The Correct Orientation to Print Boxes | Design for Mass Production 3D Printing

Summary

The 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

00:00

📦 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.

05:02

😊 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.

Keywords

💡electrical enclosure

An electrical enclosure is a box or container meant to protect electrical components and wiring. In the video, it refers to a custom 3D printed enclosure that the narrator is designing. The goal is to create an affordable, durable enclosure with useful features.

💡3D printing

3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the process of creating an object by depositing material layer-by-layer based on a digital 3D model. The video focuses on best practices for 3D printing an electrical enclosure to maximize strength, quality, and cost-effectiveness.

💡diagonal print orientation

Printing the enclosure diagonally at a 45 degree angle instead of vertically or horizontally. This orientation maximizes part strength by aligning the print layers on a diagonal. It also allows for easy addition and removal of support structures.

💡designed support structure

Support structures that are intentionally designed into the 3D model to prop up overhanging parts of the print instead of generated automatically by the slicing software. Designed supports are easier to remove cleanly after printing.

💡durable

The 3D printed enclosure is very durable and impact resistant compared to other manufacturing methods, thanks to the thick walls and diagonally aligned print layers. Durability is important for a long-lasting protective enclosure.

💡affordable

3D printing allows high degrees of customization and strength while maintaining affordability even in large production volumes. This makes it suitable for mass manufacturing custom electrical enclosures cost-effectively.

💡chunky

Having thicker, more substantial physical dimensions and designs. 3D printing enables chunky robust designs not possible with traditional plastic molding.

💡postprocessing

Additional processing steps needed to finish a 3D printed part, such as removing support structures and sanding or smoothing surfaces. The video aims to minimize postprocessing needs to reduce cost at scale.

💡flex

Unwanted bending or deformation in the part, which reduces strength. The custom support structures aim to prevent flexing as the part prints.

💡layer lines

The lines along which each layer of 3D printing material is deposited. Orienting layer lines diagonally makes the part more impact resistant.

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