Fortify Projects

Background

For my first co-op during the first half of 2023, I worked at Fortify as a mechanical engineer.

Fortify is an additive manufacturing company that builds DLP resin printers with a focus on printing high-viscosity materials, as well as proprietary composite ones.

I was primarily focused on investigating and improving the parallelism of the build plate, as well as engineering solutions and fixtures to aid the accuracy and precision of adjusting parallelism on the manufacturing line.

Problem

The poor parallelism of the build plate on the printer was affecting the quality and strength of the parts.
This affected bed adhesion and many parts fell off the plate and failed the print.
The parallelism of the plate was hard to correct because of the time-consuming, "guess and check" procedure is required.

Solution

Calculator Leveling Fixture

This fixture, in conjunction with a special parallelism calculator, adjusts the parallelism of the build plate assembly with an error of ~0.02mm.
Removes the need for the "guess and check" procedure with an accurate and deliberate one.
This is being used to manufacture every new printer at Fortify.

How It Works

The build plate parallelism can be adjusted by 3 fine-pitch set screws on the underside of the build plate head flange by threading them in or out.
The screws can be turned a certain number of degrees (provided by the special calculator), which increases or decreases the screw's protrusion.
These screws provide a custom plane on which the rest of the build plate sits.
This fixture provides a solid datum surface to do this provided by the custom snap-fit cover and protractor surfaces.

Angle Finder with Hex Key

This is the part the user turns to find the angle they are turning to with the provided indicator.
The hex key is secured by 2 set screws on either side
The points near the bottom line up with the degree markings on the protractor part.
Made from 6061-T6 aluminum alloy.

Snap-Fit Flange Cover

This is the cover that snaps onto the build plate flange and is the surface on which the protractor can slot into around each of the set screws.
The part can be easily removed by pulling up on the front part of the cover.
Made from ABS plastic.

Full Fixture Assembly

This is the full set up of the cover, protractor, and angle finder.
The holes for the protractor and cover piece line up so the hex key on the angle finder can turn the build plate set screw
The protractor piece is made from 6061-T6 aluminum alloy

Cover Bottom CAD

Cover Top CAD

Protractor CAD

Angle Finder CAD

*All parts designed in Creo

Results

Cut cycle time to level build plate by half
Improved first-pass yield to ~90% from 50%
Tightened tolerance on parallelism to ~0.02mm from 0.04mm

Coolant Cap Wrench

Background

The coolant system of the printer needs to pass a leak test before moving on. The coolant tank is secured by a gripped cap in a hard to reach place. The cap is installed by hand, and becomes difficult to turn after only a couple turns and puts stress on the manufacturing techncians hands.

Problem

Cap was difficult to turn by hand and in the hard to reach spot
Leak test kept failing at the cap and thread interface

Solution

I designed a custom wrench to tighten the coolant tank cap on the printer.

Designed the wrench to fit the outline of the cap, and small enough to fit in the hard to reach area. I designed this in Creo to be as simple to manufacture to decrease cost.

Results

First pass yield of leak test passed much more frequently
Eased the stress of manufacturing technicians because they were not using their hands to tighten anymore
Still used to manufacture every printer

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse