As we’ve discovered, 3D printing opens up a new world of possibilities in terms of seamlessly printed and pre-assembled objects. We can create working hinges and joints, objects within objects, and complex designs that before had to be individually created and then put together.
Unfortunately, a lot of these complex pieces cannot be used right out of the printer– they need to go into a special washing machine, aka the Support Removal System, that dissolves the support material necessary to make that piece.

Our washing machine lives in the boys’ bathroom, one floor below our project area. Luckily the bathroom has been turned into a storage closet, so the only other people who have access to it are the building janitors. We had several issues hooking up the SRS, since it was a prototype and didn’t exactly match the washer in the manual HP provided. One of the biggest issues was that it didn’t really work. We would put things in and 6 hours later they would have just as much support material as before. After several days of trouble-shooting and exchanging emails with the support team at HP, we decided that there was something wrong with the washer, and not necessarily with the way we were trying to use it. So last week we got a new washer, that actually looks like the picture above! And best news of all… it works! These are some of our creations that really didn’t work without the help of a functional washer:

Even when the washing machine works, it still takes a decent amount of time (between 3 and 12 hours) to dissolve all of the support material. So, after learning how hindering the washing process can be, we are looking into different printing methods that don’t depend as much upon layers and layers of support material. How can we minimize production time– from the time we press print to the time when our object is ready to use?