Posted on

Renishaw Using Metal 3D Printing to Create Custom Styli for Manufacturers

3D printed custom hollow titanium stylus, for REVO 5-axis inspection system

This past summer, Renishaw introduced a 3D printed version, made with its metal laser powder bed fusion technology, to its range of available styli. Now in the new year, the company is launching even more 3D printed styli, so its customers will be able to fabricate complex parts calls for more customized solutions.

Renishaw provides its customers with in-house styli solutions that are both complex and turnkey, and that have the capability of accessing part features that other styli can’t reach. By using flexible metal 3D printing technology to fabricate these custom components, project lead time can decrease. In addition, metal 3D printing can also be used to create parts and components with complex shapes and structures that could not be manufactured using more conventional methods, such as strong yet lightweight lattice structures and complicated geometry with internal structures.

Because Renishaw’s metal 3D printing can achieve such design flexibility, it can ensure repeatable metrology for its customers, and can create and customize 3D printed styli for all sorts of applications.

Customers can add female titanium threads (M2/M3/M4/M5) to fit any additional stylus from Renishaw, and gain more flexibility when it comes to accessing the critical features of a component by adding a curved, 3D printed stylus to its REVO 5-axis inspection system. Renishaw can also add on a larger tip to its styli with 3D printing, which is necessary for components with larger features.

Because it’s using 3D printing to fabricate its styli, Renishaw can achieve:

  • complex geometry – styli can meet access requirements for complicated parts
  • custom design – Renishaw designs and produces all its 3D printed styli in-house
  • design freedom – designing parts for end use, and not for inspection
  • highly accurate metrology – Renishaw uses metal 3D printing to achieve strong, lightweight structures with repeatable metrology results

Because it 3D prints all of its styli in-house, the company can ensure high quality and short lead times, so production won’t be held up. Additionally, 3D printed styli provide access to features that are unable to be reached with more traditional versions, meaning that parts won’t need to be designed for metrology access any longer.

Renishaw writes, “Disc styli are a solution for measuring large features on components, but designing them has been problematic in the past. The discs could only be manufactured in ceramic, which limited the sizes it was possible to produce. A custom AM stylus can provide a stiff and lightweight structure that can be manufactured to a larger diameter than a ceramic styli. A 100 mm titanium disc, with ground outer surface, designed and made by Renishaw, weighs just 13 grams, which means it can be fitted to the REVO multi-sensor platform. it provides a 70% reduction in weight compared with a conventional disc stylus of this size.”

3D printed 100 mm disc stylus

More measurement options are opened up with 3D printed custom styli for metrology applications, as the technology, as previously mentioned, can produce more complex shapes that allow inspection of features that were not accessible before now. Renishaw’s 3D printed styli are even more flexible, as they’re designed to “heighten the capability of the REVO® 5-axis CMM multi-sensor platform.”

By combining the flexibility of 3D printing and the REVO multi-sensor platform, manufacturers can enjoy greater part design freedom. To take advantage of all these benefits, check out Renishaw’s comprehensive custom design services for metrology.

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

[Source: Renishaw]

Posted on

Maker Uses 3D Printing to Turn Cell Phone into Modern Etch-a-Sketch

If you haven’t gotten so frustrated with your terrible attempt at an Etch-a-Sketch drawing that you’ve had to resist the overwhelming urge to fling the toy across the room, have you even really lived at all? Invented in the 1950s by Andre Cassagnes, the popular red-framed drawing device uses an internal stylus, directed by those round white knobs on the bottom two corners, to move gray aluminum powder around into artwork, or at least something like it.

[Image: Potent Printables via Twitter]

Like so many other classic items, the Etch-a-Sketch has received new life before through the use of 3D printing. Recently, maker Ali of the Potent Printables YouTube Channel turned to the technology to update the Etch-a-Sketch toy once again.

“Thought you might be interested in something I designed- it is a 3D printed device that lets you temporarily turn your cell phone into an Etch-A-Sketch,” Ali told 3DPrint.com.

Ali recently began a new YouTube series called “Old and New,” which looks at older mechanisms and designs. Then, Ali will use 3D printing to recreate or re-imagine the item. The Etch-a-Sketch is the subject of his first episode, and Ali starts off by paying his respects to the original toy.

“Erasing the etched image is done by shaking the Etch-a-Sketch,” he explains in the video. “Remember those beads that were mixed in with the aluminum powder? Those help to smooth out and redistribute the powder across the glass, which resets the drawing area.”

Moving on to his more modern version, Ali explains that he designed the Cell Phone Etch-a-Sketch in SOLIDWORKS, and then printed it out of PLA on his LulzBot TAZ 6 3D printer. He included the STL files on both Thingiverse and MyMiniFactory for those who want to try making their own version. In addition, he’s put together a kit of all the necessary supplies for the project beyond the 3D printed parts, which is available for purchase on his Etsy shop. These supplies include:

  • conductive stylus
  • jumper wire
  • silicone sheet
  • pen springs
  • JB Kwik 2-part epoxy
  • wrist strap

“Please note that I found differences in touchscreens sensing the stylus, especially between Android and Apple cell phones,” Ali wrote on MyMiniFactory. “Apple devices require the stylus to be electrically tied back to the user.

“However, I haven’t done extensive testing on different Android phone manufacturers, so if you want to guarantee this will work, also buy the wrist strap.”

Some of the benefits Ali noted from using a cell phone as an Etch-a-Sketch include adjusting the pointer size, being able to lift the stylus off of the screen to move it somewhere else, erasing selected areas, drawing in different colors, and the ability to save your sketches, which “makes making mistakes less deadly.”

Ali explains in the video how the device actually works, noting that the actual cell phone is held on a platform which moves in one direction, thanks to a rack and pinion mechanism.

“A conductive stylus is mounted in another rack and pinion mechanism, which moves in the other direction,” he explained. “This stylus is spring-loaded and can move up and down to accommodate the different heights of various phone types.”

According to Ali, his project is getting a pretty good response – the short video of the cell phone Etch-a-Sketch he posted to Twitter has already received over 8,500 views. On Reddit, the video has been viewed 32.3k times and has received 2,400 upvotes.

“There are some downsides to this current design, which are mostly due to making it as 3D printer-friendly as possible,” Ali noted in the video. “The controls are not as accurate or smooth as a classic version, and the stylus tip partially obscures the drawing area.”

In addition, a few people on Reddit took issue with the various axes on the device. User hollaverga said they’d need to modify the design to add an idler gear to invert the X axis, while crua9 suggested a third knob to provide the device with a Z axis. Super_Dork_42 said the entire thing could be entirely 3D printed if one used a conductive filament, which Ali was all for, saying that it was “a really good suggestion.” This is what’s so great about the maker community – no one’s feelings are getting hurt if another person suggests something to make a design even better than the original version.

“If you are planning on printing and building one of these, please read the assembly guide that I have included,” Ali cautioned.

“If you do print one, please share pictures with me on social media.”

Will you try and make your own Cell Phone Etch-a-Sketch? Let us know! Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the comments below.