Show all posts by user

Re: Silicone printing & spraying on 4 axis printer - 9 years ago

Most certainly sandwiching different shore hardnesses would work. It's slightly tricky to spray on top of an inflated balloon, as it tends to distort the substrate (due to the material exiting the nozzle at ~40psi)...which would leave the quite uneven layers...but with slumping, and the right movement during cure time, one could get really interesting shapes with fascinating properties!

by Cowfingers - Paste Extrusion Working Group

Re: 3D printing (on) balloons - 9 years ago

I'll get a nice heating jacket for the material reservoir,and by the time easter comes around I could be churning out customized chocolate eggs!

by Cowfingers - General

Re: Silicone printing & spraying on 4 axis printer - 9 years ago

Yes, certainly it would work well for some ceramics at least. I'm actually going to have a play around with some tomorrow and see how it fares! I'm a big fan of unfolds stuff - I'm sure they could have fun with this system! The balloons i've been making (by spray) lately for experiment are around 400 microns thick before inflation, The material is a super soft silicone - Shore 00-30, and it c

by Cowfingers - Paste Extrusion Working Group

Silicone printing & spraying on 4 axis printer - 9 years ago

Hi guys - apologies for cross-posting this, but it's relevant here on the paste extrusion page too! I built a silicone printer which can spray thin layers of silicone onto a permeable form, stretch it by inflation, 3D scan the subsequent balloon and then 3D printing silicone over the surface of the inflated structure. I've made a video of the process here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmu

by Cowfingers - Paste Extrusion Working Group

Re: 3D printing balloons and then printing on them - 9 years ago

Hi Viktor. Mostly bespoke software - I do all the geometry wrapping and the toolpath calculation in Grasshopper, then the print host software is a custom script I wrote in Processing. The printer movement is mostly controlled by a RAMPS, but i've a number of independent Arduino Unos doing things like controlling the scanning laser, air pressures, valves and mandrel rotation. It all got pretty co

by Cowfingers - General

3D printing (on) balloons - 9 years ago

Hello guys. I'd like to introduce a style of 3D printing inflatable structures, which involves spraying thin layers of silicone onto a permeable form, stretching it by inflation, 3D scanning the subsequent balloon and then 3D printing silicone over the surface of the inflated structure. I've made a video of the process here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmuf_6h7Kl8 Some of the printed res

by Cowfingers - General

Re: Wiring up a Paste Extrusion Solenoid - 12 years ago

Dedicated indeed! The machine will end up forming a reasonably large section of my PhD research, so I want to get it right! I'm working on Electroactive Polymers (or artificial muscles) and I need an accurate method to print silicone microstructures. In theory the Fab@home would be far better suited to this purpose but my university had bought three BFB3000s last summer, so that's what ended up w

by Cowfingers - Paste Extrusion Working Group

Re: Wiring up a Paste Extrusion Solenoid - 13 years ago

That's great - thanks Dries!...Sorry for taking so long to reply - i only just noticed there was a reply now! I've made some progress since I posted that first set of questions. I ended up having to scrap the Burkert 3/2 valve (unfortunately it got dropped into ceramic slip!) but I have access to a lot of Festo didactic valves and pressure regulators etc, so have starting using them instead.

by Cowfingers - Paste Extrusion Working Group

Re: What UV bulbs for curing photopolymer - 13 years ago

Hi, I've been in contact with the UK company Intertronics and they've been extremely helpful regarding UV cure systems. Perhaps they might be worth contacting.

by Cowfingers - Polymer Working Group

Wiring up a Paste Extrusion Solenoid - 13 years ago

Hi Guys, Sorry for cross posting this to the BFB forum - this just seems like a more active place... I've been following Unfolds design for the Claystruder, to connect to our BFB3000 -I'm working to try extrude UV cure Silicone... Alas, I'm just having trouble with the wiring of the system. We bought a DC6012 3/2 valve from Burkert, but I'm not entirely sure which of the wiring that feed the no

by Cowfingers - Paste Extrusion Working Group