Designing for DLS^™ Process

DLS Design Quick Guide

Carbon DLS lets you design the best parts for your product, without worrying about moldability or machinability. Like every 3D printing process, DLS has its own best practices; follow these principles to get the best results in your applications.

This design quick guide offers a multi-step workflow to help you design and evaluate parts quickly. Follow the steps below to determine whether your part is a good fit for the DLS process and identify aspects of your design that might need revision.

Table of Contents

1. Evaluate: determine whether your project is well-suited to DLS printing.
   • Carbon 3D printer build volume dimensions
   • Mechanical properties of Carbon materials
   • Chemical compatibility of Carbon materials
2. Design: consider the 3D printing process you’ll use as you design your part
   • Recommended feature sizes
   • Designing overhangs, holes, and mating parts
3. Optimize: improve print outcomes by refining your design.
   • Handling unvented volumes and islands
   • Adding supports
   • Improving print accuracy

In-depth DLS Design Guidelines

Download the DLS Design Quick Guide

Evaluate

Begin by using these basic guidelines to determine whether your part is a good fit for Carbon DLS.

Build envelope

Will your part fit in Carbon’s 3D printers? For efficient production, consider how you’ll fit multiple parts in the build volume.

Material properties

What mechanical characteristics do you require for your parts? What traditional thermoplastics would you usually specify?
See all Carbon Technical Datasheets
Download the Material Comparison Chart

Chemical compatibility

Does your part needs to perform well when used with any of these common chemicals?
Download the Chemical Compatibility Chart (DLS Design Quick Guide)

Design

Once you have determined that your part is a good fit for the Carbon DLS process, the next step is to review your part’s features. Refer to the recommended feature sizes below to ensure your part’s printability.

Overhangs, unsupported angles, and unsupported wall thickness will inform the print orientation and support strategy for your part.

Recommended feature sizes

Are your features properly sized for successful printing?
Download the DLS Design Quick Guide

Holes

To compensate for overcure, horizontal holes should be oversized ~0.04 mm.

Unsupported angles

Measured relative to the platform (XY). Unsupported angles over 40 degrees are safe for all materials.

Bridges

Bridges should span no more than twice the recommended overhang distance.

Fillets

Interior corners: ~0.5 mm minimum

Exterior corners: ~0.5 mm + wall thickness

Mating parts

Print mating parts in the same orientation.

Wall thickness

Walls at minimum thickness should be kept short.

Optimize

Refine your design using these guidelines to ensure dimensional accuracy, excellent surface quality, and overall performance that meets your requirements.

Issues to address before adding supports

Consider these recommendations as you design your part.

Low resolution model

Adjust export settings in your CAD software to make a smooth model.

Sharp corners

Add fillets or chamfers

Unvented volumes and blind holes

Add 2-3 mm vents or re-orient part.

Slice islands

Islands must be supported or connected to part in order to prevent print defects.

Non-uniform, rapidly changing or stepped wall thickness

Make wall thickness uniform, or keep changes in thickness as gradual as possible in order to minimize print defects and prevent warping during baking.

Tall, thin parts

Change orientation, or redesign to reduce part height and/or create stability.

Supports

Use Carbon’s print preparation software to add supports to your part design.

• Check overhangs and unsupported angles using the Overhang Detection feature
• Place supports no closer than the recommended overhang distances from part walls and other supports
• Ensure that slice islands are supported

First-print accuracy

The accuracy of every 3D printing process depends on several factors, including material characteristics, part geometry, operator practices, and post-processing techniques. The Carbon DLS process offers excellent accuracy and repeatability, within tolerances as tight as +/-40 μm, but this depends on the factors listed above and may require some optimization to achieve consistent results in serial production. To learn more about DLS accuracy, check out our general and production repeatability accuracy guidelines for engineering materials.