More Stratasys Questions

From: RP Solutions (rps@dircon.co.uk)
Date: Thu Oct 19 2000 - 12:21:54 EEST


Hi List,

I have saved up a few questions that have been bugging me over the last few months.

Question 1.
Model Warping on the Stratasys FDM 8000: we have been making sand casting masters (typically 500mm cubed) recently which have sections 5-10mm thick in places, if we create solid parts they tend to warp/bend around the base area (sometimes the geometry of the parts determines the orientation).

My guess is that the parts are warping due to a build up of heat from the build filament, to try and counteract this we have done the following:

1.Create a honeycomb structure with Part Cross Hatch command in Quickslice 6.1( this works OK but parts have to be checked manually to ensure that they have no holes )

2. Create a support base 20 layers thick.( this works OK when used with the above )

3. Create "feet" in modelling material to help anchor the part more securely to the foam base. ( does'nt really work as internal stresses are sometimes great enough to pull the parts off the base )

4. Put pauses on each slice to allow heat to dissipate ( I haven't tried this yet but it kinda goes against the grain to deliberately build parts more slowly! )

Is there a better way of building these parts? or am I missing something? all assistance as usual gratefully recieved.

Question 2.
T10 Tips on the Stratasys FDM 2000
 I am interested to hear of other users experiences using T10 Tips, do you get a noticeable improvement in part finish? are there any problems using the T10 tips? does it extend the envelope of the small parts you can build? Anyone tried it on a 1650?

Question 3.
Waterworks Support structure: I was asked by a colleague if it was possible to Investment Cast parts ( burning out the ABS master) built using the waterworks support system, I think he was interested to see if the finish was good enough to cast enclosed areas without any hand finishing. Anyone tried it?How reliable is Waterworks?what about inclusions/porosity?

Thanks in advance, all information gratefully recieved.

Oliver Cole
Technical Director
RP Solutions

Tel: 02476 632 120

Fax: 02476 632 131

 
  

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:04:34 EEST