3D Printing Design Guidelines
1. Wall Thickness
In 3D Printing, wall thickness refers to the distance between one surface of your part and the opposite sheer surface. The part made by 3D printing has a minimum wall thickness that is dependent on its overall size. We suggest you increase your wall thickness whenever you scale up your design to a larger size.
2. Embossed and Engraved Details
Min. Embossed Detail
8000/9000E Resin: 0.8 mm high & 0.6 mm wide
PA12-HP Nylon: 1.0 mm high & 1.0 mm wide
PAC-HP Nylon: 1.0 mm high & 0.8 mm wide
Min. Engraved Detail
8000/9000E Resin: 0.5 mm deep & 0.5 mm wide
PA12-HP Nylon: 1.0 mm deep & 1.0 mm wide
PAC-HP Nylon: 1.0 mm deep & 1.0 mm wide
3. Thread design
There are two main factors affecting 3D printing of non-standard threads: thread pitch and Helix angle.
The clearance between threads needs to refer to model clearance. If there is no clearance, it will be unable to assemble. The minimum standard screw is M6.
4. Model clearance
Clearance between parts that will be assembled together
Modules can be printed to be assembled, as long as they meet the minimum clearance as shown below.
Clearance between moving parts
The minimum clearance between two moving or connecting parts.
The above is the minimum clearance for simple structures, which is not applicable to all structures.
5. Escape Holes
Hollow designs need an “escape hole”, so that excess material can escape during the 3D printing process. Most printing services use printers and printing techniques that require at least one escape hole.
(1) The minimum escape hole diameter is 2.5mm.
(2) Two escape holes are needed when the escape hole diameter is less than 3mm, otherwise the resin will not flow out and the cavity will not be cleaned, and the part may crack after a period of time.
(3) Please consider the size of your model and make the escape holes bigger or add more escape holes as needed as minimum guidelines will not always be adequate for large models.
(4) Escape holes need to design large enough to empty the support material of a hollow model.
6. Holes design
The relationship between aperture (Φ) and hole depth (h):
When the model is designed with micropores and deep holes, please refer to the above standards.
7. Small column design
The relationship between column diameter (D) and column height (H):
When the model is designed with a positioning column, please refer to the above standards.
8. Special-shaped model
The special-shaped model is mainly hollow structure, which occupies a large space, as shown in the following figure.
When the design is a special-shaped model and meets the printing requirements, special fees will be added appropriately.
9. 3D Printing Tolerances
Nylon material: the general tolerance is 200 microns (within 100mm).
Resin material: the general tolerance is 200 microns.
Tolerance changes over time:
