The Correct Orientation to Print Boxes | Design for Mass Production 3D Printing
Summary
TLDRThe video discusses an alternative orientation for 3D printing enclosures to maximize strength and minimize support material. Rather than printing vertically or horizontally, the recommended approach is to print diagonally at a 45 degree angle. This creates durable parts with no weak layer lines, reduces overhangs and the need for supports, and enables designing functional features like thick walls and flanges. The diagonal orientation also allows adding designed support structures that are easily removable. Further customization like textured surfaces can provide aesthetic benefits. Overall, this method facilitates affordable, custom, and durable enclosures superior to off-the-shelf solutions.
Takeaways
- 😀 There are 3 main ways to 3D print an electrical enclosure - vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
- 👍🏻 Printing diagonally creates a strong, durable part without needing much support material.
- 🔨 Design enclosures with thick walls and flanges for sturdy screw points.
- 🛠 Use 3D printing to create custom enclosures with any geometry.
- 💡 Add an interface ridge so the lid can mount securely.
- ✂ Design support structures that are easy to break off.
- ⚙️ Use a 45° angle to print without overhangs and prevent splitting.
- 🖼 Add noise to the print for a beautiful textured surface.
- 🔧 Print the lid at a shallower 35° angle to fit the enclosure.
- 💰 3D printed enclosures are affordable even in high volumes.
Q & A
What are the two most common orientations for 3D printing electrical enclosures?
-The two most common orientations are printing vertically or horizontally/flat on the print bed.
What are some downsides of printing enclosures vertically?
-Printing vertically can require a lot of support material inside the enclosure which is difficult to remove. This adds time and cost for post-processing.
What are some benefits of 3D printing enclosures versus traditional manufacturing methods?
-3D printing allows for thicker features, custom geometries, and less material waste compared to traditional manufacturing methods like plastic injection molding.
How can the design be optimized for 3D printing?
-The design can utilize thick walls, flanges, and screw mounts. The geometry can be fully customized without the constraints of traditional manufacturing.
What is the recommended orientation for 3D printing enclosures?
-Printing the enclosure diagonally at a 45 degree angle allows for clean support removal and maximum strength in all directions.
How are supports designed when printing diagonally?
-Designed supports are used rather than autogenerated supports. These consist of fins and ribs spaced 0.5-1mm from the part to allow clean removal.
How does diagonal printing improve strength?
-Diagonal printing creates maximum strength through all features of the part. Vertically or horizontally can create weak splitting planes.
How is the lid designed to fit the enclosure?
-The lid has an interior lip that mounts onto the thick outer edge of the enclosure opening.
What finishing was done on the enclosure exterior?
-A bit of noise/texture was added to the exterior walls to create a beautiful textured surface finish.
What are the benefits of 3D printing this type of enclosure?
-3D printing allows for affordable, durable, and customizable enclosures with features beyond off-the-shelf solutions.
Outlines
📦 Printing Techniques for Durable Electrical Enclosures
The first paragraph discusses common techniques for 3D printing electrical enclosures, either horizontally resulting in weak layer lines or vertically requiring messy support material. It then introduces a better way - printing diagonally at a 45 degree angle using designed support structures that result in durable, reliable parts.
😊 Benefits of Diagonal 3D Printing Method
The second paragraph highlights the benefits of the diagonal 3D printing method for enclosures - preventing splitting failure modes, enabling thicker features, and resulting in maximum strength. It also notes affordability for high volumes and the ability to create custom, stylish enclosures.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡electrical enclosure
💡3D printing
💡diagonal print orientation
💡designed support structure
💡durable
💡affordable
💡chunky
💡postprocessing
💡flex
💡layer lines
Highlights
You can make chunky parts using 3D printing to have good screw points and mountings
Thick walls from 2-10mm are possible with 3D printing without material waste from machining
An interface ridge allows a lid to mount reliably
Print diagonally at 45 degrees for maximum strength without overhangs and splitting
Designed supports in a fin shape break off cleanly
Diagonal printing creates durable mounting holes and side planes
Added surface texture looks beautiful
The lid matches the angle and integrates smoothly
Fully enclosed box is durable, reliable, good-looking with useful features
Affordable to produce in volume with customization
Stronger than traditional manufacturing
Thick features allow what other methods cannot
Same cost as off-the-shelf but custom and better capabilities
Lots of enclosure design solutions covered
Great for electrical, all types of custom enclosures
Transcripts
most of the time when somebody tries to
make an electrical enclosure like this
they either end up printing it
vertically like this or horizontally
like this flat on the print bit but
there's a third way to do it that we're
going to talk about in this video now
very often those two most common
orientations are the way that everybody
does it because if you have a large
format machine you can print it down
flat like this and this creates a good
rigid reliable part where the layer
lines are all horizontal all the way
through the piece and it's solid and
it's reliable and it sticks down well to
the bed and that's fine but if you have
a smaller print bed you might want to
print it vertically but in this case
what you run into when you design a part
like this is you end up having support
underneath here and support inside of
the piece and that just turns into a lot
of postprocessing that can really Jack
with the cost of the part especially if
you are intending to mass-produce it
which is what we do around here so how
do you actually design an electrical
enclosure like this to not be printed in
either one of those directions let's
just go through the basics of the design
of the enclosure itself first of all
you're using three 3D printing so you
can make chunky parts of the part you
can make these flanges on the Outer Edge
really thick so that you can have a good
solid screw point to the piece you can
still have all the same features as
another enclosure this part was actually
inspired by an existing enclosure that
needed to be replicated but in order to
make sure that you have the same length
Fasteners you can make the thinner areas
just as you normally would so that you
can use the same mounting Fasteners that
someone had intended originally with the
project from there you can have thick
walls that can either be 2 mm kind of
minimum up to 5 or 10 mm again you don't
have to deal with the shrinkage of
traditional Plastics manufacturing and
since of course you're not going to be
wasting all the material from having to
machine something like this it's just
easier you can get any geometry that you
want and by allowing those thicker
features you're able to create an
interface Ridge on the top of the part
that a lid can interface with so when
you end up with the lid like this you
have this nice thick Outer Edge that you
can then put a lip on the interior of in
order to make this Mount onto the Box
more reliably but let's go ahead and
look at the other way of printing this
because this actually is best done
inside of CAD what you want to do when
you're printing a part like this is not
actually print it flat or vertical you
want to print it diagonally now this is
not very common or very easy to do very
often because what you have to do is if
you print it like this now the center of
mass is over not the center of the touch
point on the print bed so you're going
to have the part fall over so you have
to have support back here but you don't
want to have that be autogenerated
support because it's just nasty and it
ends up creating a lot more material and
not always being very reliable if you're
using traditional autogenerated support
it will have a little bit of distance
from the part to be removable so you
would end up with flex and wobble as the
part is printed so you have to use
designed support and the way you design
this support is just like this you
create effectively a fin off the part
you can do it at a 45° angle because a
45° is the best way to print the part
that way you don't have overhangs that
can potentially seg by having a steep
area over here even though it's shallow
in the back from there you design this
fin to be about a half a mm to 1 mm
spaced parallel to the back of the
enclosure or the part that you're trying
to print then you take sprew and
horizontally design them to run and
merge into the part you now have this
nice little set of ribs that run up here
along this th and you have this awesome
piece of support which when it's done
all you have to do is break it off and
it comes clean and all you have there a
few divots that could be sanded down or
you can just live with it's a very clean
way of producing supports it's also very
very reliable and you can actually
design these a little bit more so that
they break closer to the surface of this
part if you want to put just a little
bit of a brake tooth or Notch inside of
them once you make that part make sure
that the back edge of the flange is also
flattened a little bit so that you have
a part of a part against the bed but now
you have this part that was printed
diagonally but is really really reliable
the other thing that the diagonal angle
does is it allows you to create a really
durable part all the way through if you
print it vertically like this you can
have split in along these lines because
that might be a flexal plane same thing
goes for printing like this you can have
splitting along this direction as
somebody installs it or pulls a screw
that breaks the layer lines but by
printing diagonally you have maximum
strength through every feature so like
these holes for mounting the lid onto
the top of this they are actually looped
all the way through so they're not like
this where they could split this
direction if you put a screw in they're
too large they are strong reliable and
durable as same thing for the side
planes and everywhere else this is a
very good solid durable part now the
final icing that we did on this was
actually to add a little bit of noise to
the print so that you end up with this
textured surface that just looks really
really beautiful and then we went ahead
and designed the lid which was then also
printed at a similar angle not quite as
steep we printed this at about a 35°
angle rather than a 45° angle but now
this part is able to merge into the top
of it and you have a fully complete
electrical enclosure that is durable
reliable looks great and has a bunch of
features that are either thick or
stronger than what traditional
manufacturing would generally allow
while still being affordable this type
of enclosure you can produce thousands
of and do it affordably as affordably as
traditional Enos out there but you're
getting a custom box with features that
you need and you are able to get a style
a look and a durability and capabilities
that you can't get from some
off-the-shelf solution that would
probably be similar cost at large
volumes if you like this video and you
want to see more click at some of our
other videos we've gone through a lot of
ways of Designing electrical enclosures
and all types of other design Solutions
so go ahead and check those out and drop
a comment down below and of course
subscribe to this channel have a great
day everybody
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