A 3D Printed Toolbox for Opto-Mechanical Components

TL;DR

This paper presents a customizable, low-cost set of opto-mechanical components fabricated via 3D printing, demonstrating advantages over traditional manufacturing in scientific and experimental applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 3D printed toolbox for opto-mechanical components that are easy to produce, customizable, and cost-effective, suitable for scientific use.

Findings

Components are highly customizable and low-cost.

Fabrication time is short and accessible.

Performance compares favorably with low-end commercial options.

Abstract

Nowadays is very common to find headlines in the media where it is stated that 3D printing is a technology called to change our lives in the near future. For many authors, we are living in times of a third industrial revolution. Howerver, we are currently in a stage of development where the use of 3D printing is advantageous over other manufacturing technologies only in rare scenarios. Fortunately, scientific research is one of them. Here we present the development of a set of opto-mechanical components that can be built easily using a 3D printer based on Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) and parts that can be found on any hardware store. The components of the set presented here are highly customizable, low-cost, require a short time to be fabricated and offer a performance that compares favorably with respect to low-end commercial alternatives.