Think of the range of manufactured part sizes you encounter in an ordinary day, from the tiny screws in an eyeglass-frame hinge to the blade on a wind-turbine you might drive past on vacation. The world of additively manufactured parts pretty much spans a similar range whether produced by metal microfabrication, a robotic or gantry-style polymer extruder or something in between.
Time to Spin Up the Stratasys F3300
In the past few weeks, I had the chance to put PADT’s Stratasys F3300 FDM filament printer (build volume 24” x 24” x 31.5”) into high-gear mode, printing two of four sections that, when assembled, formed a custom vent-hood for a Stratasys F900 FDM printer. (It’s always cool to print parts for another printer.)
The two larger parts, 27” x 22” x 16” (mirror images of one another), each took 9.5 days. Since our F900 was busy, I ran the two smaller parts at the same time using one of our Fortus 450s.
Knowing that the 24/7 build would crank through a fair amount of filament, it was great to take advantage of the F3300 redundant-toolhead option. I was able to load dual spools of ASA Black and have the system continually do an auto-changeover whenever one 250-cubic-inch spool ran out. It was particularly satisfying to watch this happen via the GrabCAD Print app on my phone at 10:30 at night and in the middle of the weekend – no need to drive into work to switch out filament spools.
Another new “tool” to me for the project was the Oryx SCA 40K, a giant of a support-removal tank, developed by PADT’s sister/spin-off company Oryx Additive, precisely to accommodate large-scale parts from printers such as the F770, F900 and F3300. It runs quietly, yet the combination of heat, NaOH solution and high-flow agitation dissolved every bit of soluble support on the biggest parts in under two hours. Check it out at (6) Solving Big Problems: Inside ORYX Additive’s SCA 40K + LSA 40K Project | LinkedIn.
Our awesome Manufacturing team then went to work to clamp, bond and assemble the four sections, shown in process below.
Here’s the final result, being installed today for an aerospace customer that needed a special venting system for its lab. Finished dimensions are 46” x 16” x 41.”
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