Chocolate 3D Printed Ladybug

I made a 3D printed ladybug for a silicon mold and chocolate! I first designed a 3D print in Fusion, then I silicone casted it, and lastly did a chocolate casting. I figured that it would be interesting to work on extruding and using the rotate feature to create the wings and body.

Reading Reflection: I found it very interesting how professionals took it a step further from just varying parameters geometry by instead incorporating their own code into the 3D printers themselves to maximize efficiency. The reading highlighted the importance of manufacturing parameters on top of the design. Although not necessary, this inspired me to choose the detailed option in the slicing step to make the 3D printer produce more layers so that my small details would be visible. In section 6.1, they talked about how the glasses that were 3D printed did not resemble the final product, but instead they were a prototype. I took this into consideration at first by thinking of my 3D printed ladybug as a prototype and my chocolate ladybug as a final product. But our project differed from theirs because our 3D printed objects would very closely resemble the final chocolate product due to the molding process.

Materials

1. PLA
2. Silicon
3. Chocolate

Programs

1. Fusion
2. 3DPrinterOS

I began my process by sketching my intended 3D print. I'm not really a fan of ladybugs, but I was inspired to make a ladybug shaped chocolate mold because I kept seeing them on my hike. I also sketched and made a list of the components that would need to be made to finish this design.

I created a new component for each of my parts as seen in the colored image above. My design consisted of many half circles that were rotated around an axis to produce a 3D shape. I made sure to parameterize my design because I had to adjust the sizes of my shapes to ensure that it would fit in the casing diameter. I began with the main body which was simply a half-sphere. For the wings, I rotated my semi-ellipse type shape 80 degree to ensure a proper draft angle.

I exported my Fusion design as my .stl file and imported into the Makerspace 3DPrinterOS space. I began by rotating my ladybug to make sure that the flat side was down and touching the printer bed. Then, I went into the slicing step where I chose the PLA - detail option to ensure my small ladybug would show the spots correctly. After slicing, I sent it to the printer and picked it up the following day! My 3D printed lady bug turned out great, but there were a few mistake points at the top. This was probably due to the thinness of the edge of the wing even though I made sure to have at least a 3 degree draft angle.

I realized that my spots definitely did not meet the draft angle requirement, but it was too late to print a new ladybug. Thankfully, the silicon is a more flexible material, so my mold and chocolate should turn out okay. If I were to redo the design for the draft angle requirement, I would have designed my ladybug body in more of a cylindrical way so that the spots could be made on a flat surface.

To create the silicon mold, I spray gorilla glue on the flat side of the ladybug and stuck it to the bottom of the container that was 3D printed. Then, the silicon liquid was produced and mixed for five minutes. The silicon mixture was poured into the container and left to set for a day. After a day, the silicon was separated from the container and 3D printed ladybug.

The liquid chocolate was prepared by melting chocolate over hot water on a stove. The chocolate was then spooned into the silicon mold and smoothed with a popsicle stick. The chocolate was left to harden in a cooler for about an hour. Finally, the chocolate was removed from the mold!