Evening,
Feeling a bit lost in what material to choose and to be honest which company to chose too.
What is the best material to 3D print and Steel Structure model?
Since this model will have Steel members what is the best way to provide a model to a 3D company? by individual members (parts)? if yes, how will the assembly works? (if you have experience with these sort of models).
Thanks for reading
Hi there!
What application is this for, as in how will the steel be being used? Outside of aesthetic parts (jewelry, art, lamps, etc.) printing functional stainless steel isn’t really an option. The printed part won’t be able to be further machined or refined, and will not reflect the material properties of steel that’s been extruded or machined to shape.
Thanks for your reply.
I’m not trying to print it’s members in steel.
What I’m after is a 3D print of a Steel Structure Model.
Please see attachment.
What I’m really after is a model with the walls in one colour and the steelwork in other colour, all in the same 3D print if that makes sense.
The main questions are, what is the best material, the best printer and obviously how should I split each part for assembly afterwards.
Thanks for you reply once more.
Best Regards
Ah ok, that is definitely something you can do, sorry for the misunderstanding! In terms of breaking up the model, I think your best option is to split it by floor level and then just stack after printing. Depending on how large the model is, you might have to break it up further to fit the printer volume.
For the material you have couple of options, which are going to depend on the printer and print technology you choose. If you chose to print with a standard FFF printer (Makerbot, Ultimaker, etc.), as long as the printer can do dual extrusion, you can print the steel in one color and the walls in another simultaneously. You can print the steel in Stainless Steel PLA if you’d like, or just use two different colors of PLA or ABS (really any material will be fine). My concern with using FFF for this is that removing supports after is going to be difficult, and it is going to require a lot of support to get the structures that have a lot of steel (roof) to print well.
A better (but more expensive) option would be to locate someone with a PolyJet printer and print the model using that technology (SLS). This works a lot like a normal inkjet printer; the printer lays down a mix of ink and resin onto a powdered base material (some form of plastic) and the resin is cured to form a solid layer. This process happens over and over until you have a 3d model. You can pick just about any color you want for any part of the model, and this method of printing does not require any support material.
I know this might sound “weird” saying this, but resuming I just need to put my model at the scale that I want, split it into parts, send it to 3D print and assembly them “like Lego”.
Once more, thank you for your reply on this.
Let’s see how this goes, 3DSMax here I go…again.
Best Regards
On a small note, I’m looking for the cheapest material possible, even if I can’t add colour.
Need a sample to present to a client and afterwards order a proper one if that makes sense.
Thanks a million for your reply tho.
If you don’t need color immediately, I’d suggest using FFF at the finest resolution (.1 should be fine) and print it with dissolvable support material. ABS and HIPS are a great combination (https://pinshape.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/dissolvable-filament.jpg); you print the part in ABS and the support material in HIPS, then just dissolve away the HIPS in d-limonene after printing. This leaves behind no support marks, and you don’t have to worry about geometry being too complex for normal support material. ABS is also really cheap (and so is HIPS), so in terms of economics, this is your best bet.
It doesn’t sound weird at all, that’s a perfect description of how you want to break the model up. I think doing it by floor, then by section is probably your cleanest option. What you’re going to want to do is add some kind of alignment mechanism to the model portions so that it’s easy to assemble after printing; here’s a brief discussion on the topic Cutting an object in to pieces to 3d print.
One of the easiest things to do is add small pins to one piece of the model, and holes that align with those pins to the mating piece of the model. Or just add holes to both sides and use small rods of metal or wooden dowels to put everything to together. I’ve attached a quick sketch to show what I mean.
Didn’t cross my mind to use pins to be honest, at the moment I’m doing “pockets” for columns and using pins for bracing and horizontal steel might do the trick.
I’ll keep you informed how this goes.
Thanks once more for your brilliant help.
Enza3D
10
That sounds like it’ll work just fine! I wish you the best of luck with it, and feel free to reach out if you need any advice/help.
I’ve attached a design guide for FFF printing (also called FDM); reviewing this while working on the model is a good idea so you catch anything now before it becomes a problem in the future.
FDM Design Guide.pdf (121 KB)
