At a glance: 3D printing
SCHOOL OF MAKING
Find out what makes up a desktop fabricator
used filament fabrication or FFF,
(sometimes called under the
trademarked term Fused Deposition
Modelling or FDM), is the most
common form of 3D printing. It can
work in a few ways, but by far the most
common is a printer taking a filament of plastic,
heating it until it’s soft, and placing it on a print bed,
building up an object layer by layer. FFF printers
differ a bit in their exact setup, but they all have the
same basic parts. Let’s take a look at what they are.F
At a glance:
3D printing
Ben Everard
@ben_everardBen loves cutting stuff,
any stuff. There’s no
longer a shelf to store
these tools on (it’s now
two shelves), and the
door’s in danger. STEPPER MOTORSThe extruder is positioned by three sets of stepper
motors – in the X, Y, and Z axes. On some printers,
the extruder is moved while the print bed stays still,
in others the print bed may move in one or more axis.
Some printers have more unusual set-ups of motors.
The gearing and model of the motors affect both the
speed and accuracy of the printer.FANS
Molten plastic comes out of the extruder in the
correct place, but if it stays molten, it won’t stay in
the right place for long. Fans help the plastic cool and
solidify quickly, which helps you print in finer detail. It
might sound like this is the exact opposite of what we
said about a heated print bed, but actually, they’re
both part of the same thing – controlling the cooling
process. The more control you have over it, the better
your 3D printing experience will be. Some people go
even further, and put their printers in heated boxes
where they can control the air temperature around
the prints, but this is only needed for exotic filaments.CONTROL SYSTEM
Your printer needs something to tell it what to do.
Usually, these take files in G-code format and convert
them into the physical movements of the motors. Some
printers require you to transfer your files over on an SD
card, while some let you plug your computer in via USB.
Note that some printers may need to be connected to a
computer for the entire time of the print.