3D printer choices for battery case

[docw009]

Looking to build smaller custom cases, for smaller batteries., like 13S-2P. No need to go larger, as I can already buy the bigger cases for $40-60, I would expect to print the case in smaller sections and glue/screw them.

Does this make sense from material costs? How much will the filaments cost? What 3D printer would be a good choice, as far as a hobby printer. Other applications would be much smaller pieces for art projects. $500-700 for printer? You tell me.

 

[e-beach]

It has been some years since I was 3D printing but I used to have problems on prints that took over 6 hours. The heat from the hot end would build up on the spot where the filament went in and would soften and not feed into the hot end thereby ruining the print. I complained to Lulzbot because that is who made the Taz printer I was using and they said that hours-long prints were a problem. So I decided to do what a tinkerer does and put a small fan to blow on the upper end of the hot end and that solved the problem. I showed my setup to the Lulzbot people and told them I had full confidence in 12 hour prints if need be. Well, it wasn't long before Lulzbot 3D printers has a fan set-up added to the top end of their hotends so I guess they liked what I showed them.

In any case just know that even if you pay good money for a printer it will take some time to get the results you want. You will have to play around a lot to get thing just right.

PLA filament is inexpensive enough to print a box and a top for less then $40.00 USA, but you will have to do a lot of them to make up for the cost of the 3D printer. So if you are looking for an economic pay back you will need to start thinking about what else you can produce with your printer.

Then there is the software you will need to design on. I used to use Solidworks because I had access to a version of it. It worked great. However it is expensive. There are cheaper and even free CAD software systems that I never used so I can not comment on them.

As a side bar, I used to use wide painters tape on the glass table as a base for my prints. I would then give it a thin coat from a glue stick and the prints held down very well for hours why they printed.

You will need to experiment to see what works best for you.

 

[scianiac]

My process for making printed battery boxes so far has worked great but does require some special hardware. I print them in ABS which is more durable and cheaper than PLA or PETG and can be solvent welded which makes the final product very strong. Interestingly from my tests you can also solvent weld battery wrappings to the ABS so I've been thinking about doing a hybrid pack where the batteries are glued into printed spacers, so not just glued but more stable and flexible design than spacers. The last battery was just the box for cells already in holders and it was two boxes (mounted either side of the bike) each holding a 20S4P pack.

You can buy ABS for $10/kg if you look around and I have printers that are setup to print it so I print most things from it. And unlike the old days even super cheap filament prints very good, not quite as good as the premium stuff which I use too but pretty close. The only issue here is you need a printer with a heated chamber to print anything large from ABS, all of my printers I've modded with insulated heated chambers and run them at 70C. Printers with heated chambers are starting to become more widely available now and I think if I was to buy one now it would be a QIDI Plus 4 and honestly I'm kinda thinking of buying one of those but waiting to see what else is around and see when the release their multi-material system.

Also a heated chamber allows for printing of Nylons which is the other real killer material. At this point I print almost all ABS and Nylons both for personal projects and professionally. With a few very niche exceptions I've found PLA and PETG to be pretty worthless for anything mechanical, they are both very strong in pure tension but are brittle, have terrible crack propagation properties, a pain to work with after printed, can't be glued well, poor temperature resistance, etc.

Ah an I guess heated chamber and high temp nozzles also allows for printing polycarbonate but that's often not worth the effort. My bikes have a ton of printed parts on them almost all ABS with a new Nylons and the only PC parts are the knuckle guard bar ends because I needed just the right material with insane impact perforamnce (for when I clip a tree with them) and high stiffness (so they don't just bend and my knuckles meet the tree anyway). Have to get the good PC though, the real Lexan stuff has stupid impact perforamnce.

 

[offGridDownUnder]

Have to get the good PC though, the real Lexan stuff has stupid impact perforamnce.

Modern slang has re-purposed 'stupid' as an emphasis in some cases, so it's not clear if you mean "It's stupid to use it for this as it won't work" or if you mean "it has exceptional/better impact performance so it's the best for this".

Can you clarify?

 

[scianiac]

The latter, the Sabic Lexan filament has some of the highest impact performance of any filament I've tested in both orientations although of course in Z it's far weaker but still good as long as you print it hot enough as is the case with most filaments.

 

[amberwolf]

If you have any parts of the case that are flat, like large side areas, etc., then you can print just a frame to hold those, in however many sections is practical, that then fit together like puzzle pieces. Then make the side pieces out of whatever thickness sheet you want, in any material that's suitable. If you wanted, you could have clear sides lit from within***.

***hopefully by LEDs or whatever, rather than a battery fire. You could even put flickering red, orange, and yellow LEDs in there so it *looks* like a fire.....

 

[fill]

One You-tube vid that caught my attention a couple of years back was a Chap in India? who used a heat gun to flatten lengths of PVC water pipe/ tube. The sheets could then be further heat moulded and built up in layers with pvc solvent cement.

My own attempts have been limited to flat plastic sheets ive used to keep panniers out of rear wheel spokes, so nothing too complex yet, but is a simple and cheap set of skills to acquire.

My own dabbling with 3d printing (ender3 v1) revealed more than expected post printing cleaning up and fettling, though design and print orientation could be skills im still lacking in..