Where There Has Been No Learning, There Has Been No Teaching

I went to college at a very small school, with just 35 in our graduating class.  But, in that tiny educational institution were some outstanding educators that cared deeply.  One of them was Dr. Wesley Willis.  The title of this blog entry is a quote from him that came to be the foundation stone of my own educational theory.  And, that is true even when the teacher and student are one and the same person.

Before I can teach the at-risk young people we are dedicated to serve, I must first teach myself.  And, sometimes I am a VERY slow student.  But, the teacher me cannot use that as an excuse to give up.  If teaching the student me is to be successful, the teacher me has to continue to try from every possible direction.

And, I am happy to say we have made progress.  We have our first successful ceramic print from the Form 2 SLA printer!

It's not an impressive part, by any means.  But, it represents some learning and that is a huge step.

For one thing, it tells us that we are correct in our feeling that even though we might choose to print larger ceramic objects using a powder/binder printer, if we can solve our issue with SLA and come up with a more reliable workflow that the end result will be stunningly detailed.  It's not an issue of "EITHER/OR" it's "AND".

We have to remember that the Form 2 was designed well before anyone decided to try ceramic materials to use with it.  It was never designed specifically for printing ceramics.  In fact, Formlabs is VERY clear that it is an experimental material that is not for the faint of heart to try to use.  But, ceramics has such unique character and value that it is worth the effort for those desiring those characteristics.

Where we are now

We have learned enough to print a single small item.  We have learned that when we do have a failure, it is imperative that we search through the dense, opaque material for every vestige of failed print that might be the cause of the next print to fail.  And, we have also learned that being successful with printing a single item does not mean you will be successful with printing multiple items in a single print job.  This is the result of getting greedy!

Not good.  This is a capture from the camera we use to monitor prints when we are not there.  Clearly one or more parts fell off.  But, until I get into the office, we don't know more than that.

When we analyze the failures, it appears that the suction that is inherent in all SLA printers that print upside down is a major part of the problem.  The new Form 3 series of printers is designed to reduce that effect so that may be a better option. We just don't know.

Another option is the as yet-to-be-released Bison 1000 from Tethon3D that is described as having been designed specifically FOR CERAMIC and METAL printing.  Again, without having seen one, it's still a mystery as to how reliable one can get when printing ceramics in SLA or DLP.

But, the quest goes on with the realization that I have a LOT of teaching to do in spite of the fact that my only student studying ceramic printing with an SLA (me) at the moment is having a rough time grasping the fundamentals.  We'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: 

Formlabs has not certified their ceramic material for the Form 3 as yet and the plans for doing so are unclear.  This means that it remains an experimental material for the foreseeable future.  Even so, until another option is available, we will continue to pursue our own experiments in hopes of raising the percentages of successful prints to an acceptable, if not perfect, level.  Ceramics, for us, is worth the effort.