The surface of parts made by 3D printing is rough,so that we can not make the crystal clear prototype by 3D printing process directly,but the translucent prototype. It need to takes two steps before the parts made by 3D printing are crystal clear.
1.Get translucent prototype by 3D printing.
2.Grinding and polishing the prototype to make the surface are smooth and transparent.After that,it will be more clear if painting the varnish.
Anodizing and painting are common surface finish processes when making prototype models. Although anodizing and painting both make the surface of the prototype color, there are still differences between them, which are mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
1.For different materials, painting can be applied to many materials for prototypes, such as metal, plastic and resin, and anodizing is a surface finish process that only aluminum alloy prototypes have.
2.The color persistence is different. Because the painting only painting a layer of paint on the surface of the prototype, it will fall off over time, and the anodizing is to soak the aluminum alloy prototype in the potion to form an oxide film on the surface.Because the alumina produced by anodizing is a stable substance, it is difficult to react with oxidation in the air, so the color of the surface is relatively stable and not easy to fall off.
3.The effect is different. The anodizing color has a metallic texture. If you use painting, you will not be able to adjust that effect anyway.
The Difference Between Steel Mold And Aluminum Mold
The mold we usually use for injection molding process is steel mold or aluminum mold.Below is some difference between them.
1.Tool life.
The steel mold is with high hardness,so it is more wearable and long life.The aluminum mold is opposite,which is with low hardness and are easy to out of shape .So we will use steel mold for mass production with large quantity and use aluminum mold for small batch production.
2.Tool weight.
The steel mold is more heavier.
3.Tool cost.
For producing same product,the structure of steel mold is more complicated and are more hard to be made,so the steel mold takes more machining cost and machining time.On the contrary,aluminum mold is more easy to machining and takes less machining cost.
4.The mirror polishing property of tool.
The mirror polishing property of steel mold is better than aluminum mold.
First, design optimization：Modern industrial design encompasses a wide range：For example, small items such as paper clips and pens, as well as large items such as airplanes and ships, all contain the shadow of modern industrial design, but the design of so many commodities is not the same.
Second, design evaluation：In the process of commodity design, evaluation is very important. compared with the 2D representation of the plane, the prototype model can make the details of the product clearer and the visual feeling of the product more intuitive.
What’s more,Function test: The making of prototype model can be used for some function test,and able to imitate the shape of the finished product, including functional shape, surface shape, etc.Using materials with a certain strength (such as ABS, PC, etc.), it is possible to produce functional prototype containing the internal layout,then in order to check whether the layout of goods is reasonable, wall thickness is in line with the requirements, moving parts are smooth and so on.
Finally,Reduce capital: The steady promotion of the design process is very necessary, so in the early stage of commodity design to timely find the shortcomings in the process of commodity design, timely correction, and then to prevent the subsequent problems, during which prototype manufacturing is an important part that can be used.The manufacture of prototype model is a useful method of company capital control.
The E-make team has more than 30 years of combined experience in prototype machining, vacuum casting service ,CNC manufacturing.And the E-make team has more than 30 years of combined experience in prototype machining, vacuum casting service ,CNC manufacturing.
CNC machining
CNC machining material according to the path set by the program , remove excess from the material.
Manual polish
After CNC machining, the surface of the bumper prototype is very rough, with many rough edges and knife marks.which need to be polished off,to make the surface of the bumper prototype look smoother,then sand it with coarse sandpaper before polishing it with fine sandpaper.
Put togethe
All parts of the bumper prototype are glued together. As the bumper prototype is made of ABS with good adhesion, its splicing has little impact on the strength.
Painting
Paint the prototype sample with color according to the customer’s requirements. If the customer has special requirements, he/she should provide us with the corresponding pantone color number.
The Advantage And The Disadvantage Of SLA 3D Printing
We usually will use 3D printing process for making industrial prototype.Below is some feature of 3d printing for reference.
Advantage:
1.SLA 3d printing has more development experience,which is more mature than other 3D printing process and be use widely.
2.SLA 3d printing has more prototyping time and more stable working system.
3.The precision of parts by SLA printing will be more high than SLS 3d printing.
4.The surface of parts by SLA 3d printing will be better than SLS 3d printing.
5.SLA 3d printing can print big dimension model.
Disvantage:
1.The model of SLA printing need the structure supported.
2.Unless to use the high temperature resistant resin as material, otherwise the machining temperature can not exceed 100℃ because the normal resin will melt if the temperature are too high.
In the rapid prototyping industry, most of making the prototypes are small size of prototype,then the small size of the prototype will does not exceed the machine’s processing stroke, so the processing is relatively easy.But sometimes, the rapid prototyping manufacturer will also encounter some customer requirements to produce larger size prototype, especially the length of the prototype more than 1000mm, but that will more than CNC processing travel of a lot of rapid prototyping manufacturer, and the Processing will be more difficult.In view of this situation what processing method should be used more suitable for making large-scale prototype ?
When making large-size prototype, it is mainly because of its large volume. Therefore, if the machining stroke of CNC is relatively small, we need to disassemble the prototype for production, and then glue each part together.But in here we need to pay more attention to the choice of material, this way of producing the prototypes can not affect the strength and appearance of the prototype.3d printing is an expensive way to produce prototypes. The main reason is that the materials in this way are more expensive. Large-size prototype naturally require more materials.And some 3d printers may not be able to print such a large prototype, so the more reasonable processing way is CNC machining.
The E-make company is capable of CNC machining with accuracy up to ±0.01mm.And E-make company has been providing high quality rapid prototype manufacturing services for major enterprises.If you need any help,please feel free to contact me.
The Problem That Metal 3D Printing Have
1.Surface Finish.
The surface of the metal parts that make by 3D printing is very rough.
2.Pore.
The inner of 3D printed metal parts will have small pore if the metal powder is not fully melted.These samll pore will reduce the density of parts and cause the crack and the fatigue problem.So that the choice of the metal powder is very important.
3.Density.
The density of the metal parts are inversely correlated with the quantity of small pore.Besides the quantity of small pore, the parts density also can be effect by the grain size of powder. Globular grain not only can improve the fluidity of powder,but also can improve the density of parts.
4.Residual Stress
The residual stress is cause by the heat and cold change, expansion and contraction during the 3D printing process.When the tensile strength of residual stress over than the material’s,the parts will have defect,such as crack.
5.Others