Design and Construction of a Low-Cost-High-Accessibility 3D Printing Machine for Producing Plastic Components

Abstract

The additive manufacturing process creates objects directly by stacking layers of material on each other until the required product is obtained. The application of additive manufacturing technology for teaching and research purposes is still limited and unpopular in developing countries, due to costs and lack of accessibility. In this study, an extruding-based 3D printing additive manufacturing technology was employed to design and construct a low-cost-high-accessibility 3D printing machine to manufacture plastic objects. The machine was designed using SolidWorks 2020 version with a 10 × 10 × 10 cm3 build volume. The fabrication was carried out using locally available materials, such as PVC pipes for the frame, plywood for the bed, and Zinc Oxide plaster for the bed surface. Repetier firmware was the operating environment for devices running on the computer operating system. Cura was used as the slicing software. The fabricated machine was tested, and the printer produced 3D components with desired structural dimensions. The fabricated 3D printer was used to manufacture some plastic objects using PLA filament. The recommended distance between the nozzle tip and the bed is 0.1 mm. The constructed 3D printer is affordable and accessible, especially in developing nations where 3D printing applications are limited and unpopular.