Just wondering if anyone here has any experience with using 3D-printed labware/carriers in LiHa-robots? The cost of carriers and tube racks and such are wild, so I figure I’d petition my boss to buy a 3D-printer instead and just make the racks ourselves. For example a 16 tube carrier for Tecan EVO (our robot) is already made of kinda shoddy plastic, and it took me very little time to model a workable mockup in a CAD that i could iterate on.
So what I’m interested in hearing is what you guys experiences are. If you’re diligent in modelling, will subsequent prints be more or less identical to eachother? Will they work for a long time in a lab setting, or will they be worn down quickly; lets say we use ABS, since it seems to be fairly simple to print and have good qualities. Will the lack of grounding actually affect liquid detection, or is that a non-factor more or less? Any other issues?
We’re pipetting blood serum for mostly elisa, with pretty lax cleanliness requirements.
I’ve done some 3D printing of labware for liquid handlers and they’ve worked out well. Tube racks, a Hamilton 96 MPH tip support, and inserts for nested tip carriers (to keep blood from dripping into them). To answer your questions:
My experience has been positive. The tip support was a bit more complicated and required modification of the labware definition.
Subsequent prints were reproducible for my application, though this will depend on your tolerances and 3D printer. Some of the builds I used an in house 3D printer and others I outsourced to Xometry.com.
The 3D printed items did stand the test of time.
I can’t speak with confidence to the LLD in the tube rack as it was several years ago. I think it worked OK, but I may have been using a fixed height aspirate.
I got a ridiculously low price on prints from https://craftcloud3d.com/. One of the pieces broke in transit but I don’t know if I can fault the manufacturer for that. You have the option of choosing between shops including really inexpensive ones in China that still have fast turnaround and good quality. The part I got from them has been performing as well as I need.
You could even stack a bunch of parts in the same 3D file and get a quote on that. Their SLA printers have bigger build volumes than what Xometry offers and will most likely be a fraction of the price.
Our EVO lacks a posID, so then it should be simple. I did some tinkering in Tinkercad which I got to partially print at a local library, and it seems there will be little problems with tolerances even with no modelling experience.
Thanks Jburford,Luis, Brad and Stefan. I didn’t know about these services, last time I looked at local outsourcing several years ago it was bonkers expensive. But here I could get 18 racks for less than 100 euros, impressive. I think I’ll still petition my boss to buy a decent consumer printer, so I can iterate quickly, but these services could be amazing for finalizing designs in hard-to-print materials/SLA etc… And it’s a solid plan B too if we cant budget it
Adding in, I’ve designed and printed lots of carriers for Tecans, SBS tube racks, etc.and they’ve all worked out. Even with the “small” Ultimaker 2 I was using there are ways to print larger parts and join them together.
You sound like you’re interested in the iteration so definitely push for getting a printer for the lab!
Curious to know if you ever ended up getting a 3D printer and if so what kind? I was in a similar situation a few years ago and getting an in house 3D printer was a huge benefit for rapid prototyping designs in our lab.
Sorry for late answer, missed the notification for this!
No, haven’t bought one yet. Boss didn’t seem very receptive to the idea, since it would be something of a time drain in terms of modelling the 3D files. Which is kinda correct!
I’ll probably try to again soon-ish. I’ve looked a bit into options, since I find it interesting. I mostly looked into the personal consumer segment at that point, since they’re cheap and simple. Except many of them ain’t simple to use, it seems! One stand out printer seems to be the Bambu Lab P1S (or P1P). Supposedly it just works, and quickly at that. It’s cheap and got a big enough worktable for most things. Can supposedly print nylon with a small upgrade. I figure reliability is the nr 1 consideration, along with capabilities?
I’m sure there’s a bunch of beast printers in the professional segment, but then we’re in a whole nother ball court in terms of cost and I don’t think I’d be able to make the cost of printer vs cost of labware argument.
A time drain in what sense? You model the part once and then you print that part an infinite number of times at a significant fraction of the cost. If you have a factory of robots, it pays for itself in savings. You have a variety of different tools and learning to CAD doesn’t take long for simple prints. And if a part starts to wear out or breaks, just print another one.
I’ve received quotes in the past for like $300-400 worth of parts that I was able to print for tens of dollars and also print extras.
Plus once you have a printer, you’ll start to use it even on non-liquid handlers.
No worries. That is unfortunate to hear that your suggestion of adding a 3D printer wasn’t given the green light, especially if you’ve already demonstrated its utility. I think that’s a good idea to bring the topic back up at some point.
Our labs receive a fairly wide variety of tube types that we process so having the ability to 3D custom print “fill in the blank” (racks, holders, carriers, etc) has been really helpful. I was initially given a budget to get two Creailty Enders (Pro and Max). They can be a bit finicky but overall I would argue are a decent entry point. That was 4-5 years ago and we have since upgraded to a Bambu X1 and Prusa XL (I actually haven’t taken either out of the box yet).
I almost exclusively print with PLA and feel like it holds up well in a lab environment as long as it’s not being banged around, submerged in fluids, etc. On the semi rare occasion there is a spill or a print comes in contact with a biological we typically just replace it with another print.
I’m not aware of any specific instances where the lack of grounding has caused issued with LLD but I can definitely see that being possible. If that were the case I would be curious to know if anyone has ever used conductive filament to remedy that kind of issue.
There is a lot of good information in the post you linked below.
I initially started with Tinkercad and then switched to Fusion360. I feel like there was a bit of a learning curve but totally worth it. I am interested in OnShape and have considered giving it a try before getting too immersed in Fusion 360. I do like the ability to work offline with Fusion. It looks like that might not be possible with OnShape.
Bambu has been great for us! We use the X1C + AMS to great success, and yes, it does just work. Designing and printing our own tube inserts has saved us months of time vs custom options and saved us thousands of dollars. We print in ABS-GF for tube inserts that need to be cleaned and PLA-CF for other parts that get a lot of stress.
