3D Printed vacuum pod arms

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05-05-2015, 02:59 PM

#11

mattsimis

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Quote:

Originally Posted by GradecEngineering

I'd like to say bravo for attempting this. I've done a lot of prototyping and can appreciate a person doing things on their own.

One thing to note is that except for high-end printers, the 3D-printed parts are not solid, but contain many air pockets and other irregularities. This causes the material strength to go down. Additionally, most any plastic component in our cars is fiber-reinforced, giving it superior strength properties. As of current technology, 3D-printers are not capable of this. Only injection-molding can create a type of plastic part. The fibers are especially important to the rigidity of the part in cases of hot environments in which the plastic becomes less rigid.

If you're confident in your design you may consider contacting an injection-molding manufacturer and putting this on the market.

Thanks. These are printed with 80% infill, so they arent intended to be solid. A solid nylon bushing would be nearly like a solid metal bushing.
On the fibre reinforcing, true these arent reinforced (but Nylon itself in this application is likely far more than the operation requirements) but you can print at-home Carbon Fiber and Impact Resistance reinforced PLA and ABS. Its still FFF printing but is measurably tougher.

Quote:

Originally Posted by haggisuk

I think what has been said is indeed true about the plastics degrading in that environment, but If you already had a 3d printer the cost to make these would offset the negatives of a possibly earlier failure would it not?

But "plastics" are not the same as nylon specifically. Nylon is already really common under the hood, 70% of all cars entire intake manifolds are made from it for the last 15years thanks to its heat resistance and lightweight strength. DuPont are pushing for entire engines to be made from it. It can be treated to boost UV resistance.. but this has no bearing on usage under the hood at all and Im not sure why this is coming up. Nylon in cars is (for the last decade) replacing metal in a variety of situations.

Nylon is hydroscopic, which means it will absorb water which increases its strength, flexibility but also swells it slightly and if "flash frozen" could make it crack. This isnt a concern for most environments outside of far northern US and Europe.
Im not suggesting you could use 3D printed parts for anything too exotic, but little arms and even bushings are very lo-fi applications. Had the arms been made of Nylon to begin with there would still be working and not breaking due to heat fatique.

PS: For one of the experiments I oven baked the nylon filament to dry out, then printed and boiled the nylon pieces in water to make it super strong and flexible. However this wasnt really needed for these apps. Id like to make one more A8 thing then release the designs as a set of 3.. any suggestions? Doesnt ave to be Nylon, can print ABS or a rubber like material too.

Last edited by mattsimis; 05-05-2015 at 03:15 PM.

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06-07-2016, 01:04 PM

#12