Dimension SST 1200es

General Information

What is a 3D printer?

A printer that can print 3D models. The printer has two extruders, each connected to a spool with material. One is the printing material, ABSplus. The other one is support material (the brown stuff), which is soluble in a basic solvent; this is used to fill up empty space in your model. ABSplus is ideal for printing models with built-in hinges, flexible and/or moving parts without the need of subsequent assembly. The printer builds the structure through Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM).

What materials can I use?

We have 5 colors of ABS: White, Black, Red, Blue and Yellow. Please see our material library for details. Please ask a FabLab engineer to see a sample spool of colors.

What is the working area?

The maximum model size is 254 x 254 x 305 mm.

Computer model (SolidWorks, 3Ds, Catia, Maya etc.) → Export as stereolithography file (STL) → Import STL in printer's software → Adjust parameters (resolution, part orientation) → Send printjob to printer.

Printing the object can take a long time. Several hours are needed to print something of the size of a coffeemug.

When the printer is finished the object can be removed. Support material can be broken away or solved in a warm bath of sodium hydroxide (NaOH).

Afterwards, the object can be polished to make it smooth (otherwise you can see the printlines).

The machine extrudes thermoplastic material in layers of 0,25mm. Think of this as emptying a container of toothpaste. The “traces” have a width of ± 0,5mm. This means wall thicknesses should ideally be constructed with 0,5mm (one trace), 1mm (2 adjacent traces) or 1,5mm (3 traces) thickness. Any volumes with a thickness of 2mm or higher can be either filled solidly, or filled in with a high or low density “crosshatching” to make it lighter and cheaper. (TODO: print and picture examples)

Because of the way this machine works, it might be necessary to keep these design guidelines in mind when creating your computer model.