AE 3610 Tips

Tips for your AE 3610 final project!

Your group’s AE 3610 final project may involve the Aero Maker Space, so here are some quick tips to get you started especially with 3D printing your designs. You may want to start with the AMS 3610 powerpoint lecture, which should also be available on your canvas page. This presentation covers the basics and also lists out what tools are available for AMS users.

Quick Tips for 3610

Make sure to come in early to get your prints done!
- Parts may need redesigns to work.
- Complex, specialty parts have a higher risk of failure.
- During high demand weeks, you could be waiting up to 1 week to get your parts especially if they are in specialty materials.
After reading through this document, consider talking to some AMS mentors before writing your 3610 project proposal if you aren’t sure of its manufacturing feasibility.
The AMS does not accept 3rd party filament! We, however, we have a selection of materials you can use for 3610. Read more below on our 3D printing capabilities and how you can leverage it for your project.
3D printing won’t be able to make every single part reliabily. Please read the section below to learn more about printing and specific AMS capabilities.
Also consider using our laser cutters, wood shop, or other tools to make your project. You can find a list of these tools in the presentation above or learn more about them in this wiki!
If you are going to use the Composites Lab, make sure your group has enough experience beforehand. You will need to get access, please see our Composites Lab info page.

How to Print at the AMS

To print your part at the AMS, design it in any CAD software (Solidworks, Fusion 360, OnShape, etc.) and export an .STL file of your part in metric units (mm). The setting should be part of the .STL export settings. Then, just stop by our location in the Weber Building and then talk to a mentor. The mentor will load your .STL file into a slicer (a program that converts your .STL into machine instructions for the printer) and get your file on the print queue. Make sure to mention you are printing for the 3610 final project and list out any things you might need for that. The part will be printed and you will get an email when it is finished. Mentors can also help you with technical help!

However, it is wise to know crucial 3D printing technical information before you design your experiment and design parts for you experiment. The information below will help you create reliable parts and leverage the AMS’s 3610-specific printing capabilities for your applications.

Technical 3D Printing Information for 3610 and 4610

The AMS is specifically geared to help AE 3610 (and the 4610) class projects, along with AE 1601, which you have already taken. For AE 3610 and AE 4610, prints will actually go on our professional print queue, which typically handles our research manufacturing and project teams (clubs). This is different than our regular print queue, which uses the orange Prusa Printers that you might have used for AE 1601. However, if the 3610 queue is overfilling, the Prusas may be used (which provide similar quality parts).

Prints for AE 3610 will be done on our Bambu X1C printers on our professional print queue. Here are some things you should know about 3D printing at a glance:

FDM Printing and Part Effects

FDM Parts Strength and Surface: The Bambus are FDM printers that use a spool of filament to print lines and make your print. This FDM process will affect your final parts. This means your parts will have layer lines! These are lines created by the different “layers” as your print is printed upwards.
- For aerodynamics, layer lines will increase the surface roughness. There will be a layer every about 0.2mm on your part.
- For structures, layer lines break (delaminate) at lower tensile stress than the transverse direction of the print. If you see the image above, your parts will be less strong in Z than X/Y.
- You will need to make sure your parts are printed in the direction that makes sense for your experiment. These are just some of the experimental considerations when 3D printing.
Infill and Walls: 99% of all FDM prints are hollow to save filament, weight, and money. Filament simply costs much more than raw material that is injection molded, etc. The amount of infill (cross-shaped geometry inside your part) and walls (number of perimeters around your part at each layer) can be adjusted to change part strength. When you come in to the AMS to print, just let a mentor know you would like a different infill or wall strength for structural testing.

Design for Manufacturing for FDM Prints

Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is a process to make sure that your parts are designed in mind for the manufacture in method. For FDM printers, you want to maximize DFM so that you have prints that:
- Are reliable to manufacture (won’t fail while printing, which can happen).
- Are manufactured as close to the design as possible.
Print Orientation: Other than the strength issues mentioned above, you want to maximize the flat area that touches the 3D print build platform. This is the part that “sticks” to the
Supports and Overhangs: Anywhere your part sticks out greater than 45 degrees from the bed, there will be support to hold that overhang from falling over. Try to reduce overhangs by adding chamfers to overhangs or splitting a part into multiple pieces and gluing it together. Support must be taken off by hand and can also cause your print to fail if too complex of a part.
Dimensions and Interfaces: The Bambu printers are some of the most accurate printers available at the AMS. Dimensionally, you need to mainly worry about interfaces, as during printing, the plastic will shrink when it cools, especially with holes. Thus, this is recommended:
- If you need to interface something into another thing (such as a peg into a hole), add 0.3mm to the diameter of the hole to ensure a snug fit.
- If you prefer a loose, sliding fit, add 0.5mm to the diameter of the hole.
- Overall though, your part’s overall size will not change significantly from design, to the tolerance level of approximately 0.5mm. As good lab practice, you should use calipers and measure out any dimension-specific component features that are 3D printed (IE: Dogbones).

3D Print Materials Available for 3610

The AMS does not accept 3rd party 3D print filament for 3D prints. However, we stock many different materials for all experimental applications, and you can use any of these for free for AE 3610. Thus, if you use these materials, you will not need to buy them in your 3610 proposal — though the specific materials you want to use should still be noted on your proposal. If you have any questions on this please email daltonmluedke@gatech.edu.

This table lists the materials available for AE 3610. Note that we may stock different manufacturers that have slightly different additives, so the properties linked in the datasheet may not match exactly. Also, the datasheets may not be complete; some have strength in the weaker layer line axis but some do not and only feature a general strength. Thus, these strength and material property values should be considered only as a baseline for actual experimental testing.

Material

Notes

Link to Datasheet

PETG

The regular AMS material, strong and UV resistant. Use this for most applications.

PolyLite PETG: https://polymaker.com/wp-content/uploads/lana-downloads/PolyLite_PETG_TDS_V5.3.pdf

PLA

The most common 3D printed material, less strong.

PolyLite PLA: https://polymaker.com/wp-content/uploads/lana-downloads/PolyLite_PLA_TDS_V5.3.pdf

Silk PLA

Shiny variant of PLA that is structually weaker.

N/A