One of the most intoxicating features of a 3D printer is the ability to go from an idea in your head to a finished product in a matter of hours – eliminating the gatekeepers entirely and giving you full autonomy in terms of manufacturing useful things. And it’s this powerful value proposition that has attracted a wide range of hobbyists, DIYers, and product designers alike.
The canonical example is when something breaks in your home or your office and you need a new part to fix it. A 3D printer can potentially solve your problem more cheaply and conveniently than it would to try and source that part from the original manufacturers – and so many of us are keen to race ahead and start printing.
This exuberance, while understandable, can sometimes lead to the greatest frustration and that’s what we’d like to explore in this blog post.
Best Practices for Turning Thoughts into Things
When it comes to product development, the actual 3D printing should be the last step in the process and not the first. Much like when you build a house, you need to spend some assessing your needs, planning what you’re trying to accomplish, anticipating potential failure points, and then only getting down to the actual building itself.
Let’s walk the 5-step process that we teach our clients as they start with turning their thoughts into things:
Step 1: Clarify your vision.
Step 2: Assess whether a new product is needed and whether it should be 3D printed at all.
Step 3: Plan and design how your new product is going to work.
Step 4: Set up the 3D printing file.
Step 5: Print the product.
Step 1: Clarify your vision for your product idea.
The first step is to be clear about what you are trying to accomplish. Whether it’s a personal project like trying to fix your vacuum cleaner or a business project like designing a new product to be sold – the approach is the same. You should take some time to assess the challenge that you’re facing and brainstorm potential ideas for how to solve it.
Think about what aspects of the solution are important, what features need to be included, and how you can minimize complexity and get to the root of what you’re trying to solve for.
This work can seem tedious in the beginning because you’re itching to start printing, but it actually makes a huge difference to the probability of success and can save you a lot of headaches later in the process.
Step 2: Assess whether a new product is needed and whether it should be 3D printed at all.
Next, you need to make an honest assessment of whether a new product is actually needed. While it can be fun to create a new product, you also need to decide whether it will be an efficient use of time and energy to do so.
You should be asking yourself the following questions:
- How much time and cost will it take to create something new?
- Is this worth it considering what else is already on the market?
- Is 3D printing the right process for the job?
To expand on the third point, let’s explore some of the considerations that play a role in determining whether this idea is well suited to 3D printing:
Size of parts being 3D printed
3D printers are limited in terms of the size of parts that they can build in one print. Most Fuse Deposition Modelling printers (FDM) are quite slow compared to injection moulding with a large part of 20cm x 20cm x 20cm taking more than 16 hours to print. As a result, 3D printing is best suited to smaller designs and isn’t as practical once your product gets bigger than a football.
Complexity of product
3D printers are incredible pieces of technology but they can’t perform miracles. The way that FDM 3D printing works is by extruding a 0.4mm string of melted plastic which is built up layer by layer (typically 0.1mm to 0.3mm) to create the 3D shape. Because the layers are built on top of each other, you are limited in terms of what complexity you can achieve. The printer can’t suddenly start extruding melted plastic into the air to create an overhang, because it doesn’t have a foundation on which to build.
This means that if your product has a number of angled walls or curved surfaces, you’ll likely need to split up your printing into sections before layering them together – increasing the cost and time it takes to create. Complexity doesn’t rule out 3D printing altogether but it’s important to understand how it impacts your design choices.
Strength of parts
As mentioned above, 3D printing uses layers that are built on top of each other – meaning that the structural integrity of the finished product is dependent on the right adhesives being used correctly. For example, if the plastic layers (normally bound together by heat) are not bound correctly, then you’ll end up with weak points that are vulnerable to breaking under force.
Therefore, you need to understand how much force your product needs to withstand, taking into account the thickness and complexity of the design. Sometimes this can take some trial-and-error to test where the weak points are, but it’s an important step for ensuring that the product functions as it should.
Flexibility needed for a functional part
When you start trying to 3D print flexible parts, snapping clips, twisting parts, and the like – things can get even more complicated. Typically, a product that needs a large amount of flex potential is not a good candidate for FDM 3D printing, but if you’re only looking for a small bend or a snap-into-place feature then it can work. You just need to ensure you’re using the right material and that you’re designing the product in an intelligent way.
Only once you’ve considered all of the above, should you finally move on to the design process. This planning work can save a lot of time, money, and effort down the line but it’s often something that new product developers neglect.
Step 3: Plan and design how your new product is going to work.
Once you’ve established that there is a need for the product, you can now start planning and designing how the product is going to look, feel, and function. Typically this will be where you start to use CAD software to ensure that you have 100% dimensional accuracy so that when the product is finally printed, it can be a perfect fit.
There are a vast array of software for this purpose including Blender, Solidworks, ZBrush, Sketchup, 3ds Max, Autodesk Inventor, and Fusion 360 to name a few. Each has their own pros and cons, and so you’ll need to pick the most suitable technology for your project. While some of the 3D modelling programs are relatively straightforward to use, they all require a level of skill and dedication to come up with a final design – and that’s where working with an established product development firm can be highly beneficial.
Importantly, your design needs to have exactly the right dimensions so that all the parts can fit together seamlessly. Typically you need a level of preciseness of between 0.1mm and 0.5mm to get this right, and it gets even more difficult when the part is curved and difficult to measure.
But once you’ve got this design finalized then you’re off to the races.
Step 4: Set up the 3D printing file.
After completing the design phase, it’s then time to set up the 3D printing file in the printing software. This involves uploading the final design file and then specifying the 3D printing parameters for this particular project. This makes sure that the 3D printer, 3D design tool, and the material being used all speak to each other.
The software will turn the surface geometry of your 3D digital design into a language that your 3D printer can understand. It will plot thousands of coordinates across the x, y, and z axes – telling your 3D printer where it needs to point the melted plastic.
At this stage, you’ll also program the print speed, bed temperature, nozzle temperature, and the support material needed. Once all that is set up, it’s time to watch your thought become a thing.
Step 5: Print the product.
Finally, you can now move from the digital world into the physical world and print your product. It’s time to sit back, pour a cup of coffee, and watch your creation come to life.
Conclusion
If you follow these best practices, instead of rushing into printing the first thing that comes to mind, you’ll benefit from more efficient and cost-effective product development that actually has an impact. The technology has come so far in recent years, but we need to improve our own workflows and processes to make the most of it.
We hope that this has given you a better sense of the practical complexities that arise from turning a thought into a thing, and that it has shown you the immense power of FDM 3D printers when tackling the right kinds of projects.
If you’d like the assistance of an established product development firm to help you accelerate this process and avoid all the most common mistakes that first-timers make, then be sure to get in touch today. We would love to help you turn your latest idea into a game-changing product.
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