Technology

Last updated: 19/10/2014

Technology plays a very important role in Creat3D. Not only the 3D-printer but also the tools used to model and maybe even tools to help your design to function, all technologies that the learners will work with. This chapter will shortly describe the various technologies that can be used for Creat3D and its possibilities.

4.1 3D-printers

There are a lot of different 3D-printers that use different techniques to print. The most used technique that is available for a lot of people is the printing technique where the object is build by the printer layer per layer. When the printer gets a command (a 3D-model) it will calculate the way that it should be printed and the printer starts at the print-bed. The object will be build up layer per layer. The most important part of the printer is the extruder. In the extruder the filamets get heated up to a certain degree (dependent on the material you use). The extruder is the part where the heated filaments comes out and gets printed. Most printers have only one extruder, which mean that they can print one color at a time. Next to the extruder there is a van to cool down the material once it came out of the printer. When the print is done you can take it out of the printer right away, it is not hot anymore.

A problem with printing layer per layer is that you sometimes need to use support structures to make sure your object will not fall into pieces during printing. For example if you want to print a wine glass the actual glass is much wider than the steal. The glass will not have a lot support so it might fall down, therefore you have the option to use support structures. These structures should be easy to remove, however sometimes it will not give the same smooth surface as when you print without support structures. With new filaments it is possible to print the support structure with a filament that will decompose in water. However you need a dual extruder for this.

There are a lot of different materials that can be used to print, these materials are called filament. Most used are ABS and PLA. ABS is the same material as LEGO-blocks are made of, PLA is biodegradable plastic. But there are also a lot of (experimental) materials like gold, silver, wood and coconut(!) that you can use as filament for your printer.

There are several brands and types of printers to buy. Ultimakers are made in the Netherlands and the company is very open source which makes you able to build your own printer for a much lower price than when you buy it on-line. Other brands are Leapfrog and Makerbot.

4.2 3D-modelling

Before you can print something you need a 3D-model of the thing you want to print. You can find a lot of 3D-model online on websites like www.thingiverse.com or www.youmagine.com. But you can also model something yourself. There is a lot of different 3D-modelling software available right now. Most common known is SketchUp, this is a 3D-model program made by Google. A great online tool is Tinkercad, which is a bit more simple than SketchUp. In Chapter 3.3.3 there is a description about 3D-modelling.

To get familiar with using SketchUp there is a tutorial in the appendix of this report. In this tutorial the basic tools of SketchUp are described and there is also a chapter about how to make your prints ready for 3D-printing and there is a bonus chapter with exploration ideas to continue with when the basic skills are mastered.

For Creat3D it is important that the learners start with an idea and they transform it into a 3D-model. In order to do that they first have to think out their idea. What are the functions and how should it look? They have to keep in mind the limitations of the printers (space, time, support structures). Most 3D-software works with geometric forms, like circles, squares, lines and so on. Combining those forms creates new objects and shapes. Best way to start modelling is first thinking of what forms your object is made of. Also it is very important to keep in mind the proportions of the forms you use.

The following two pictures show an example of a 2D-sketch that is turned into a 3D-model. Note that this is not the only way to do this. You can also start 3D-modelling right away, but it might be wise to start with splitting it up and leave starting with 3D-modelling to the advanced designers.

4.3 Other techniques

Depending on how advanced you want to make your project you can add other techniques to it as well. When you enable the students to use motors to make them able to make moving objects. Combining 3D-printing with a Rasberry Pi or Arduino is also possible. A very good example of this is the Rapiro robot. It is possible to buy all the parts of the robot but it is also possible to print out the outside of the robot and combine this with the motoric parts and the motherboard. This is an example of how to combine 3D-printing and robotics. Another possibility is to combine 3D-printing with existing robots like the Lego Mindstorms. In this case you can use 3D-printing to make extra parts to put on the Mindstorms.

Another great and not very expensive tool to use is a 3D-scanner. There are a lot different types to buy but there is also a very cheap way to be able to use 3D-scanning: the Kinect. This camera belongs to a XBOX game console but it can be bought independently at a very low cost. 3D-scanning software for the Kinect is free, but the free version is limited to a certain quality of your scan. However the full version is still not really expensive. 3D-scanning enables learners to scan an object and use it in their model.

4.4 Technical experiences

Note: this section is still under construction while the project is still running.

I will now describe some of my personal experiences with the technology described above. These experiences form a base to the knowledge for this whole chapter.

4.4.1 Experience with 3D-printing

With 2 of the girls from 3Ducation I went to the GameCella lab at the VU to repair their 3D-printer. This is a Leapfrog Creatr with a dual extruder and a heated bed. The problem with the printer was that the extruders did not heat up to the right degree. Halfway the warm-up they stopped and cooled down again. After a lot of e-mails with the support of Leapfrog (they do not offer support via telephone) we were getting a new motherboard of the printer. Which unfortunately was the wrong one. But in the end we got the right one… After the exams we will go there again and repair the Leapfrog..

From this experience I learned that simplicity in the technology of the printer is important. As you can see on the pictures below the Leapfrog has a lot of wires in the control center of the printer. Because Leapfrog only offers support via e-mail you need some technical background to maintain the printer. This will not be the case on all schools in the Netherlands. Therefore the offered support by a 3D-printer brand is very important.

Other experience with printing are helping sometimes with printing on schools. And I also gave a workshop at the DigiVita Code Event where I told girls (age between 8-18) about how 3D-printing works and helped them to design their own name tag in Solidworks.

4.4.2 Experience with 3D-modelling

For the tutorial I’ve written I had to experience a lot with SketchUp. I made some models myself and experienced with models from the 3D warehouse of SketchUp to see the different options that the program had to offer.

For the workshop at DigiVita I worked with Tinkercad. This online tool is very easy to use. It is more like working with blocks like children do, this makes it more appropriate to use for younger children.

4.4.3 Experience with other techniques

During one of my meeting at Print3D Matter I got a demo of 3D-scanning using a Kinect. I never did it myself but it is really easy to do when you have the right hard and software (which are really cheap).

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