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3d printing : Wall Thickness And Why It Matters

Dwight Mitchell • Oct 10, 2022

Wall Thickness And Why It Matters - The 3D Printing Beginner's Guide To Wall Thickness

When you’re exploring the world of additive manufacturing, you’ll probably find many different terms and phrases that can be quite confusing at first.

While some technical jargon is unavoidable, it doesn’t need to be so scary or incomprehensible. Let us break it down for you! When it comes to 3D printing, wall thickness refers to the distance between the inside and outside surfaces of your part.

It is usually expressed as a percentage, with smaller numbers indicating a thinner wall. An accurate understanding of wall thickness is essential in many manufacturing processes such as casting, forging and injection molding.

In this article, we explore why wall thickness matters when 3D printing and how you can control it effectively during your designs.

What is wall thickness and why does it matter?

Wall thickness is the distance between the inside and outside surfaces of a part. It is a crucial factor in many manufacturing processes such as casting, forging and injection molding. Wall thickness determines the amount of material needed to create the part, and is also a driver of other important factors like strength and weight.

A thicker wall has higher wall strength, while a thinner wall usually has a lower wall strength. Wall thickness is also a factor in how much heat a part can withstand before being damaged.

For example, a thicker wall can withstand a higher temperature than a thinner wall before being damaged or deformed.

Wall thickness is therefore crucial in the design of products like kitchen utensils or electrical components that are exposed to high temperatures. Wall thickness is also very important in 3D printing.

Why Is Wall Thickness Important When 3D Printing?

The resolution of your 3D model has a significant impact on how thin your walls can be. A high-resolution model will have thinner walls than a low-resolution model. Another factor that affects wall thickness is your 3D printing method.

There are many different 3D printing technologies, like FDM, SLA, SLS, and DMLS. While the theory behind all of them is the same, each technology has its own unique properties, like cooling methods and material properties.

Since different 3D printing methods have different wall thickness capabilities, communicating with your 3D printing service is crucial to ensure you get the results you want. Wall thickness is important when 3D printing for several reasons.

First, it determines the accuracy of the part’s dimensions. A thin wall will be more precise than a thick wall.

Second, a thin wall can reduce the overall weight of the printed part, which is important when designing for certain applications. For example, wall thickness is a crucial factor when designing airplane parts.

What Influences Wall Thickness In 3D Printed Objects?

There are several factors that influence the wall thickness of your 3D printed object. First and most obviously is your 3D model design. For example, a model with a lot of undercuts will have less material than a model without undercuts.

A model that uses support will have thinner walls than a model that does not use support.

Second, your 3D printer’s capabilities will also have a significant impact on wall thickness. Different 3D printer technologies, like FDM and SLA, have different capabilities when it comes to wall thickness.

Third, your 3D printing materials will affect wall thickness. For example, certain materials, like nylon, have a naturally thinner wall thickness than other materials, like ABS.

How to control wall thickness when 3D printing?

There are a few ways to control wall thickness when 3D printing. First, consider adjusting your 3D model and design to suit your 3D printer capabilities. If your 3D printer has a lower resolution, you can design your model with a thicker wall.

If your 3D printer has a natural tendency towards thicker walls, you may want to adjust your model accordingly.

Second, you can adjust your 3D printer’s settings to control wall thickness.

Different 3D printer technologies have different settings like layers per inch (or “lpi”), flow rates, and temperatures.

The settings will vary depending on the material you are using.

Finally, you can use material settings to control wall thickness. Different materials have different wall thicknesses, so you can adjust the settings accordingly.

Print wall thickness vs. actual wall thickness

The print wall thickness is simply the distance between the inside and outside surfaces of the part while the actual wall thickness is the distance between the inside and outside surfaces of the part after it has been printed. While the actual wall thickness is important, the print wall thickness is critical to the success of your 3D printing project. Take a look at the image below.

You can see that the print wall thickness is thinner than the actual wall thickness. It is important to note that the print wall thickness can differ from one part to another. In fact, different sections of the same part can have different print wall thicknesses.

The print wall thickness can be affected by several factors, from the 3D model design to the 3D printer settings. The actual wall thickness, on the other hand, is consistent for every part.

Understanding how your printer operates

Before you start designing your 3D printed object, it’s important to understand how your 3D printer works.

First, you need to understand how your 3D printer’s hotend works. The hotend is the part of the printer that melts and extrudes the 3D printing material.

The hotend is split into two sections: the nozzle and the throat. The nozzle is the part of the hotend that melts and extrudes the material. The throat is the part of the hotend that controls the flow of the melted material.

Knowing the capabilities of your 3D printer’s hotend will help you make better design decisions.

If you want to print extremely thin walls, you will have to reduce the flow rate of the melted material. Again, this will depend on the particular 3D printer technology you’re using.

3D printing with thin walls

While thinner walls are usually desired, they can be tricky to design and 3D print.

The first thing to consider is that the thinner the wall, the longer the print time will be. This is because the printer will need to increase the amount of layers in order to create a strong and accurate part. To reduce the print time, you can consider increasing the flow rate of the melted material.

This will help increase the speed at which the printer creates each layer. Another thing to keep in mind is that some materials simply cannot be printed with thin walls. Certain materials, like nylon, have a natural tendency towards thicker walls.

There’s also a chance that some materials might not be suitable for thin walls. Some materials have a very high shrinkage rate, which can cause thin walls to warp.

CAD software and wall thickness

The way the CAD software you’re using calculates wall thickness can have an impact on your design. Some CAD software will use the distance between the inside and outside surfaces as the wall thickness, while others will use the inside and outside surfaces after the wall thickness is subtracted.

There are a few things you can do to use the latter method. One way is to create a wall thickness line on a surface whenever you add a wall.

Another way is to edit your CAD model to subtract the wall thickness from the inside and outside surfaces. This can be done by using Boolean operations.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, nothing matters more than functionality.

While wall thickness is an important factor in 3D printing, it shouldn’t be the only one you think about when designing your part. Instead, you should focus on form, function, and other factors that will ultimately impact your design and customer experience.

Remember, your design doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be good enough.

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