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3D Printing Challenge
| Description of Challenge:
For this project, we were tasked with testing our (1) advanced 3D printing skills, and (2) ability to balance time, quality, and cost through a competition against our peers. I worked with my partner, Karlin Smith, on 3D printing a dragon chess pawn. The challenge was to be in the top 10% of the class in terms of print time and to use the least amount of material, all while printing the design accurately. We were assigned to use the Bambu a1 mini 3D printer with the .4 nozzle. In order to save time and use less material, we optimized the settings in Bambu Studios, changing variables such as infill, acceleration, supports, etc.. Below are the strategies we used. We were given a STL of the dragon design.
| methodology of approach
The main methodology of our approach involved the documentation of all trials/versions of settings to make a more precise comparison. To do this, we created a spreadsheet, recording all of the settings changed and how it impacted the material cost (total filament used) and print time. Additionally, with each iteration, we examined the time breakdown on BambuStudios to determine what took up the most time. We noted that travel time was the most time consuming in each iteration, followed by supports, outer, and inner walls. This became the target of our setting changes.
This time breakdown was taken from the sliced model with no changes beyond default supports, and it served as the benchmark for what the "standard" to print would look like.
| strategies we employed:
Enabling organic tree supports and only supporting critical regions (toggled)
Adjusting sparse infill (under sparse infill settings) & infill/wall overlap (under advanced settings); we set each of these from 20% - > 10%
Physically positioning the print closer to the origin to optimize the travel time, which took up the most time (8m21s)
Changing the layer height to .22mm, slightly compromising the print quality but optimizing the print time
Adjusting the initial layer height from .2 mm - > .1 mm
| trial testing with a 25% print
We were allowed up to 3 tries to print 25% of the dragon pawn model, so Karlin and I took this opportunity to see how well the print worked in terms of quality, speed, and material used with the settings listed above. We found that the speed time was optimal (~13 minutes), although there was minor stringing between the dragon’s horns. We had considered improving print quality by toggling the ‘ironing’ settings and experimenting with the concentric/rectangular settings, but in the end, we found that it produced little to no difference in the final product. We printed two 25% trials in total.
Here was the print after the first 25% trial. There were no issues with the print, besides some minor stringing. After conducting some additional research, we found that toggling the option "avoid crossing walls" helped with reducing stringing.
Here is the 25% sliced model in BambuSlicer with 0.2 mm initial layer height.
Between the first and the second trial, we primarily adjusted the initial layer height (0.2mm - > 0.1mm) and the 'avoid crossing wall option' to see how it affected the stability of the print. When we printed this version, there were no issues with the stability, and the print turned out well.
| final print settings
Here are the final changed print settings we used in our print (you can see the remaining settings in the image to the right):
Layer Height: 0.20 mm - > 0.22 mm
Initial Layer Height: 0.2 - > 0.1 mm
Sparse Infill: 20% - > 10%
Sparse Infill Pattern: grid - > aligned rectangle
Infill Overlap: 15% - > 10%
Slow down for Overhangs: on - > off
Support Type: off/default - > Tree
Support Style: default - > Organic
Support Only Crit. Regs: off - > on
Top Shell Layers: 5 - > 4
Ironing: off
Here is the final sliced dragon pawn in Bambu Studios.
We used the Bambu A1 mini 2 to print out the final version of the dragon pawn. Around 5 minutes into the print, the printer detected that the filament spool was tangled, so we adjusted its position and continued the print. The final product sufficiently maintained its structural integrity (in response to the changes in layer height, initial layer height, and infill) and didn't fail at any point within the print.
| conclusion
The final print time for our project was 41 minutes and 9 seconds. Our model print time was 35 minutes and 42 seconds. Our print used 2.43 m / 7.36 g (with supports) / 6.60 g (without supports) of filament. During the print, we observed minor changes to the quality as a result of using a .22mm layer height and lower % infill, but otherwise, there was no major compromise. In this challenge, I ultimately learned a lot more about advanced printing settings such as linear advance, pressure equalization, ironing, and jerk control. Understanding these concepts allowed us to streamline the optimization of the print, as well as obtain mastery in 3D printing. Overall, this challenge moved away from a mere abstractive understanding of 3D printing processes and focused on what was happening on a more fundamental level.
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