UltiMaker uses functional, analytical and tracking cookies. Tracking cookies enhance your experience on our website and may also collect your personal data outside of Ultimaker websites. If you agree with the use of tracking cookies, click “I agree, continue browsing”. You can withdraw your consent at any time. If you do not consent with the use of tracking cookies, click “Refuse”. You can find more information about cookies on our Privacy and Cookie Policy page.
Holes in walls of 3D prints + tips for water-tight prints?
Posted
· Holes in walls of 3D prints + tips for water-tight prints?
I usually print my medical models with 100% infill, which by nature very much reduces the possibilities of holes and leaks, althoug of course there are always thin "canals" of entrapped air in-between the extruded sausages, that are not filled. You can not avoid this.
Printing slow also helps, and with enough extrusion: better a little bit over- than underextrusion.
Also, user cloakfiend's acetone smoothing works very well: this tends to fill tiny gaps. Search for acetone smoothing on this forum.
Further options: spraying a thick varnisch? Or dipping the model in it?
However, for cell cultures, I would rather try to find commercial injection moulded containers in PP or PE (polypropylene, polyethylene): these repell water, and are chemically quite resistant. Or some other injection moulded containers that can be autoclaved. I wouldn't like the idea of cells, bacteria and chemicals getting into the little holes in the plastic of 3D-printed models, and contaminating everything.
If not commercially available, and you need enough copies of the exact same part (let's say a few thousand), it is worth looking into custom small-scale injection moulding via prototyping companies like Shapeways. They can make injection moulds in aluminum, for up to 10 000 pieces, and run the production. Might be way cheaper than 3D-printing. You make the design (according to injection moulding rules, thus with draft and equal wall thicknesses), you make a few 3D-prints to verify if it works well (very important), and then send the design online to them and they do the rest.
Link to post
Share on other sites
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Cura 5.7 is here and it brings a handy new workflow improvement when using Thingiverse and Cura together, as well as additional capabilities for Method series printers, and a powerful way of sharing print settings using new printer-agnostic project files! Read on to find out about all of these improvements and more.
S-Line Firmware 8.3.0 was released Nov. 20th on the "Latest" firmware branch.
(Sorry, was out of office when this released)
This update is for...
All UltiMaker S series
New features
Temperature status. During print preparation, the temperatures of the print cores and build plate will be shown on the display. This gives a better indication of the progress and remaining wait time. Save log files in paused state. It is now possible to save the printer's log files to USB if the currently active print job is paused. Previously, the Dump logs to USB option was only enabled if the printer was in idle state. Confirm print removal via Digital Factory. If the printer is connected to the Digital Factory, it is now possible to confirm the removal of a previous print job via the Digital Factory interface. This is useful in situations where the build plate is clear, but the operator forgot to select Confirm removal on the printer’s display. Visit this page for more information about this feature.
Recommended Posts
geert_2 557
I usually print my medical models with 100% infill, which by nature very much reduces the possibilities of holes and leaks, althoug of course there are always thin "canals" of entrapped air in-between the extruded sausages, that are not filled. You can not avoid this.
Printing slow also helps, and with enough extrusion: better a little bit over- than underextrusion.
Also, user cloakfiend's acetone smoothing works very well: this tends to fill tiny gaps. Search for acetone smoothing on this forum.
Further options: spraying a thick varnisch? Or dipping the model in it?
However, for cell cultures, I would rather try to find commercial injection moulded containers in PP or PE (polypropylene, polyethylene): these repell water, and are chemically quite resistant. Or some other injection moulded containers that can be autoclaved. I wouldn't like the idea of cells, bacteria and chemicals getting into the little holes in the plastic of 3D-printed models, and contaminating everything.
If not commercially available, and you need enough copies of the exact same part (let's say a few thousand), it is worth looking into custom small-scale injection moulding via prototyping companies like Shapeways. They can make injection moulds in aluminum, for up to 10 000 pieces, and run the production. Might be way cheaper than 3D-printing. You make the design (according to injection moulding rules, thus with draft and equal wall thicknesses), you make a few 3D-prints to verify if it works well (very important), and then send the design online to them and they do the rest.
Link to post
Share on other sites