Introduction to Infill in 3D Printing

Here is something I have been working on for the past month, with A LOT of procrastination ><

This is my Infill test board that I created when I was still in my studio during my university days. I wanted to port them over to a new board to fit my room aesthetics, and also to get rid of the masking tape labelling system.

So what are infills in 3D printing! Let me guide you along!

Infill refers to the volume within the object that you are trying to print on a 3D printer. Infill affects the structural properties, time taken, and material usage for a 3D print.

There are two main factors that affects an infill, percentage and pattern.

The percentage refers to the amount of material within the object, relative to the actual volume of the object. Pattern refers to the shapes that are formed within the volume to hold the structural integrity.

In this test board, I printed all 14 infill patterns available on Cura, my go-to slicer software for 3D printing at the various percentages of 5%, 30%, 60%, within a 2X2cm cube.

This test board itself gives me a visual understanding of how infill works and for me to effectively choose the patterns and percentages needed for the projects that I am working on. A time-sensitive project would need a lower percentage for it to reduce printing time, or a functional project would need a stronger infill pattern to have better structural integrity for the product itself (my go-to pattern is cubic-subdivision for strength in a product).

I do enjoy 3D printing a lot and do connect with me if you would like to find out more!

Here is a link to a better explanation of the usage of the different patterns available.

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/choose-infill-pattern-for-3d-prints