3D Printing
The Innovation Sandbox offers several resources and services. Perhaps most notably, we have functioned as a volunteer-run, free 3D printing service for student ideas. Whatever the project, Innovation Sandbox has been happy in helping bring student ideas to life in as timely and professional a manner as possible.
The Innovation Sandbox is a service open to all majors and colleges, with no engineering background required to print with us. This Fall Quarter of 2019, we have worked hard to not only diversify our print queue, but also to improve the way we handle parts with increased automation, better communication, and a better variety in materials. As of September,
requests can be submitted through the form linked on our website’s home page.
We receive print requests via our online submission form. We only accept prints that follow our printing guidelines found here. Attach your files in .STL format. Please let us know if you modeled your part in any units other than mm.
Currently we are following COVID-19 guidelines for printing. View this page here for more information about how to submit prints.
What Do We Offer?
The Innovation Sandbox currently operates 18 Ultimaker 3+ Extended 3D printers, with a useable build volume of 8x8x10 inches. We are capable of running up to two materials (or colors) at a time per special request. We primarily print in a thermoplastic called PLA (polylactic acid), but stock a variety of other materials including PETG, ASA, TPU/TPE, and polycarbonate. We are happy to use a material to suite your needs, but we generally request that if you part has abnormal requirements (a material other than PLA, dual-
extrusion, mass size/mass/volume, etc.) that you talk to us in before submitting your request.
In the Future?
We are always working on improving our service. Currently, we are working on introducing resin-based (specifically DLP) and chopped-fiber-reinforced (FDM) 3D printing to our services. Stay tuned for more updates as we progress. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to shoot us an email (sandboxprinting@gmail.com) or stop by our space in Bonderson (197-205)!