MJF Printing For Electronics Casings
The Challenge:
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Flexisense Ltd approached Printing Portal for assistance in developing a compact casing for a versatile sensor. The challenge comprised three key objectives:
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Designing a straightforward electronics casing to accommodate their existing circuit board design.
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Producing a series of prototypes for initial testing.
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Manufacturing small batch volumes of the electrical casing.
Design:
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Our collaboration with Flexisense commenced with a meeting to outline a concise Design Brief at our Dartford, Kent facility. Flexisense supplied samples of their current circuit-board prototypes to serve as a basis for the casing design.
We opted for SOLIDWORKS, a parametric 3D CAD program, for its flexibility in facilitating future design modifications. This platform enabled us to assess potential interference between various assembly components prior to production. Additionally, Flexisense provided us with a vector drawing of their logo, integrated into the design using SolidWorks to create a deboss effect on the casing.
Flexisense also provided us with a vector drawing of their logo, which we used within SolidWorks to create a deboss into the top of the part.
Prototyping - Printing & Finishing:
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Utilizing one of our HP 5210 MJF 3D Printers, we crafted an initial test part to validate the design. This involved assessing factors such as circuit board fit, USB socket alignment, and logo visibility. Subsequently, we produced a small batch of 15 units using our standard Nylon PA12 material.
These components underwent a black dyeing process using our Dye mansion DM60 Dying machine, ensuring a consistent color finish that can be replicated for future orders.
Post-dyeing, the parts underwent our polishing procedure to ensure a consistent high quality finish that can be repeated across a whole production order.
Conclusion:
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Should the customer have significant demand for part production we are in the position to offer significant output due to running the largest fleet of MJF machines in the UK (as of Feb 2024) – with each machine itself able to print 150 of these casings in each build.
