Combinacioón de la impresión 3D personal y técnica de post-proceso: curvando piezas con calor

Abstract

Personal 3D printers have come a long way since the Rep-Rap project started in 2004, and their features have continuously improved. It is even possible for users to improve their own machines as they are based on an open-source infrastructure. Amateurs and professionals have also created large communities in which they can share their ideas and experiments, including post-processing, on a daily basis. This article will focus on a type of post-processing that has not been explored in detail: using heat to produce curved pieces, thus obtaining a product with a better finish. Experiments will be conducted to determine how reliably curves of different complexities can be obtained, and also to ascertain whether the shrinkage of a piece subjected to heat can be predicted, so that any variation can be corrected at the design stage.