Size Limitations and best material?

[dgrichte]

I am looking to prototype some parts and was wondering about minimum feature sizes and best printer/materials to use.

I am hoping to create a part with ~200 um diameter holes, patterned in an ~ 1 mm thick rectangle about the size of a post-it note. Are printers capable of building this within an ~10 um accuracy? If so, what do you recommend for materials/printer to use?

There are no strict mechanical/chemical property requirements for this part. Only the holes are uniform and somewhat smooth.

Thank you for time and any help.

Regards,

Daniel

[YASSCERA]

200 micron holes with +/_ 10 micron ??? I don’t believe any printer is capable of doing it today. But laser drilling is definitely capable.

[dgrichte]

Thanks for the help. I was originally hoping for cylindrical holes through the part. A square shaped hole might work as well.

The reason I ask is because I plan to drop 180 um spheres through the holes. I need them to be able to pass through each hole consistently (and I can not just increase the size of the hole).

What printing material would you recommend for highest quality without spending a whole lot on this project($250+)?

[deonsmt]

For strength, ABS is a good choice. Printing holes that small is a challenge and will require some iteration to get them just right on the printer. The best thing to do is to print the part to nominal and then run a 200 micron carbide drill bit through the holes. This reaming process will ensure consistent 200 micron diameter holes. However, depending on the number of holes you have, this might be an impractical/tedious secondary operation. How many holes are you trying to print? If you have a 3D (Solidworks, STL etc) file, I’d be happy to take a look at the possibilities.

[dgrichte]

This part will have ~10000 holes, so not too practical.

Sorry I do not wish to disclose the files. However, the design is essentially 200 um diameter cylinder openings running through a 1mm thick part.

[deonsmt]

In that case, I would avoid 3D printing. If you need the part stiff, then 1mm thick FR4 PCB material would work well. A CNC machine or laser cutter would be able to make this part for low cost out of a variety of materials. In fact, if you are not averse to using FR4 PCB material, you could design the part for PCB fabrication process. The holes will be very accurate. I occasionally send boards to a vendor for fabrication who will turn the board around in a week and most likely be under $100 for 10 boards. I can send you the contact details if you wish and am happy to assist you with the “board” design if that’s sound like a reasonable approach.

Alternately, a machine shop will be able to fabricate this part for you.

[3drapidprints]

Agreed.

[Lee_3]

This sounds similar in description to microfilters almost along the lines of a coffee/tea filter/mesh. I don’t think you’re going to get the support and stiffness in the material printing through 3D printed methods using either ABS or PLA nor will you be able to get symmetrical holes created within the traditional setup… might be better accomplished through laser micro-drilling or cnc with micron drillbit

[dgrichte]

Great idea! Thank you.

I am thinking this method will work much better. If you could share the contact information, that would be great. I should be able to care of the design.

[YASSCERA]

Sam, Do you have any pictures to show a few 200 micrometer （0.008”+/-0.0004”） holes as printed. I am very interested in your printing capability.

[deonsmt]

The company I use is PCBWay.com

The smallest hole size they do is coincidentally 200 micron!

Just make sure your gerber design has no plating on the holes or your holes will be undersized!

Boards are shipped via DHL Express. I have had boards back in my hands within 5 business days of ordering. Quality has been top notch.

[3drapidprints]

Hi Daniel!

Some well calibrated printers can do this. I normally print with a 100 um layer height, so the size would, not be a problom. If it’s just a prototype, then PLA would work just fine. The only negative would be it strength.

[3drapidprints]

Some printers can! They would be square, but a hole is a hole!