3D Printing Test

[Zabco]

Yes, you are correct, a webbed structural element will be stiffer than a flat piece of the same shape. I used the flat material because it was a relatively simple matter to design and slice the print to create a pocket the size of the metal insert, pause the print, insert the metal, and then have the print resume encasing the metal part in the printed plastic as tightly as possible. You can't do that with a webbed part. If you wanted to fully embed the part you could create a partial pocket, pause the print, insert the webbed metal but some of the web will be sticking up above the surface of the print that the extruder nozzle will collide with. The only way I can see to avoid this would be to first print a pocket deep enough that the webbed metal part would fit entirely into before resuming the printing but then you would end up with a large air gap, at least on top of the metal between the webs as there would be no way to fill that gap in with the printer. How much strength would be lost because of that gap I don't know but it would not be as strong as if the plastic completely filled the void. Other alternative would be to print the part in two parts with a matching void in both that the webbed metal part could fit snugly into and then glue the parts together. More work than I wanted to try just as an experiment. If you do decide to try this please let us know what you did and how it worked. I'm sure others would like to know as well.