Have a few more coming in.
I apologize, Jonathan.
I started the recording little little fast there.
Ohh yeah, you're good.
Yeah, that's fine.
Sorry about that.
That's all right, that's fine.
Alright, Tim, so I have 7:01.
So I'm going to get us kicked off here.
So I want everybody to give a warm welcome to doctor Stratton.
Doctor Stratton is coming to us.
He is a PhD.
His PhD and his masters from my understanding are both from
Purdue Global are from Purdue University.
I'm sorry.
He is an expert on uh technology adoption.
Umm, he's worked a lot with some 3D printing, some security
systems, manufacturing processes and some industrial automation.
He is a very well respected professional in the industry and
he also.
Managers, the 40 hour faculty for Purdue, so please give him
your attention.
He does have some of the questions that we have asked for
him.
And he is here, donating his time to us and lending us his
expertise.
So let's respect this time and what's I will give you.
The floor doctor Stratton.
Well, thank you.
No pressure.
Anything you're really built me up there?
Uh, now, happy to be here.
Happy to help Jerry, and she reached out.
You know, maybe a week or two ago said that you guys needed
some help with 3D printing and I uh, so I I threw my hat in and
said I'd be here.
So it's kind of a hobby for me.
And so I thought it'd be fun to just kind of talk a little bit
about it.
But I think before we even get that far, I want you guys to
talk about what your project is.
I got a really high level description from Jerry.
Last week?
Maybe, but I I kind of wanna hear it again and just kind of,
you know, see where all this fits together.
So I I don't.
Yeah, whoever wants to go, you know, I'd love to hear what
you're doing.
Yeah, absolutely.
So the the premise behind our project is we are developing a
site and we kind of want to.
It practiced that adoption practice, the practices that
you, that you kind of like to do in your, in your career as well.
So we want to be able to bring a site to educational facilities,
to groups, to different associations that might focus on
technology and things like that.
And with our site, we want them to be able to kind of explore
the models and check all the models out.
The theme behind our project is you're doing, uh, five different
areas in history.
We're doing communication, network devices, audio devices,
gaming systems and computer equipment, and we're kind of
going through the ages.
So starting back in the 70s and kind of progressing into what
they have become today and along with that process, we want to be
able to show the 3D models and then through a partnership that
we are locking down through turbosquid, which is a shutter
stock company, we are actually going to be able to use their
database and become an affiliate for them.
So we will also be able to have access to their items as well,
which will give us also the ability to provide them 33D
blueprints and scale models that you can actually click and
download and then we will actually receive a donation for
our site from them as well from them downloading them and
processing them from our site.
Very cool.
So is this all one group?
Is everybody on this call?
One group or there are multiple groups on this call.
So on this call, we have a soft dev.
We have cybersecurity, we have.
Network and we have our management group.
OK, very cool.
So is is each group then working on a separate model or are you
guys all working towards the same model, just different
aspects of that?
So the software dev.
Uh group is working on uh through uh figma and designing
the web pages for us.
OK.
We have Alexander and his crew actually doing the coding, so
they built the backside of the site and we're able to get us up
and running as far as our framework goes, we have Isaac,
Nicholas, Umm and Jane working uh primarily and leading the
cyber security group and they all doing our pen testing and
also making sure that we don't have any holes and then we have
OK.
Angela, June, Eric, myself in Doctor Light is the client of
course.
Umm.
And we are kind of overseeing the project.
I'm running project management, but we are all definitely have
intermixed roles as well, so this is a fantastic team.
They're they're more than willing to jump in and kind of
go across and learn and expand their skill sets as well.
So it is truly an entire team project and they have had a
Very cool.
whatever it takes to get done attitude.
And So what?
What's the what's the timeline on like what?
What is your?
What is your end date?
So we are hoping to be able to launch uh on the 30th.
So this month, that's awesome.
Yes, Sir.
Very cool, I hope.
I hope someone can share you know the finished product with,
because I'd love to see you know how it all comes together.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Absolutely.
We'd be more than happy to have you test run the site.
Well, cool.
So I guess I I you know, I can kind of just go over just so
everybody knows Jonathan sent me a handful of questions kind of
about 3D printing in general.
So I threw together a quick PowerPoint this afternoon just
to kind of work through some of that.
And then I think after that I'll go through I'll, I'll demo one
of the the primary pieces of software and then I'm gonna open
it again just for questions discussion.
You know, I I I I appreciate the intro, Jonathan, but I'm far
from an expert.
I this is just a hobby.
For me, I'm a weekend warrior at best, but it it, you know, it's
just something fun.
I've been tinkering with my background is a mechanical
engineering technology and so I've always kind of just been a
tinkerer and a, you know, maybe a quote makers the the more
modern term for that.
But let me pull up real quick.
I'll share my screen.
Oh no, I don't have the ability to share.
Jonathan, would you be able to give me a access to that?
Yeah.
Give me one second here.
I don't know if, excuse me if since you're a guest that you
can see the chat or share the screen.
OK.
Well, how about this?
What if I just drop the uh presentation in the chat and
then Jonathan, if you want to open it, there's nothing too
Yeah, absolutely.
exciting in there so.
Let's see here.
No, no, do not have chat either.
Yeah, we, we'd have to get you a PGIP email.
Ohh.
Up.
Hold on once. Uh.
That's fair.
I'll.
I'll just let me just, I'll email to Jonathan real quick.
Email it yeah.
It's that's Yep.
Email to Jonathan he can pull it from there.
Her hold on.
I think I I think I just did was able to make you a presenter.
Go ahead and try to.
Ohh heck yeah.
OK.
We're in.
I see it.
Sweet.
Gotta love technology.
Alright, so let me go ahead and do this.
Share.
Umm.
Let's just do that.
Alright, so can everybody see that?
OK, alright.
Yes, Sir.
So the the first question I Jonathan might be going out of
order here a little bit about what you what you sent me, but
one of the questions was what are the types of 3D printers out
there?
Umm.
And there's really three main categories.
And so the the one most people are probably familiar with is
what's called an FDM printer, which stands for fused
deposition.
Umm, you know what that is?
Essentially, if you think of like a Play-doh extruder, you're
extruding one material and you're depositing it and layers
out of a extrusion nozzle.
Now most of these are temperature base, so they're
they're Thermo based materials.
Uh at scale, though, you know, I know there are a lot of articles
out there about people that are 3D printing houses out of
concrete.
That's technically a fused deposition printer, just on a
very large scale, and it's not using heat.
It's just using moisture of each layer of concrete that's fusing
together, but in a nutshell, it's all the same thing, just on
a different scale.
Most common you know, if you if you go on Amazon right now and
type in 3D printer that that's probably what you're gonna end
up in.
There are I I would conservatively say hundreds of
manufacturers out there that are making this this version or the
style of printer.
Uh.
Anywhere of price points, I'd say 50 to $75.00 an up.
Uh, there are even some very DIY, you know, you can basically
piece it together out of cardboard and hot glue.
UMI don't know how good the the end result would be, but I I
know there's there are so many options out there for FDM style
printers.
Kind of the next level up from that is the SLA printer, which
is a stereo lithography and what it is is it it's either a resin
A or a a photosensitive material.
So almost always liquid form.
Well, we'll talk a little bit about the almost always piece,
but what it does is it takes a a small basically LCD screen at
the bottom of a VAT of liquid and every layer of your object
is projected on this screen.
And then because of the interaction between the UV light
and the resin, it actually hardens that shape on the screen
and so as it pulls up, it just basically takes a snapshot of
each layer.
Uh pardons it as a material.
So whenever you watch these printers work, you're actually
pulling your object up out of a pool of liquid, which is kind of
tricky to see, but these are a little bit higher in price
point, a little bit more complex to work.
They are much, much higher resolution, so if you if you
have very detailed parts or very detailed umm features it you
know it's a it's a fantastic printer for high detail objects
but price point and complexity you know that it does go up a
little bit umm more on an industrial scale though similar
similar technology.
You know, if you think you're, you know, all of these, you're
working layer by layer on an object, but the SLS printers are
laser sintering printers.
And So what it's doing is you basically instead of having a
VAT of liquid, you have a valve powdered metal and then you have
a laser that basically goes across and through, you know,
extreme heat fuses that powder together only in a very select
path of wherever your object is.
So you're you're basically doing the same thing as the SLA
printer, only with some sort of powdered metal.
Typically is the the standard you medium, but same idea you
have a VAT of.
How did metal layer by layer?
You're just, you know, projecting a laser over each
slice of your object and and over time you get a a very
complex shape.
These are definitely more in the industrial, commercial realm.
Uh, I I would say there's really no entry level printer at this
point.
Everything you're gonna be working with is gonna be
measured in 1,000,000.
If not, maybe hundreds of thousands, but it's definitely
not something that you're, you know, your weekend warriors
gonna be playing with.
Umm now being said that those are the three primary
categories.
There are a lot of different scale variations within those,
so kind of like I said, you know, if you hear about anybody
3D3D printing a house, it's essentially a very large FDM
printer.
That's squirting concrete instead of melting plastic.
So you know there there might be scale variations or material
variations, but those are really the three main buckets of what I
would consider viable technologies in the 3D printing
space.
Umm.
So before I move on, does anybody have any questions just
on the on the basics of that, I I imagine I'll get a little bit
more into it as we go.
But before we get too far down this rabbit hole, I figured I'd
throw it out for questions again.
So you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I I I believe I was
Umm.
reading so the SLS became very popular during COVID because the
parts were all on back order and they actually were starting to
make replacement parts out of the SLS machines.
And that kind of now I know that a lot of more industries have
been adopting them since COVID because it's now become a almost
a price point where instead of waiting three months for it to
come over on a ship, now I can print it.
And yes, it cost me a little more up front, but in the long
run time and money.
So I I have not seen that exactly, but I absolutely
believe that that's been happening with supply chain
issues because at some point you have to weigh cost of the part
versus downtime.
If you have to wait six months on the part, you're you know, as
I say, you're waiting six months for a $10 part.
What does that downtime cost you versus printing apart for
$600.00 instead of $10?
You know you you might be making that up.
So I I would absolutely believe that that's true.
But I think, Jane, you have your hand up.
Yes.
What?
When we talk about the FDM printer and the SLA printer,
Mm-hmm.
which which would be more feasible in terms of what we're
looking to do, affordability and and that sort of thing.
ABC absolutely FDM.
It's a it's a fantastic price point.
OK.
For what you get uh, it's not complicated to operate.
In fact, most of the I I would say it's borderline plug and
play.
I mean, there you have to have a little bit of an understanding
once you get into SLA, there is a little bit more complexity to
it, the material itself.
So that resin it's UV cured is most common, and so even just
having it out in a room, there's enough UV light leakage in a
room that over time it'll eventually go bad.
So unless you're high volume or, you know are are batch printing
that entire reservoir, it's not good to just piece meal
projects.
And you either have to be using it or not using it, whereas in
FDM printer I mean there are some concerns with material
longevity.
Umm, the the most common material printed in a FDM as a
PLA plastic, I think, stands for polylactic acid.
Maybe, probably should have looked that up, but it's a it's
a plant based plastic and it does have some issues with
humidity.
Umm.
So if if you leave it in a highly humid area, it will
absorb humidity, which once you get moisture in your material,
you're heating it.
You know basically to uh, I think it's 200 degrees C so you
know, you're easily running into the fact you're boiling that
moisture.
So can it can cause some issues with the print.
However, as long as you're keeping it in the House, you
know that that's more or less temperature, humidity
controlled.
You're fine.
So I would say from that standpoint, FDM you know is
probably the most conducive to just tinkering and to, you know,
small one off projects prototyping, uh, you know SLA,
you might be looking into a little bit more of what I would
call like a production usage where you're you're constantly
using it or making parts over and over just as an example, one
of the guys that I work with, he's really big into the SLA
stuff.
Uh, But he's a he's into table games and he prints a lot of
little figurines and.
Props for that.
And so he's constantly using it.
So for him it makes sense, especially from a detailed
standpoint.
You know, he's making very small, detailed pieces by the
hundreds, and so it makes sense.
Whereas you know if you're just using it like I do for you know,
prototyping or tinkering or just, you know, whatever, just
being silly and printing something for giggles, I'm FDM,
is is really more of a approachable technology.
I I hope I answered your question there.
I feel like I got a little long winded.
Well, no, no, the detail was definitely needed because I
think overall we as a institution might be leaning
more towards the SLA.
Mm-hmm.
But to to understand what the FDM does, I did have a question
kind of added to that.
Umm.
Is there some sort of sealant that could be put on there to
like lock it in?
I I don't know what you would even call it, but kind of like
how would you can still would to to lock in the the luster of it
or whatever it would be considered.
Is there some sort of sealant that could happen for the FDM so
when we do like the prototypes they don't?
I guess disintegrate or.
So the once once the once the materials printed, you're not
gonna run into any issues with that.
I was talking more of the raw material that goes into it.
OK.
So, like FDM, the the, the filament is basically the the
raw material that goes in is typically referred to as
filament.
It's on a spool.
It's, you know, usually by weight, but it's a I don't even
know how long the the schools are.
You can kind of see it in the photo on that presentation.
That big orange circle at the top?
It's very stable before and after printing, whereas with the
SLA printers you basically have a VAT of liquid.
You know, it comes in a sealed container so, but you're dealing
with a liquid raw material.
Once it's printed, you've got a solid material, so once it's
printed, it's it's.
It's stable, but as a raw material it's definitely not.
Yeah, as stable as a FDM filament.
Umm, it's definitely gonna have more of a shelf life, especially
once that container has been opened.
Your VAT is full of liquid.
You know, it's it's definitely got a clock ticking at that
point.
And I said thank you so much for that detail that that definitely
Yeah.
helps a whole lot.
Good.
I'm glad.
Thank you.
So if nobody else has any, go ahead.
And I have it.
Hello yeah, I have one question.
Have you ever heard the 3D printing food?
Mm-hmm.
Yes, I have.
So I'm trying to interesting on this.
Go ahead.
So I I'm not 100% on the technologies they're using
there.
I know some of the ones I've seen have been more of a.
FDM style, where you're extruding some raw material, but
there's also a, you know, a chemical aspect to it where
you're actually changing and creating things on the fly a
little bit closer to like what an SLA might be as far as the
Yeah.
viability though, I I you know, I I can't really speak on that.
I I I always joke that I went into engineering because I don't
like dealing with squishy stuff.
So you know biology, all that stuff is not in my not in my my
realm of expertise.
And yeah, because you should do the the three types and it looks
like a more like the SLA type.
Yeah, I used to attend the exhibition in in Tokyo.
Umm.
Yeah, they they show a machine 3D printing machine to to
printing the food.
I find some photos.
Yeah.
Later, we're putting the chat.
Yeah, it's quite interesting.
Yeah, please do.
I I I'd be curious to see that cause I couple years ago I saw a
company that was making like custom 3D printed.
Uh, like chocolate designs.
You know, it was a, I don't know, some some website you
Yeah.
could buy.
You know your company logo as a custom 3D printed piece of
chocolate?
Umm, that was what I would imagine to be like, FDM style
you're, you know, just melting it and depositing it.
But umm yeah, please do share that, cause I'd I'd be curious
to see that.
Because this, like they they can put different ingredients and
and not to say the the annual tuition those kind of things.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, but I don't know the test if it's really really good or
not. Yeah.
Yeah, I I would imagine like most things, it's gonna take
time in a couple iterations before it's a words consumer
ready.
Yeah, that's cool.
Yeah.
There's a place in Pittsburgh, like, right outside where I live
in Pittsburgh, PA, and it's called signature desserts.
And they do 3D printed wedding cakes.
Oh, cool, that's neat.
And it's to let me make sure I understand the 3D printing food
Yeah. OK.
to eat as in edible or are we talking about like design?
Mm-hmm.
Both.
Oh, OK.
Yeah.
So there's there, you know, from what I understand, there's a
couple different field like.
So there's the one where they're just making shapes or, you know,
a solid material.
But then there's also like where there.
Crafting food with multiple ingredients into one thing.
But yeah, it's it's supposedly all edible.
I like, like I said, I don't know about taste, but it's
supposedly edible.
It's like the George Jetsons.
So.
I mean the the Jetsons cartoon coming to life.
Yeah.
Yeah, pretty much.
You know that future?
Yeah, I don't know.
I still like it.
Real, real food, not 3D printing food, yeah.
Yeah, I'll give.
I'll give that one sometime soon.
OK.
Thank you. Yeah.
Yeah.
You're welcome.
So some of the other questions that Jonathan sent over in this
kind of is actually a good segue into it about new technologies.
You know from my from my limited, you know, I I don't
keep up on it super closely but umm, some of the biggest
movements and technology from what I've seen are with multi
material and mixed material capabilities and so kind of what
we mean by that multi material would be where one printer can
print multiple colors, multiple types of materials.
So some of the SLS printers, so the laser sintering, umm, they
can actually mix like let's say you're you know you're fusing
metal, right?
So you can mix brass or bronze with aluminum with steel and you
can have different layers, different features within the
part that are made out of a different material which you
know from a design standpoint is awesome.
Umm, you know, those are capabilities that you can't do
easily through traditional manufacturing methods.
And so the fact that you can do that all in one fell swoop.
Uh, you know, it is kind of where, you know, those
technologies are heading.
When I say mixed materials kind of the same thing.
Little bit different but umm either with LS maybe different
alloys.
So instead of, you know mixing 2 incompatible metals, you might
be able to interweave them in a way that would give the same
physical properties without actually having to alloy the
two, but also on some of the FDM stuff you can actually now print
uh materials with different physical properties to give, you
know, some sort of mechanical advantage.
SO11 big example is TPU, it's a it's a material that you can run
through an FDM printer that's flexible, a little bit rubbery,
almost and so you can actually print that into like let's say
you're making a a chip clip for a bag of chips, right?
You can make the body of the chip clip rigid out of a rigid
material, but also then print in a flexible material at the hinge
that has a little bit of a spring characteristic, you know?
So.
So think about the possibilities of, you know, being able to
integrate stuff like that or features into things without
having, you know, traditional manufacturing methods.
If we have to make this part fit this part, you can actually do
it all at the same time and really put materials in into a
piece or a part or whatever into places where you might not be
able to actually machine that in.
And so, you know, I'll cover this a little bit down in the
best and worst items for 3D printing, but there are limits
to traditional manufacturing.
And if you can, you know, go beyond that and put an internal
cavity into a piece for weight savings, you know, think about
if you're, if you're machining a piece of aluminum on a on a mill
or a lathe, it's really hard to do an internal cavity unless
you're doing it in two pieces and then welding it back
together.
And the more complex the part gets, the harder that becomes to
do.
But you can do very complex parts with 3D printing while
adding benefits like internal cavities and things like that.
Now add on a new technology of being able to do a different
material or a different alloy or something within the part for
weight savings, for lubrication purposes, for internal coolant
channels.
Umm.
And so those are, you know, in a nutshell, that's where it really
I think the most technological advancements are happening.
And that's also why you see a lot of these technologies being
used in aerospace and defense.
And you know the a little more of the the high tech high, you
know, high entry level industries is because you can do
really complex stuff at a relatively similar price.
Umm, you know, it's it's obviously not cheap or cost
effective to do 3D printing, but when you look at the benefits of
some of those extra features that you can add versus
traditional machining, all of a sudden it becomes viable.
So from a business standpoint, it makes way more sense to even
explore 3D printing then you know in a traditional, you know
less technological industry.
So, you know, I really think that's where a lot of the most
the big advancements are coming from.
Umm.
Technology wise, you know, I think we've still got away
before we see a big paradigm shift in the actual mechanism of
3D printing.
I think the, you know, kind of the three buckets that I
outlined at the beginning are pretty solid and I think there's
still more than enough advances that can come from, you know,
material selection, uh, mixed materials, multi material.
Umm.
I guess with the one thing I didn't add was food.
I mean, there's a that's an entire industry that I kind of
glazed over on that one.
But you know, as far as so I'll, I'll let me just move down to
best and worst items.
So that's a really, really tough question to answer.
Umm I I think the biggest.
First, you know first and foremost cost and time need to
be considered.
Umm, you know, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to 3D print a
pencil because from a cost standpoint a time standpoint,
it's pretty easy to make a pencil.
You know, traditionally, so if it's something that's gonna be
very expensive or very time consuming, I think that's really
when you can start opening the door for 3D printing.
As Jonathan said, you know I I kind of my my background is
manufacturing processes machinery, things like that.
Umm, prototyping is a huge benefit of 3D printing because
you know, especially if it's a complex part, something that
might require tooling, it might not be a you know something that
you're not going to 3D print the end product, but it might be
something that you just want to say, hey, does this thing fit,
which I think is exactly how this group is intending to use
this as a, you know, prototyping tool, it's perfect for that.
Again, you have to consider cost and time.
Umm, but especially from a prototyping standpoint.
FDM is typically the quickest, cheapest way to get a prototype
piece of whatever, so beyond that, best and worst items you
know?
Yeah.
Also have to consider material uh end use of whatever product
you've got is really dependent on the material itself.
So I mentioned earlier that most FDM printers use a thermal
plastic called PLA.
The polylactic acid?
I believe that's acid.
We'll have to look that up, but it's not very temperature stable
for hot temperatures.
So, like, let's say you 3D printed a a A bracket to hold
your phone in your car once.
Soon as you leave that sucker out in the sun in the middle of
the summer, it's gonna warp melt, you know, kind of deformed
a little bit.
So you know, you kind of need to consider, especially for an end
user product, you need to consider what material you're
gonna use, what the end use is.
If it's just for a prototype like, hey, I wanna see if this
thing fits great.
Print it out or whatever the heck you want, and then you can
go about your day.
But if there is some sort of end use where you know durability is
a concern, you know that's really gonna play into what's,
umm, a good or bad item for 3D printing.
Yeah, Jane, you got a question?
I was thinking with the FDM, I was gonna say MDM.
Thinking about technology with the MDM, it almost seems like
Yeah.
that's a cool side business.
Like if you wanted to do a side business, kind of like a
prototype as a service type of business.
Always think about businesses or business, entrepreneurial
Yep.
opportunities with machines like this.
So you've got my wheels turning on this one.
Yep.
Yes, the side hustle is real and I am always looking for a good
side hustle.
I have not been able to capitalize on my 3D printer yet,
but there is.
There is a market for it.
I belong to a number of different forums for a number of
different hobbies I have, and there's always a handful of
people in there that are doing.
3D printing as a service I I really can't speak to how
lucrative it is because there is a, you know, a little bit of an
upfront cost.
I mean get a think you know, let's say spend $250 on a
printer, but also time that's that's probably the most
detrimental factor of 3D printing is a service.
And so again, that's a really good segue into one of
Jonathan's other questions is how long does it take to print
that?
And it's it's again, it's almost impossible to answer, but it's
not fast.
I think if there's anything you take away, it's it's not quick.
I've had prints that are longer than 24 hours, so you have to
think you know back to your side.
Hustle question.
If you're doing 3D printing as a service, whether it's
prototyping or even even low level manufacturing, umm, you
have to consider time because if it takes you 12 hours to print
apart, uh, you know.
So let's say, I mean, you can run a printer without having to
sit here and stare at it, but it doesn't always work.
There are, you know, errors in the print, and sometimes you'll
get you'll walk out and looks like a bowl of spaghetti.
So if you, you know, on a good day, let's say you are getting a
part every 12 hours, but you can only sell that part for 10 or 15
bucks, maybe 20 bucks.
You know, you you you definitely have to weigh that into that
equation because it is definitely not a quick process.
And so you either need an army of 3D printers, which is, you
know, it's a pretty low barrier to entry like, you know at 200,
two 150 for a decent printer.
You know if if you put a little bit of an initial investment in
there, you could get a good army of printers pumping out the same
thing.
But definitely a consideration of you know, how long does it
take?
I I would say in my experience, a short print as four to six
hours, unless it's something really small and I've I've had
some that were up to 30 some hours.
So you know, definitely something to consider if you
know if you're looking at a the business business use case here.
So yeah.
Well, let me say this, though, not even business on it, because
if we're talking about doing this as a service, we also have
to look at the time it's gonna take to print these different
items or objects that we get requests for too.
So we would have to have multiple printers.
Mm-hmm.
That's the definite couldn't just be 1 printer doing it.
Right. Right.
I I think the where we're at right now is more just providing
them the the files and the schools or whatnot print from
their own personal printer.
So they they take the time that they want to take to print it.
Yeah.
It's not us so much printing and then sending, it's more them us
providing the the resource for the files, the resource for the
the actual model and they print as a print at their will.
Oh, OK, I'm sorry.
Yeah.
I with a different direction with that.
OK.
Thank you.
Eric for clarifying that.
And and that's why it's too because you know there there are
a number of calibration concerns and you know troubleshooting and
you know if you could push that off on to somebody else that's
that's wise.
Yeah, ultimately the spawn from high schools and other other
educational institutions that are getting these printers, but
have no idea how to use them or where to get the resources to be
able to do this for on our side, we were more as far as like when
you know when we learned we could get you involved was more
to kind of help us along with the process.
So we can give some best practices if you will, to the
institutions as we get them the different models.
This is how you do it.
This is how you go by doing it.
This is the best case scenario.
It lasts as long as if you do X.
Yeah.
That kind of stuff.
So not as much as doing it as more of us, just kind of guiding
them and helping them learn, at least in the version 102030.
Right, right.
So I guess the the last question here that Jonathan had was what
file formats best?
Umm STL is the universal language of 3D printers.
It's actually a a file format that was developed 43D printers.
It's a stereo lithography format is what the STL stands for and
basically what it does is it'll take a 3D CAD model and
basically turn it into a A a Poly figure.
So a whole bunch of little polygons.
Triangles.
So it'll take a round smooth surface and and basically put
points along that curve which is a lot easier for a post
processor.
And I'll talk a little bit about post processing to translate.
So STL is kind of the universal language of 3D printing,
especially in the FDM and SLA worlds.
Sometimes when you get into the bigger SLS, the laser centering
printers, there may be versions of, you know, DXF, which is
primarily A2D format.
But even then, STLS pretty universally accepted as as at
least the foundation.
There may be variations based on printers, you know, some
proprietary deviations, but STL is is kind of the the PDF of the
3D printing world.
Yeah, Eric.
So the one that we've been looking at up to this point was
OJ and dot OBJ.
Yep, Yep.
Is that going to work with these printers as well?
That was seemed like the software that we had to take the
It should.
to render the images on our side really centered around OJ.
Right.
Yeah.
And you so it it will.
And that's where I was saying post processing is really where
the the magic happens.
But yeah, OJ files.
They they do work as well.
Umm, so I guess we'll talk a little bit about post processing
real quick.
So post processing is taking your 3D object and then slicing
it into a format that the printer can understand.
So basically, you know, think about as a sphere.
It doesn't print it as a whole piece and you're printing it
layer at a time and So what the the Post processor does is it'll
take your object.
Uh, and it'll slice it into however many layers is
necessary, really, but hundreds, if not thousands of slices.
And then it makes a path of each of those layers and so.
Using that path then it converts that path at each height into
what's called G code, which is the universal language of CNC
machines.
So CNC lathe, CNC mills, 3D printers, basically any computer
controlled machining apparatus runs off a G code.
Again, they're they're.
You know, there's some variations here and there are
some proprietary stuff, but G code is is the the the primary
language and I I put an example down here on the screen just to
get so you can kind of you know visually understand what's going
on.
Uh, so if you look at that G code sample, you typically start
off so the the items in red are what's considered the actual G
code.
So that's the command that's telling the computer to do
something.
MC codes are usually set up umm G codes are typically motion.
So like if you look at the the line that says G1 umm, you see
XY and Z coordinates.
So if you think about, you know, 3D space, you're telling that
machine go to X10 Y, -, 3 and then Z is your vertical axis, so
up .5 and so that's how you communicate to the machine what
you're trying to make.
So if you think about your back to your sphere and say we're
going 3D printer sphere, you take that shape, slice it into a
bunch of bunch of slices.
So now each slice is a 2D plane, so you're just telling it to
move on an X XY plane.
Where to move the nozzle to deposit your material?
Do that thousands of times over.
You know the the the Z axis and you end up with a part.
You know, if you think about traditional machining, so
traditional machining, you're doing the same thing, but you're
starting with a block and working your way in, whereas
this you're working from nothing and working your way out.
So that's really the biggest difference, but it's all the
same language.
You know the machine's gonna interpret it the same.
It's just depending on whether you're removing material and a
traditional machining process, or you're adding material and in
a 3D printing process.
Uh, so I'll go through a little bit here in a in a second.
But you know if if you're looking at how to how to create
an end product, you know you start with your idea and you
basically have two options.
You can create that object in CAD, you know draw it from the
ground up where you were going to create that 3D object file.
Umm.
Or there are and I.
I think this kind of aligns with what you guys are looking at do
and there are a bunch of repositories out there where
people have already gathered or shared.
You know, most of these are open source, public public databases,
3D files that they've already created, that they've already
shared that you know they, you know, aggregate databases of
stuff.
And so, taking whether you're designing apart from scratch or,
you know, using a shared design, you create an STL file, put that
into your post processor.
The post processor is what's gonna output the G code that the
machine can then create.
So, you know, start to finish.
That's the.
That's the the process here.
Does that align with what you guys are working towards?
I guess is the next question.
Yeah.
So we were looking at a couple different softwares to actually
create.
So to take images and then to build them into a 3D model.
Umm.
Yep.
The nice thing that turbo squid does for us is whenever you buy
a blueprint off of them so they provide you with a PDF to view
it in 2D, they give you a DFX to kind of get the 3D model in a
Intention.
CAD file and then they give you the STL as well.
Yep.
So you can actually program the machine and uh, print your
blueprint so you obtain all three files whenever you.
Very cool.
Whenever you purchase from them.
OK.
Where we want to go down a couple versions down is we are
looking for a better software to take and be able to upload
images and build a 3D model.
Mm-hmm.
We tried one.
We were having some issues generating the 3D models and not
clean as I had spoke down the road.
We'll actually so Invidia is actually creating dream, which I
don't know if you've heard for heard, I've seen about it yet,
OK.
but I'm actually on a beta waiting list already to try it
out.
So you can actually take 25 images and stack compile it,
kind of like you were talking about it and they they just
Yep.
stack them and layer them.
And as you take pictures around the project, the the product and
it literally builds it just like a 3D printer would and creates
its own SDL file.
So that's cool.
Yeah, I've.
I've seen I've I've never tried it.
I haven't had the need to try to, you know, reverse engineer
something using a, you know, photos.
I there there are a whole bunch of turn off the shelf scanners
now.
There's a bunch you can print yourself, you know?
Print The little scanner.
You know the table?
That'll turntable that'll that'll incrementally turn it,
and then you can take pictures.
I've never tried it that that.
Unfortunately, it hasn't been in need of anything.
I've had to make yet, but I'm very intrigued by how that works
and how it you know how well it translates.
Uh you know from some of the stuff I've read online.
It's it's surprisingly and almost scarily accurate of what
you can what you can recreate with that.
Yeah.
I also have been playing around with Autodesk.
Uh, and cause you can create a 3DS file from a photo and it's
Mm-hmm.
actually I got the play around with it a little bit and it it's
kind of crazy because the photo shows up almost like a poll,
like the SLA machine.
And then you start pulling it and it shapes itself into a 3D
You know.
model, which is pretty insane.
That is.
So yeah, but I've been playing around with it too, and it it's
pretty cool.
And then if as it as you pull it up and it has gaps and then
it'll have you go back and take an image of where that gap is.
Mm-hmm. Umm.
And then it'll auto render and fill in that gap, which is.
It's really cool.
That is awesome actually, especially that it it can repair
and you know I've done.
I've done a significant amount of CAD work where you know
you've had to patch a that design, interview, transfer file
formats, and it is a very tedious process and the fact you
can just do that with taking a photo and telling it where to
patch is unreal.
Yeah, it's it's a pretty insane technology.
Like I said, I just started playing with it because I just
got access to a free trial of it, but it's pretty insane when
it can do.
Yeah, that's cool.
I'm gonna.
I'm definitely gonna start looking into that cause now I'm
now.
I'm intrigued and that's what happens is I.
That's why I have 100 different hobbies.
Yeah, I I tested some apps same say if take image to convert to
So.
3D model.
Yeah, a little bit difficult if you have a phone, a camera with
the decoder, LIDR the function with some deep detection of
those thing.
Yeah.
Then you you can.
You can take a video.
For the for the object and then convert to the three D 3D file.
Yeah.
But, but yeah, it's a need iPhone pro version, not not
today, not to the without pro.
Yeah.
The couple it's probably been a couple months ago now.
I saw somebody who did that with a pothole in their town that
hadn't been filled.
They they took a photo of it or, you know, series of photos.
I believe it was one of the iPhones with the the three
cameras and got the negative image of what the whole was 3D
printed a patch for and they just went out and put this thing
in the pothole as a, you know, I think it was more of a act of
defiance to the city for not fixing it.
But it's just amazing.
You know what?
What some of that technology allows you to do.
Well, you were saying about a side business for 3D printers.
I actually have a friend that has a side business with 3D
printers.
Umm OK.
He bought 25 of them and he rents them for $10.00 an hour,
and he just consistently and and it's a pretty it's, I mean it's
OK. Yep.
turned out to be pretty lucrative.
He's only about six months in, but they they're all they're all
now all paid off and he's he's really starting to roll in
revenue.
So like $1000 a day or something like that.
I I will.
I can attest to the fact that owning a 3D printer is kind of
like owning a pickup truck that you know once all your friends
find out you have one, everyone's you know, asking you
to use it.
So I I can't attest to the fact that I I can see how that would
take off fairly quickly, but the the rental model is interesting
too.
There was a a lab on the West Lafayette campus that I'd worked
in adjacent to, and they went through a couple different
pricing models of, you know, do you do you go by weight, do you,
you know, the material weight that is consumed.
You go by an hourly rate to go by.
You know, they're they went.
I I couldn't tell you all the business models they tried and I
don't really know what they settled on.
I I had since moved on.
Umm, but this was shoot.
This was probably six or seven years ago now, so everything was
still in its infancy, but you know, it was kind of interesting
to see their iterations of trying to figure out a pricing
model of, you know, what worked best, what was reflected the the
time and the material costs.
You know what?
What reflected that?
All best.
But yeah, that's interesting.
But he still needed a an army of printers, huh?
Yeah.
Yeah, like I said, he I think he's up to 25 now.
Yeah.
Well, and you know, and then another consideration which I
don't think it was on that list, but you know depending on what
material you're printing, you know ventilation is key.
So the PLA that I typically use as is not to you know, it
doesn't give off any weird smells or vapors.
Maybe a little smell.
You can tell it's running but like ABS plastic is another
common material and you really need to be in a ventilated space
cause it it you can definitely tell when that thing's running
and if you had 25 of those in a small room, I think I would, you
know, definitely be looking for some enhanced the you know,
ventilation practices.
Yeah, he actually he actually converted his.
Uh sand blaster.
Shop into into the space.
OK. Interesting.
So one of the thing I you know and I don't know what kind of
time, time, schedule we're on, maybe Jonathan you can speak to
that.
Yep, we got a we have 8 minutes.
OK, so real quick I you know just so everybody you know in
case anybody's not seeing this, I kind of wanted to share what
the software, the the post processing side looks like.
I think a lot of people are familiar with CAD.
They're familiar with kind of the 3D model space, but post
processors are a little more.
Maybe new to people I don't know, so I I just wanted to show
everybody kind of what what capabilities are in a post
processor.
I I I personally like the utility maker Cura software.
Uh, it seems to be the most kind of universal and honestly, most
plug and play.
I I think if any if anybody in this room went out and bought a
3D printer.
Umm bought the software I I think you could be printing
something within, you know, probably an hour.
It's it's that intuitive, but you know, depending on so you
you can enter what kind of printer you have.
They've got a huge database of of what printers are available,
so it'll actually kind of auto tune the settings to that type
of printer based on either what other people have found works or
what they've found work.
But I was talking earlier about what features are good or bad
and what you know internal cavities and you know, wait
savings and things like that.
And so all of that is tunable within this post processing
software.
So if you think back to your sphere, if you draw it in CAD,
it's a solid object.
I mean it's a digital object, but there's nothing special to
it.
But within this post processor I can tell it now.
OK, infill density.
That's how much stuff I went inside.
Do you want nothing inside?
Do you want it solid?
Do you want it 20% full?
You can actually change the infill pattern, so if you have
an object that you're looking to gain some physical properties
from, whether it be compression or tensile strength or torsional
strength, you can actually change the infill based on if
you need special properties in there, you know you can number
of walls.
So like if if you're not too concerned about a prototype,
let's just say you're trying to make something real quick.
You might only do one or two walls as you're line count,
which is your shell outside of the infill.
So like, if we're making our sphere, it would do 2 layers
around each each.
Let's say made a slice.
It's a circle.
You're going to do 2 layers around that, and then everything
on the inside is going to be filled in to whatever infill
density you want.
So you know it's it's very tunable from that you know it's
support.
So another thing to you know, that's very uh, you need to be
aware about with 3D printing is how your item is supported.
So let me turn this little pretty pie here.
Umm.
Kind of visualize what I'm talking about.
So let's say we're printing this.
Now you got to think you're making something out of thin
air.
So on the bottom here, where it's red, that's hanging out
over nothing.
And so if you think once you're you're nozzle is up in the air
it there's nothing to support what it's printing onto.
So you have to be very aware of overhangs and you know
orientation of your part because if it is oriented wrong you can
get an instance where it will just start, basically extruding
into thin air because the machine is ultimately dumb.
It only does what you tell it to do.
And so depending on what type of object you're printing, you need
to be aware of features overhangs.
You know, internal cavities.
If there's an overhang in an internal cavity, you also need
to be aware of that, because again, the machines only as
smart as whatever you tell it, and if there's nothing in there,
it's just gonna start putting material on onto nothing.
It needs a platform to build off of, but these post processes
they allow you to add support so I can tell it to put support
everywhere.
So it'll build basically a structure around my part to
support it.
You can tell it to do just at a certain angle, so if I change
this angle, it's basically saying anything under.
So I just did 70 degrees and you'll actually see this red
area change.
Let me do it like I don't know, 13 degrees.
So you see, now it goes all the way up the sides.
Anything steeper than 15 degrees is going to get support, and so
you can you can kind of custom tune that.
Uh, you can.
You can mess with the temperatures because again, this
is just going to output a G code file that the machine is going
to interpret.
So you can tell it to change temperature.
You can tell it to change material.
You can tell it this is kind of where that magic happens, and
you're actually creating the file that will create your part.
Umm, there are countless tuning abilities to these printers, so
the stuff that is check marked is the stuff that's currently
showing, but you know you kind of see from the list here.
There are countless things that you can actually tune and and
change and in mess within the G code, so it it's a it could be a
very deep rabbit hole, but it's also user friendly enough that
if you just plug this in, use the standard settings and hit
print, you'd probably get something usable on the other
side.
But you know, just to kind of wrap up my side of things,
that's you know the the post processing is.
Probably the most important piece, even if it's canned, but
I I just kind of wanted to show that and demo that real quick
just so you guys kind of see what that world looked like.
Fantastic.
Do you, uh, is there any resources or free areas that you
can kind of pick up some tips and tricks on post processing?
YouTube is probably the best you know.
OK.
I mean, there's there are so many tutorials out there, all of
this software is free.
So Kira is a free software.
OK.
If you you know, you could open it up and just mess with stuff.
Wait.
So if you look here down at the bottom, you can hit.
So I'm gonna slice this room so this little tiny Purdue P would
take an hour to print.
Umm, obviously you can tune that with infill and you know more
infill obviously means more print time, but you can you can
kind of play with it and just kind of see how it changes.
You could put your own parts in here. You know?
It's free to play with.
You don't have to register anything and just cut you.
OK.
I mean, you won't be able to see how the settings affect stuff,
but you could at least see what's tunable and so that you
know, just poking around in itself has some value.
Antastic.
Well, I thank you so much, Doctor Stratton for your time
and all of the knowledge that you are able to.
Uh, share with us?
Umm I I mean if we would love to continue keeping you updated and
giving you progress and and and make sure that you can see the
site absolutely when it's done I I will be in contact with email
as I have your information.
OK.
So I will definitely keep you updated along the way.
Thank you so much for your expertise and your time that you
have given to us.
We we've learned so much and it's awesome to talk to somebody
Yeah.
that is, uh, you know, plays with it and has a ton of.
Experience in the area so.
Well, I hope it was helpful.
I know I I kind of threw a lot out there and rambled, but if
anybody has any questions, don't hesitate to reach out because
you know I'm I'm happy to talk about this stuff obviously.
So yeah, I appreciate you having me on to talk too.
Yeah, absolutely.
Even if it also if you would be if you would like, if you would
share your presentation with me via email, I'll even post it as
Yeah.
a reference in in our wiki and make sure to I'll make sure you
get the credits, but we have a group of new interns coming into
the project.
So, uh, getting them, getting to see the information will be
fantastic.
Yep, just send it to you.
Alright, thank you so much.
Awesome.
Sounds good.
Thanks everybody.
Alright, thank you all.
Thank you, Jim. Bye.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yep.
Thank you.
Thank you. Bye.
Thank you.
Bye.