Author Topic: 3D Printed Solar Shield  (Read 42472 times)

Offline Joules

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #25 on: October 29, 2016, 06:43:33 AM »
If you look back through the thread each component is an individual part so the top cover would only need re printing.  As it is, I want to see how long before the parts start to break up, we'll see next year.
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Offline awemawson

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #26 on: October 29, 2016, 07:13:34 AM »
.... ah but can you print a new battery ......  :lol:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Joules

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Offline awemawson

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #28 on: October 29, 2016, 11:30:17 AM »
No, not THEY but YOU  :thumbup:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Joules

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #29 on: October 03, 2017, 07:48:24 AM »
Another year of PLA print out in the elements.  I think this, at least for the UK proves PLA is suitable for outdoor applications if it doesn't overheat.  Still no sign of breaking up or even being brittle, though today is warm.



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Offline Pete49

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #30 on: October 04, 2017, 12:07:20 AM »
Good news Joules. Just proves how mild your sunlight is as I found my PLA sample lasted 8 weeks in our summer sun before it became brittle. ABS just buckles LOL
Pete
oops..........oh no.........blast now I need to redo it

Offline Joules

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #31 on: October 04, 2017, 02:05:51 AM »
Interesting thought Pete, is it arid where you are, coastal or inland.  I wonder if here in the UK the higher moisture content helps the PLA retain its properties.   This is also now an old batch of PLA and not all PLA’s are equal.

Till next year...
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Offline JHovel

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #32 on: October 04, 2017, 07:56:49 AM »
Interesting thread.
Australia has a North-South spread equal to Norway to Egypt.
So the question of "coastal to inland" is not really all that important. The longevity of PLA out-doors is more related to the average number of hours of direct sunlight and ambient temperature. That varies in AUS between 5 hours day at 18 degrees C and 12 hours a day at 33 deg.
There are also places with temperatures in the high 40s for several weeks a year with 12 hours of direct sunlight for months on end and places with 4 hrs a day sunshine and low temperatures of -10 deg C.
I suspect that NO plastic is likely to survive much longer than a couple of years in AUS in all places - at least I haven;t found one yet.
Where I live (nice mild climate with 4 seasons) temperatures range from 0 deg at night (rare) in winter to 45 deg (rare) in Summer and no paint of plastic or anything other than a few metals survives outside more than a few years, depending on the colour. Black anything starts visibly deteriorating in weeks (if it doesn't melt) and white in a few months. Anything you want to last outside has to be stainless, aluminium or yellow metals (copper, brass, bronze) and electrolytically isolated to last decades. The same goes for paints. Red cars look like they are painted with red chalk after 3 years, silver or white cars may last 10 years before they look like they have chalked on paint.
So the exact outdoor material has to be chosen for each specific location - just like Europe and North Africa. Finnish Paint will look like crap soon in Cairo and Egyptian paint will fall off in small bits at the first sub-minus 20degree night in Norway...
By the way, in our tropics, 32 degrees constant temperature and humidity ranging from 0 to 100% - and the resultant fungal, algae and lychen growth is another completely unrelated issue of longevity of materials we are battling with.....
Just to give some more perspective to the problem.....
Cheers,
Joe
Cheers,
Joe

Offline Pete49

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #33 on: October 04, 2017, 10:45:47 PM »
Joe pretty much nailed it Joules. I'm at the 33 degree south mark and get 12 hrs sun during Oct through to much pretty much and semi arid with temps in the 40C+ during summer. winter averages 17C with occasional night time temps dropping to 0C to -3C but usually in mid July to early August. But for the winter cold its mostly heaven here especially for bike riders as we can virtually ride all year round.  :beer:
Pete
oops..........oh no.........blast now I need to redo it

Offline Joules

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #34 on: March 20, 2019, 08:12:44 AM »
LOL, I missed the 3yr update, so here is a picture as of today.  The solar shield is now in its fourth year of being outdoors and still shows little sign of breaking down.

How long does PLA last ???   Here in the UK, quite a while and longer than I expected.  I think next doors football will most likely be the killer of it.
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Offline awemawson

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #35 on: March 20, 2019, 09:25:34 AM »
By co-incidence Joules, I used the example of your Solar Shield only this week end when a friend was asking about PLA longevity  :med:

Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Joules

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #36 on: March 20, 2019, 02:22:47 PM »
Andrew, here's a PLA example for you.   Perhaps you remember the dampers I showed, printed in 2014 using a Rostock Max to fix the lead screw resonance in an old CNC router.   These samples have been sat in oil since then, your post reminded me about them so pulled them out, photographed and put back in the oil.  They were ugly prints then and still ugly prints now, but no sign of degradation.
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Offline Pete49

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #37 on: March 20, 2019, 11:18:16 PM »
looks like it may be a forever product up there for you. Since your seasons haven't damaged it (solar shield) your on a winner :D
oops..........oh no.........blast now I need to redo it

Offline Joules

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #38 on: December 24, 2023, 05:57:57 PM »
After 8yrs of service, the solar shield fell victim to the storms tonight.  PLA is good for +8yrs, weather permitting.
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Offline SwarfnStuff

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #39 on: December 24, 2023, 11:17:08 PM »
Ah, So it wasn't next door's football in the end. Hail can be a real kill joy at times. Depending on the size of the hail, even tiled roofs can get holed. Sydney Australia some years back I recall suffered wide spread roof damage.

At least you can reprint it easily enough.
John B
Converting good metal into swarf sometimes ending up with something useful. ;-)

Offline Joules

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #40 on: December 25, 2023, 03:53:00 AM »
Cheers John, yep it surprised me how long it lasted.  Been an empty weather station for many years as the electronics died ages ago.   I can say white PLA does pretty well outside in the UK....
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Offline hanermo

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Re: 3D Printed Solar Shield
« Reply #41 on: March 06, 2024, 11:03:57 PM »
Heat and especially direct sun kills anything and everything.
A. (Anecdote).
Sails on sailboats last about 2 years, charter, here in Spain.
And 10Y+ -- forever in the UK, partly due to being covered and or not in use part of the time.

A. (Anecdote).
Air-con units in Roatan, Honduras, last about 6 months, due to the heat and sunshine.
According to the guy who knows, and operates, lots of them, when I was there ..