We sent the new design of our mould for 3D printing after exporting the 3D model we designed on Autodesk Fusion last week into an .stl file.
After collecting our 3D printed mould and shaking it with pipette tips inside the box, we realised that our idea did not work and that the pipette tips kept getting stuck in the mould if they rolled in at a specific angle. Additionally, we failed to realise before printing that someone before us had changed the infill settings on the slicer software. Hence, the infill printed ended up being too thick, and we had to enlist the help of the lab staff to help us drill into the cylindrical hole at the bottom of the box for it to be functional.
Trying out our prototype.
Lab staff helping us drill a hole in our prototype 🙂 .
After four failed prototypes as well as the likely complexity of automating the box-shaking process, we decided that we should pivot from using a shaking mechanism.
We began to explore another idea: a funnel with a hole of the same diameter as a pipette tip, such that all pipette tips that fall through are oriented vertically (i.e. either turned up or down). We designed a 3D model of the funnel on Autodesk Fusion, exported it into an .stl file, and sent it for 3D printing.
Screenshots from the .stl file of our fifth prototype.