high definition acrylate - multiple small objects - cage possible?

Discussion in 'Design and Modeling' started by gamed, Jul 19, 2016.

  1. gamed
    gamed Member
    We want to produce series of over 100 small (7mm x 5 mm) smooth objects using the material high definition acrylate in a cost efficient manner.

    With SLS techniques (e.g. strong and flexible Flastic) you can create a cage around these 100 objects and it prints find.

    Is such a cage round a matrix of small objexts with high definition acrylate also possible?
    Or any other suggestions for cost efficient printing large numer of small objects in hih definition acrylate?
     
  2. EngineersOnDemandNow
    EngineersOnDemandNow Well-Known Member
    If I were you, I'd just lay the objects out in the printing plane. HDA only charges for material used, not for space, so the less material you use, the better. There is no need to create a cage around them, because shapeways will just place all your different bodies in a couple of baggies. That said, I'm not sure if they have a limit on individual bodies (normally they don't). If I were you, I'd just try it with the different copies evenly spaced and patterned out.

    Let us know if we're wrong about this.
     
  3. mkroeker
    mkroeker Well-Known Member
    DLP production method for high definition acrylate does not allow loose parts (everything needs to be physically attached to the moving build platform, they even have to add support structures to non-trivial models), so the only solution would appear to be sprueing - which has its own drawbacks and serious limitations, see the last couple of pages of the announcement thread for HDA in Official Announcements.
    (@EngineersOnDemandNow the handling fee for HDA is charged per part, which would lead to a startup cost in excess of $500 for a model composed of "over 100 small parts" while the material cost is probably next to negligible)
     
  4. EngineersOnDemandNow
    EngineersOnDemandNow Well-Known Member
    So they do charge per separate body as opposed to file? That's a shame. Maybe opt for FDP?
     
  5. Youknowwho4eva
    Youknowwho4eva Well-Known Member
    Can you share a render of the part? Spruing is probably the best option, maybe we could suggest where to put sprues to make clean up easier?
     
  6. gamed
    gamed Member
    I have added two screenshot of the model.
     

    Attached Files:

  7. stannum
    stannum Well-Known Member
    Print one in even better resolution (BHDA is not the max), then get it reproduced by a resin caster?