Team 310:
3D Printing In-Situ Monitoring Device

3D printing has become a reliable tool for printing custom parts. However, errors within the printing process can misshape and damage the final product. These errors can be warps, loose strands, thin parts, or weak filaments within the printing process. Or issues within the STL file, which holds the 3D image. This project aims to create a reliable scan of a 3D-printed object and print the results. Overall, its purpose is for users to compare the scan to the original to check for mistakes in the printing process. The project is more focused on 3D image processing than finding printing errors. 

 

Our goal was to create a simple and reliable process that allows users to scan three-dimensional objects and have a 3D printer print them. We have built a 360-degree turntable, which is a circular platform that rotates around a center point, to be used to place objects on to scan. The applications used in this project are Polycam and AutoCAD. Polycam is an app that combines multiple photos to create the scan's 3D file. AutoCAD allows users to interact with STL files and connect to the 3D printer. This turntable rotates accordingly, and pictures are taken with an iPhone at specific time intervals to create a scan of the object on the Polycam app. This scan is then sent to a computer, where it is viewed in AutoCAD, and then it sends it to the MakerBot printer, which 3D prints the scan.

 

Our main work was creating the 360-degree turntable along with programming a microcomputer that makes the turntable rotate at our desired time intervals. We wrote the code necessary for it in the Verilog programming language. The central focus of our project is to create the simplest process possible so that it's accessible to all users.