SLAS2020 Short Courses

3D Printing for Scientific Applications (Live Demo)

The availability of low-cost, high-quality 3D printers has led to the rapid adoption of 3D printing by practitioners in numerous fields, including the life sciences. Printing technologies and materials have expanded beyond those involving polymers and metals to include paper, cells and other biological materials, enabling many new and unexpected applications.

In this course we will cover the process of creating 3D-printed objects, with an emphasis on applications in the life sciences using Fusion Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers. We will survey the state-of-the-art of 3D printing and then discuss the practical considerations of creating your own objects, from initial conception to physical reality. We'll demonstrate several techniques for generating 3D models, discuss how to optimize models for printing, and compare printing techniques and material options. Attendees will generate 3D models using publicly available software on their personal computer. Live demonstrations using 3D printers as well as assembling a small 3D printer will be illustrated during the course.

Who Should Attend?

Scientists and technologists...

• Interested in understanding the process of modeling and creating 3D-printed objects
• Who would benefit from generating custom objects to streamline their bench work and augment laboratory automation hardware
• Who want to rapidly create prototypes, going from idea-to-object in under one day

How You Will Benefit From This Course

• Learn the techniques required to model 3D objects using software packages or created from volumetric datasets (bring your laptop!)
• Learn about the variety of printing technologies and materials available and how they best apply to a variety of applications
• Learn design and printing best practices as well as lessons learned from printing experts
• Watch a live demonstration of a 3D printer create objects modeled in class
• See a 3D-printing kit assembled live

Course Topics

• 3D printing technologies and materials
• Model and mesh generation with students creating designs using freeware on their laptops
• Material and printer selection to best fit an application
• 3D printing applications for engineering solutions and laboratory automation fixes
• Horror stories, failures, and lessons learned — what can go wrong in 3D printing