Significance of Fundamental Metrology of 3D-Printed Parts for Engineering Design: Dimensional Accuracy

This paper discusses some basic metrology considerations when 3D printing. The importance of ensuring correct measurements is highlighted especially for practical applications.  The last part of the paper presents sample dimensional measurements of 3D-printed parts with varying sizes, infill density and layer thickness.  Different cube sizes of 10 mm3, 15 mm3, and 20 mm3 has been produced using a commercially-available 3D printer. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) has been used for the experiments. Important observations and insights are presented

Development of an Ergonomically – Designed Violin Chinrest Using Additive Manufacturing

A violin chinrest is used to ease the pain and prevent injuries of violinists. However, some of them experienced discomfort using normal chinrest. It causes injuries, irritations, and pains that affect the performance of violinists. In that problem, the researcher works toward a goal of not curing the problem but instead avoiding pain, injuries, and discomfort when playing it. A convenience sampling method was used in gathering anthropometric data. The study is limited to the ergonomically designed chin rest itself, which will only be installed at the standard violin size with a length of 60 cm. The designed chinrest is fitted only for the violinists of Jose De Piro Kabataan Orkestra. Three ergonomically designed violin chinrests were produced, which are: side-mounted, semi-centered, and fully centered. The researchers used a paired-samples t-test to compare the means in the results of testing between the normal chinrest and the ergonomically designed chinrest using additive manufacturing. The study concludes that the ergonomically designed violin chinrests using additive manufacturing are light-weight, less expensive, more comfortable to use, and lessen the pain of the violinists based on the overall mean compared to the normal violin chinrest in terms of side-mounted, semi-centered, and centered chinrest

3D-Printed Ergonomic Tool Handles

Although hand tools serve as an instrument for extending one’s capabilities through the use of hands, the comfort it brings is important especially since the welfare of the user is at stake. Aside from using the hand tools repetitively and with an awkward posture, the tool handle compositions and design also contribute to accumulating some work-related musculoskeletal disorders that require further attention in the long run. To provide a long-term solution, 3D-printed new designs of six commonly used hand tools that fit the average hand measurements of Filipinos have been developed. The hand tools are printed using two filaments namely; thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) which was found to be skin-friendly and polylactic acid (PLA) which is proven to be more functional, both are used on the outer and inner layer of the handle, respectively. The 3D-printed tool handles were evaluated through the use of a comfort questionnaire for hand tools distributed to 10 respondents per tool handle testing, results show that 3D-printed tool handles are found to be more comfortable and convenient rather than the commercial ones. Meanwhile, the researchers note that the adequate length of tool handles may also vary according to functions and not rely alone on the average hand measurements

Design Optimization of DR3AM Vapor Polishing Device for ABS 3D-Printed Parts

3D printing is an additive manufacturing method that turns digital design into an actual product. A 3D-printed part sometimes requires post-processing to enhance its physical and mechanical properties. Acetone vapor polishing is one of those techniques which is highly beneficial in smoothing ABS 3D-printed parts. Previously, an acetone vapor polishing device has been developed which uses a mist maker. However, for a more efficient polishing method, an optimized vapor polishing device using heat has been fabricated in this study. To assess the efficiency of this device, the researchers test the dimensional accuracy, surface roughness, tensile strength, and impact strength of polished and unpolished ABS 3D-printed specimens. The findings showed that the surface smoothness of the polished cube specimens did not significantly alter its physical geometry. The tensile test reveals that the overall elasticity of the polished tensile specimen has increased significantly while the impact test also shows that the polished specimens have the capacity to sustain a resistive impact from a swinging pendulum. Thus, all testing procedures indicated that post-processing using the optimized vapor polishing device has improved the overall physical and mechanical properties of the polished specimens