Can i design a produce 3D printed parts for outdoor usage?
The short answer is yes, the least exciting answer is that it is going to take some time to find out the best option for you products.
I assume that if you are reading this, you already have an approximate idea of what product you want to create, you just don’t know if 3D printing can be a solution or not.
So let’s think by first principles, what do we have?
A design (or if you don’t have it, we can help you with this).
An idea of the strength and capabilities we expect our product to have.
An idea of the manufacturing process we want to use.
1) The first problem we are facing here, and generally the most difficult to solve: is this design optimized for 3D printing? Meaning, the following: when printing it, it will be printed in the direction that offers the most strength and require the last support material possible? If not, can the design be optimized for the process?
2) What do you expect for your final product? Based on the price you will sell it for, what do your client expect from it? To save time and money on the research of material, this is an important question you have to ask yourself. It is useless to buy technical materials that costa 90-120$ per KG if a 30$ per KG filament can do it. Especially because the more technical materials require more expertise/and attention to the storage to print well.
3) For some reason you have thought of 3D printing as a solution to produce your product, and you know what? After now years in the game, contacts with China, contacts with bigger brands, I’ll tell you, you are right, let me explain you why: If you manage to optimize you design for 3D printing, and you find the correct material, you print your products “in house”, you don’t have to deal with 3d party manufacturing, who can give your design to a bigger client, or they can simply copy it on their own. Plus an other simple economical reason, let’s say you are just starting, you can start with one printer at home, or in your company, it is quite risk free, if you can’t make it work, you simply sell the printer, and loose 100$.
There’s also an other interesting part, that I almost always forget to mention because is a feature of this process that I use so much that it seems natural, but it’s actually not, and is a huge benefit of 3D printing: let’s say the designed is not optimized, it works, you think it’s the final product, you sell some, and then a clients comes up with an idea to modify it and make it better.
With 3D printing you do this straight away, no question asked, no need to modify a mould, no need to explain to someone who doesn’t speak the same language as you what your goal is, no need to spends thousand of dollars on modify the mold, and waiting for the changes to be made, you simply modify the design, and change your product, and believe me, if you are just starting to make plastic products, this feature, is so important to you.