3D Printing
We have 3D printers that use the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) / Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) process similar to a hot glue gun.
About the Prusa 3D printers
We operate a number of Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printers.
- 3x Prusa i3 MK3S+
- 3x Prusa MINI+ - The profile for the Prusa Mini for Cura is here.
These printers can be used with Prusa Sli3r or Ultimaker Cura, the printers are configured with Octoprint which allows network control, meaning using Ultimaker Cura integrates nicely.
All three printers use 1.75mm filament, we only allow the use of plain PLA filament in our machines, filament with flakes of metal, glitter, or other materials can damage the machine and we don't allow these to be used. We only allow PLA due to fumes caused by other types of filament.
Within reason there is no cost to using the 3D printer, we provide black and white filament as standard and some other colours may be available from other projects.
If you are going to 3D print, ensure you read this Io3DP-Cheat-Sheet.pdf and also check out the guide to perfect 3D printing problem solving here: The Ultimate 3D Print Quality Troubleshooting Guide 2019
You can monitor the printers from the link at the top of #technical on Slack, when on the UAL-Wifi network.
Here is the basic workflow to 3D print:
3D Printing Overview Video
3D printing brief overview video: https://youtu.be/y3OP6Hdgzgs
3D Printing
In the Digital Fabrication Lab we have a range of 3D printing equipment for CCI students to use, once they have done an induction, this equipment includes;
Three Ultimaker S7 fused filament printers:
these printer can print black and white PLA filament as well a special type of support filament called PVA which dissolves in water.
in order to prepare files for 3D printing on these machines you need to slice them using a piece of software called Cura which you can download for free for mac and windows OS by following the link below
https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura/#links
https://ultimaker.com/3d-printers/s-series/ultimaker-s7/
a Formlabs 3+ resin printer:
https://formlabs.com/uk/3d-printers/form-3/
To use them you need an induction from Chris Bull. Check in with him on slack or mail him for more information.