How 3D Printing Works ?

It all starts with a concept. Make notes, sketch drawings and doodle stuff. Get down to a virtual blueprint, set parameters and geometry. Let your thoughts guide you to create something amazing. It’s the beauty of 3D Printing, that you can shape anything you want, something that has never existed, something cool, beautiful and useful. 3D Printing gives you the ability to personalize products according to ones needs and requirements. Complexity of products knows no bounds in the World of 3D Printing. So go crazy with imagination and surprise yourself and others around you.

Produce a 3D model using Computer Aided Design (CAD) software or one can even scan an already existing object with a 3D Scanner. Be careful to model within the size limitations of your 3D Printer. If you neither have designing skills, nor a scanner, you could also download printable files from online portals like cults3d, myminifactory, thingiverse, grabcad etc. Convert the file to ‘STL’ format. ‘STL’, which is an acronym for Standard Tessellation Language, is a file format developed to be used by stereolithography apparatus (SLA) machines.

Transfer the STL file to the 3D printing software (you can use open source software like Cura). This software slices the virtual model into hundreds and thousands of horizontal layers. Scale the object to your needs and enter details like layer thickness, speed and material. When this sliced file is uploaded to the ShaperJet 3D Printer, the printer shapes the object layer by layer. The 3D Printer reads every slice and proceeds to create the object, blending each layer together and with minimum signs of layering visible, resulting in one three dimensional object. Before printing, setup the printer. Check for filament and let the hotend (extrusion nozzle) temperature reach the desired value.