Printed tubes with Inkspire?

Zortrax Inkspire General Discussion
1

Hello,

I am looking for a solution to cover 450mm long x 40mm diameter aluminum tubes with 3D printed tubes. There would be 3 sections of 150mm placed end to end on the 450mm aluminum tube.

These printed tubes should be tight (they can not rotate around the aluminum tube) and should be as smooth as possible. They should be used to press photos on adhesive boards. (see video object here : Mezelio : laminateurs)

Currently these aluminum tubes are painted with epoxy paint for aluminum profiles. The result is irreproachable and very solid but the implementation is not practical, too complicated and too long (need to polish the tubes before painting, going back and forth to suppliers, need to paint too large quantities …)

I have already printed tubes with ABS and HIPS with different settings (spiralize in particular). The results are not very good. It’s too squeezing or not tight enough, the finish is not smooth enough, too fragile …

I would like to test another solution and use Inkspire with its flexible resin.
There would also be 3 sections of 150mm printed at the same time.
I hope to print 3 flexible resin tubes of the same diameter as the aluminum tube: 40mm aluminum tube → 42mm x 40mm flexible tube (ext x int)

Do you think it’s possible?
Zortrax team, what do you think about this project?

Thank you for your answers, suggestions and comments because I have no experience with this gene printers!

2

Hi, @axel.
That would be possible and with Inkspire’s precision the models should fit the aluminium tubes.
Zortrax Resin FLEXIBLE is recommended for printing casings and models that are required to have smooth surface, so it can be a good choice.
You can send me .stl or .zcode files, I’ll print a sample for you.

3

Hello Marta,

Thank you for your response and your proposal.

I send you 2 STL files :

  • file 1: 1 tube of 150mm high x 52 x 50mm diameter
  • file 2: 1 tube of 150mm high x 42 x 40mm diameter

If they are not suitable, I can send you other STL files.

Zortrax offers to send an example with Basic resin or with Dental resin on its website. But these examples do not interest me because they do not correspond to my use in this case.
Do you think Zortrax would agree to send me one of these tubes as an example ?

But I am curious to see the result first.

cordially
Axel

TUBE ROND 150X42X40MM.stl (8.9 MB)
TUBE ROND 150X52X50MM.stl (7.2 MB)

4

Hi, Axel.
Thank you for the files. I will have them printed as soon as possible. I hope that Zortrax Resin FLEXIBLE will meet your expectations.
Of course, we will send you the printed tubes as samples :slight_smile: