Hi Luke,
My flatmates and I come across this issue on a daily basis and have wasted alot of plastic by just chucking away failed prints. its a good idea and has a good cause!(save materials). I’ll check back with my tutor and see what he thinks and will be intouch!
@Josh_Addyman
Making a filament extruder is just the preliminary. the idea is to evaluate different plastic sources. @MidnightVisions Can you supply some references?
@Eric_Davies The problems with using recycled plastics are well known. I’ve has several batches of bad and questionable filament over the last 5 years. The highly critical part is the filaments are fed through a .5mm hole at a specific temperature. Any contamination in that material causes problems in the final print. The largest use for recycled plastics is in the pallet or milk crate industry. The fit and finish of those is not important enough to care. If your making a part with some finesse or expected precision, you will want to use as pure a material as you can get. Dealing with contaminated or mixed filament materials is a headache I don’t want to repeat. Unless the base filament material is pure, you will never know what is going through the print head.