U.S. Department of Health and Human Services  —  National Institutes of Health

Ear Savers

BitForge's picture
Sun, 2020-04-12 20:37
Reference Model 
Surgical Mask Tension Release Band for Ear Comfort & Extended Use

After printing hundreds of these for covid-19 response, we removed the top and bottom layers and decided to use only 30% honeycomb infill. The honeycomb infill pattern was the most successful during stress testing the bands and we have completely switched over to printing only the ones seen here.

We now print a plate of 10 smaller bands (85%) or 8 larger bands (100%) in under an hour.

Printer Make/Model 
Prusa i3 MK3S
Resolution (Layer Height) 
0.32mm

Click to Enlarge - 1 image(s)
Rating 
5
Average: 5 (1 vote)

Comments

Mon, 2020-04-13 15:46

Hi there, would love to print this design without the top and bottom layers as you have done, but I'm not sure how to remove the layers.  I use Cura for my slicer.  How did you get it to print without a top or bottom layer? 

Thu, 2020-06-04 17:20

I'm so sorry for never replying! I was never notified of your response. Unfortunately I don't use cura but you should be able to find a setting for the number of top and bottom layers. Simply set those to zero.

Thu, 2020-04-16 10:36

Can you make the STL file, of the modifications you use, available, please?

Mon, 2020-04-20 13:24

Hi! Could you send me the .stl for this version of the print? I am not sure how to remove top/bottom layers in Cura. Thanks!

Fri, 2020-04-24 23:19

Can you provide your STL file?

Sat, 2020-04-25 19:18

Is there an STL for this somewhere?   Sorry if I'm missing it.

 

Thu, 2020-06-04 16:45

I would like an STL file of this. If possible, can you post the remix to thingiverse?

Thu, 2020-06-04 17:05

Hi deliverator (and all), just an FYI that remixes can be posted via the source model page, just like on Thingiverse! The STL for the model can be found in the source  entry https://3dprint.nih.gov/discover/3dpx-013410. 

 

Thu, 2020-06-04 17:09

I'm so sorry for never replying! I was never notified of your responses. I used the NIH-approved model and simply set the number of top and bottom layers to zero. Every slicing software will have that setting somewhere.

Thu, 2020-06-04 17:13

Hi BitForge, you can also upload the gcode with your build entry, if that helps. Gcode isn't necessarily universal since the available parameters will vary among printers, but it might be helpful to some. (Also, we're working on some changes to the form to add builds and how the information is displayed, hopefully that will help people out in future.)

Thu, 2020-06-04 17:20

Thanks for the responses, Meghan. However, I don't upload gcodes simply because of the variables which can really cause havoc with machines (even ones of the same make).