The Nokia Lumia 820 story continues: the first functional print is born!
After all the nonfunctional prints, it’s now time for our good news show: the first functional Nokia Lumia 820 shell is alive and kicking!
After day one and two of the tests, it was very clear to everyone: The Nokia file needs engineering to work correctly. So our engineering team was sweating off a lot the past few days, but now it’s official: i.materialise can release the first 3D printable ánd functional Nokia Lumia 820 shell!
Resin on the left, polyamide on the right.
To be correct: we can actually show you two shells in different materials (resin and polyamide) that passed our test.
Dries, one of the engineers, can tell you exactly how they prepared their work: “We used 3-matic software to perform the needed design operations on the STL file, such as cutting the shell in two parts and thicken the outer shell (from 0.9 to 2 mm). Then we changed the tolerance on the buttons of our resin design because we needed more space between them. On the picture you can see that the buttons are loose, printed in transparant resin:
After putting the buttons on the side of the shell, they’re very easy in use and they look really good. The only downside to it: if you take your phone out of the shell, the buttons can fall out because they’re not fixed which makes them vulnerable.
For the polyamide design we used the software to make a redesign of the buttons (to make them functional) and thickened the walls again. Then we uploaded the file in Magics to fix it, check the printability and make it ready for the printer.”
The buttons are fixed on the side with just one point. On the inside they're made thicker to have a better contact with the cellphone.
Result: pretty awesome buttons that are easy to push (which makes my fingers very happy)!
Although we’re very glad to present to you a functional Nokia Lumia 820 shell. We’re always aiming for perfection and quality. So don’t you run away now; more good news is coming up!
