This is a follow-up to our previous post about water soluble supports. After significantly more testing of various brands of filament and material types - we’ve converged on using Stratasys SR30.
While this requires purchasing Ecoworks tablets, this is the absolute best support material to use across a wide variety of engineering materials hands-down.
Read MoreDid you know that you can create chamfers and even countersink holes with a laser cutter? While it may not seem like a big deal to do this with a drill or drill press for one-offs, this could be a very useful trick for reducing labor on low volume production parts - such as a batch of locally hand made goods.
Read MoreMore and more jigs and fixtures in the manufacturing and assembly space are being 3D printed. With this comes challenges in preventing static build up from damaging sensitive electronics, especially when assembling devices like lasers.
Thankfully there are an increasing number of ESD safe materials that are available. The first step to choosing the right material is understanding what Anti-Static, Static Dissipative and Conductive means.
Read MoreAt Ember we try to minimize our carbon footprint as much as possible. Being a part of the 3D printing industry, we’re adding a significant amount of plastic waste into the ecosystem. Couple that with solvent waste and that makes things twice as bad for the environment.
Many people in the industry don’t talk about the “dark side” of 3D printing. This typically revolves around solvent waste, and post-processing labour. In the former, at least here in British Columbia, solvent waste cannot be easily recycled. In fact, we have paid chemical companies in the past to take our solvent waste, only to discover that they dispose of it by incineration.
Read MoreJust because a printer’s build volume is smaller than your designed object doesn’t mean you can’t 3D print it. Here at Ember, we’ve made lots of very large parts that were broken up into several pieces and then bonded together. There are caveats of course - your part can have weak spots along the bonding regions, the surface finish on the bonding area can look slightly different, and it requires some manual labor.
Read MoreMany hobbyists and engineers are familiar with single extruder 3D printing. A good handful also know about dual extrusion and soluble supports. Soluble supports, whether water soluble, or alkaline soluble (eg. Stratasys SR-30), enable complex geometry to be printed without the need for sacrificing overhang surface quality or manual labor involved in support removal.
Something less well understood is the strength benefit associated with soluble supports. Not only do soluble supports allow you to have better surface finish and labor reduction, but they also allow you to do the following.
Our long awaited Form 3L has arrived! This large format SLA printer now allows us to print high quality SLA parts up to 335 x 200 x 300mm (13.2 x 7.9 x 11.8’’). As we grow, we’re always looking at expanding the tools that we have in order to enable lower cost, rapid prototyping for a wide array of applications. The 3L will now allow us to prototype large objects that weren’t possible before.
Read MoreA laser cutter is great for rapid prototyping of 2D engineering plastics such as Delrin/Acetal and Acrylic. With clever design, one can build up 3D assemblies with multiple 2D parts. Laser cutting is a much faster prototyping technique than 3D printing, thus if you can get away with 2D profiles only, it is typically the better option.
Another great usage of a laser cutter is laser engraving. Not only is laser engraving a great way to produce a high quality production looking part, but it also allows you to quickly test labeling for user design and experience. Below are some examples of the applications & materials you can engrave.
Read MoreThank you all for your support during 2020! It's been a crazy year to say the least. Trying to maintain positivity in these difficult times - so this is a reminder to ourselves of the things we are most proud of accomplishing this year. We're proud to have helped all of our customers.
Read MorePrototyping of optically clear parts can be challenging. Traditional methods include CNC machining followed by up to hours of laborious sanding and polishing.
Low force, or zero force, Stereolithography (SLA) allows complex optically clear prototypes in days without laborious post processing. This post highlights some unique examples that we’ve done for clients.
Read MoreWith the ever increasing number of 3D printing technologies, it becomes harder and harder to know which ones works the best for your application.
Generally speaking, there are 3 types of “affordable” printing technologies. These are listed below with quick points on when to use them over others. Hopefully this helps!
Read MoreIn my opinion - no tool alone is really all that revolutionary. A waterjet becomes more once you have a press break and can make bends in sheet metal. Similarly, having a 3D printer with a waterjet or laser cutter allows you to quickly prototype 3D shapes without being limited by 2D parts.
A fixture I recently designed was a great example of rapid prototyping with a combination of tools. In this case, a laser cutter and an FDM 3D printer. The requirements of the fixture were to hold and allow rotation of a device under test (DUT) at precise 5 degree increments. It had to be designed and fabricated quickly and use as many off the shelf (OTS) components as possible. The entire design, fabrication, assembly and test time took around 1 FTE day. Everything else were OTS parts ordered off McMaster Carr.
Read MoreStarting this blog has been on the bucket list for a long time. We hope to show case cool things that we work on, as well as introduce different prototyping methods to those who are unfamiliar.
People often ask why I started Ember. As an engineer who has designed products and worked on a variety of interesting things, one of my biggest gripes is the lack of rapid prototyping options within Vancouver, BC, Canada. The typical lead times at shops here can range from anywhere between 2-4 weeks, which can absolutely kill iteration. Other rapid prototyping shops are either very expensive, not local, do not have engineering expertise, or all of the above.
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