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Topic: Flexible part design?

Has anyone had any luck with designing parts that would flex once printed?

If so, what thicknesses work for the part that bends? Does density or layer height matter?

Industrial Designer
Fresh Design Works (UK)
www.freshdesignworks.co.uk

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Re: Flexible part design?

I was designing rings earlier this week and had to do some testing on this. I didn't design the rings to come to a full circle but instead just a 3/4 circle that went around my finger. This made it much easier to fit on different areas of different fingers as it was able to flex a little bit. At first I was using 2 layers (a ring which was .95mm thick) but I found that if I bent the piece too far it wouldn't bend back. I then tried a 4 layer thick print (1.9mm) and found that it was too stiff or would break if I bent it too much. The best option for me was a 1.3mm thick piece (3 layers) as it was flexible enough to fit around my finger, but it was thick enough where it wanted to retain its original shape.

Tl;dr - anything between 1 and 3 layers thick will bend easily (.3mm settings). 1 is floppy and can bend so far that it wont retain original shape. 2 is not floppy but can still be bent to the point where it won't retain its shape. 3 works the best for me as it can bend yet it will come back to its original shape.