Thursday, January 6, 2011

Building a custom packing insert


I wanted to ship the parts from my previous Torus project, and they fit very neatly into a small flat-rate shipping box. But I was worried adjacent pieces might slip under each other if the box was bumped, since they're slightly wedge shaped. That could cause them to puncture the container.



So I designed a thin, hinged packing spacer and built it on the SD300. It's less than a millimeter thick, so it barely used any material.



The spacer emerged from the printer in a flat shape, but easily unfolded to form two channels would would keep the parts from overlapping during shipping.



The spacer divided the parts perfectly without occupying any space in the box. I'll probably build custom packing material like this for future shipments, since the material is thin, flexible, and strong in this format.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! Now that is packing dedication!! Thanks for the Torzle, it arrived in perfect condition.

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000615567&fid=1725

    Too bad they didn't want to invest the money to keep it going.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good point, Additive3D also posted the news yesterday:

    Solido 3D Ltd. Closes its Doors

    It's too soon to gauge what impact it'll have on me, but it's undoubtedly had a painful impact on the employees who've been laid off. From that perspective I've got it easy!

    ReplyDelete