3D Printed Exemplars: Bringing Up Standards

We have detailed in a series of recent prints how we have been producing 'exemplars' for our 2025 School Market Day.    We have been looking at making sure students reflect of their examples as presentation pieces.   

In some cases the students have tried to create prints that have details in them that are beyond the capability of the printers or specifically the removal of the rafting.   The print shown left had a motocross bike as its centre piece of the stand.   When the students removed the rafting the majority of the bike, due to the small details was also removed.  Rather than repeat the entire project the student challenge that has come out of the activity is for the students to remove the remaining aspects of the tyres (as shown in the photo) and then add something additional to the top of the iPhone stand that represents customer.

The total area for the print is 20mm by 100mm as the base.   The rest of the print meets the exemplar criteria and we are confident that by attaching it with a super glue type adhesive we can secure something to the top that will complete the design to ensure that it meets the 'exemplar' criteria.

The dimensions of the print as it stands is 100mm across, is 100mm long and is 90mm high.   Further additions to the print will increase the height.   The current print time for this design was three hours and it was very similar to the print that was designed and featured on this blog previously.

Another example is shown below - where again the base of the print has been successful the student had opted for a series of four flowers that were placed on the top of the design.   With careful removal of the rafting the flowers were unable to completely remain in place - one of the four remained intact.

Clearly when assessing the print once it had been finished the question would be if the print was dropped or had contact there would be a significant chance that the print would suffer damage.   The print currently measures 80mm across is 80mm long and is 80mm high.    The top of the design is 20mm wide and is 85mm long.

The student is going to use pliers to remove the final flower (shown left) and the use sandpaper to remove the remainder of the stalks.  With that removed the student is then going to create an original design which can be placed on the top of the design to complete the design.

While the spaces involved in both designs is not significant the students who are involved have the skill and the ability to create something that works in conjunction with the print that looks correct for the fit of the design.

This project is currently a work in progress and will be updated when it is completed.