Case Studies - SD3D Printing
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Architecture

April 15, 2016
1
3D Printed Town

Large Format 3D Printing – Aon Town

By | 3D Printing, Architecture Case Study, In the News, Rapid Prototyping | No Comments

Read about how SD3D worked with Aon to design and print a record breaking 9′ x 10.5′ model city. This giant city helped to show off the vast insurance portfolio offered by Aon to it’s clients and allowed us to test the limits of 3D printing scaled architectural models. In total this massive effort took over 200 design hours and 3000 printing hours that yielded 300 individual parts weighing a total of 66 kilograms. We assembled this record breaking model into four quadrants that could be broken down to easily transport between trade events. This project was completed within 30 days from concept to final delivery.

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Automation

Design

March 10, 2017
3

Taking PJ Guard From Concept to Production

By | 3D Printing, Design | No Comments

When Latrice from PJ Guard first contacted SD3D in February of 2016 she had a vision for a new product that she simply couldn’t stop thinking about. At the time, she wasn’t sure if it was going to be a marketable product or just a one-off security device for her house. Her only certainty was that it was going to solve a major security flaw in her home which would allow her to sleep soundly at night and while she was away.

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Hardware

April 21, 2016
1

Dual Geared Extruder

By | 3D Printing, Hardware, Hardware Case Study | No Comments

When it comes to FDM 3D printing, one of the most important pieces of hardware is the extruder. While the older Prusa based cartesian printers with moving build platforms were limited in speed mainly due to larger moving masses, new printer designs are capable of reaching much higher travel speeds without sacrificing precision. On these new FDM printer designs, the limiting factor has become the extruder responsible for positioning the filament for accurate material deposition. Read More

August 17, 2015
9
Punchtec 3D printer heated bed 0-100C

Not all 3D Printer Heated Beds are Created Equal

By | 3D Printing, Hardware, Hardware Case Study | No Comments
We do a lot of research and development on 3D printing systems at SD3D in an effort to improve the quality and reliability of our machines and to help select the best 3D printer technology available for our production factory. The 3D printer heated bed is perhaps one of the most important components on a 3D printer. Since this component is often overlooked in selecting a 3D printer, we decided to dedicate this post to reviewing different 3D printer heated build plates. Recently, we took six off-the-shelf desktop 3D printers and our proprietary 3DGenie FDM printer and compared the quality of the heated build plate (HBP) with respect to surface temperature gradients.  Read More

November 26, 2013
6

Stepper Motor Cooling

By | 3D Printing, Hardware Case Study | No Comments

There are several practical reasons why you may want to cool the components inside your 3D printer. The first and most important is to make sure that your printer remains operational and free of maintenance for as long as possible. The most obvious low-hanging fruit for most 3D printers are the stepper motors responsibility for extruding and positioning the model on the x-y planes. These three motors can run so hot that they will burn you if you try to touch their surface platting during a print. While these motors are designed to run hot, there is a limit to how hot you want them to get for prolonged periods. This is where stepper motor cooling comes into play.

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IoT

August 13, 2017
0

The Decentralized SmartFactory

By | 3D Printing, IoT Case Study | No Comments

This case study discusses the merger of 3D Printing and IoT at the commercial scale, reflecting the data we have gathered through operations to provide estimates on production cost reductions.

As of 2019 we expect to achieve a net savings of over $400,000 per year in operational costs by implementing IoT driven energy savings and process improvements onto our 3D printing production lines in Dallas and San Diego. Implementing industrial IoT onto our production lines will allow us to offer even lower cost solutions for high volume 3D printing production, pushing additive manufacturing into new applications that are not currently economically viable.

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Materials

December 23, 2019
0
FMD 3D Printing

3D Printing with ABS vs PLA

By | 3D Printing, FDM, Materials | No Comments

PLA and ABS are the most widely used FDM 3d printing materials in the World. Designers and hobbyists are all interested in knowing which material is better than the other. Which material do you think is better among the two? The answer of course is not so black and white. It depends on the application. We’ll cover all the differentiating aspects of ABS vs PLA in great detail throughout this article.

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November 13, 2019
0
HP MJF 3D Printing

Nylon 3D Printing

By | 3D Printing, FIlaments, Materials, Rapid Prototyping | No Comments

Nylon is one of the most popular materials in the 3d printing industry. It is also known as Polyamide and is usually found in the variants PA 11 and PA 12. Nylon filament offers great toughness and flexibility. Many nylon copolymers also exist which modify the strength and rigidity of the material to meet specific application requirements. The most suitable technology for 3d printing Nylon is SLS. Nylon PA 11 is more flexible while PA 12 provides great mechanical properties making it ideal for functional prototypes.

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July 11, 2019
0
High Temperature Annealing PLA

Annealed PLA 3D Printed Parts

By | 3D Printing, Materials, Rapid Prototyping | No Comments

When polylactic acid (PLA) is annealed under properly controlled conditions, it provides a significantly stiffer and stronger part with increased heat deflection temperatures. Strength is found to increase by up to 40% and stiffness can be shown to increase up to 25%. Parts made from annealed PLA outperform polycarbonate (PC) and SLS nylon PA2200 in XY axis strength. Furthermore, annealed PLA parts have demonstrated heat deflection temperatures of up to 180°C, equal to that of Ultem. This enhanced strength along with a higher glass transition temperature, allows for a much broader set of practical applications.

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