Specific Gravity probe
Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 3:52 am
Not a rocket...
[img]http://www.simonlockwood.net/linky/3dp/notarocket.jpg[/img]
This is the application which prompted my purchase of the Max in the first place, kinda excited to get to print it at last. Essentially fluid passes in the port visible at the base (it's upside down), down one side of the cylinder which is partitioned into halves, up the other side and out another port opposite the visible one.
In the partition are tubes for sampling pressure and temperature at the base of the column.
Idea is that static head changes with specific gravity and, by measuring that pressure, I can work out the SG of the fluid going through. Think beer, wine and spirits here and you're on the right track.
The rocket fins? Well, you tell me if it's overkill, but I figured that with a tube 20mm wide and 200mm high there was a good chance that the leverage would make it way too easy for the print head to topple it at the top end. So they're stabilisers which I'll cut off at the end of the run. The print is about 2/3 on its way to final height in the photo.
I have some challenges ahead, namely how to vapour wash the inside of the tube effectively and get it all nice and slick for fluid to pass through (without leaking between layers). But this was just going to be wayyyy too hard to machine using traditional methods.
[img]http://www.simonlockwood.net/linky/3dp/notarocket.jpg[/img]
This is the application which prompted my purchase of the Max in the first place, kinda excited to get to print it at last. Essentially fluid passes in the port visible at the base (it's upside down), down one side of the cylinder which is partitioned into halves, up the other side and out another port opposite the visible one.
In the partition are tubes for sampling pressure and temperature at the base of the column.
Idea is that static head changes with specific gravity and, by measuring that pressure, I can work out the SG of the fluid going through. Think beer, wine and spirits here and you're on the right track.
The rocket fins? Well, you tell me if it's overkill, but I figured that with a tube 20mm wide and 200mm high there was a good chance that the leverage would make it way too easy for the print head to topple it at the top end. So they're stabilisers which I'll cut off at the end of the run. The print is about 2/3 on its way to final height in the photo.
I have some challenges ahead, namely how to vapour wash the inside of the tube effectively and get it all nice and slick for fluid to pass through (without leaking between layers). But this was just going to be wayyyy too hard to machine using traditional methods.