One of simplest things which we can – in the context of railway modelling – print is steel railway bridge.
Inspiration for the presented model is the steel railway bridge in Frýdek-Místek.
The bridge model is not printed in one piece – the sidewalls are printed separately, the lower and the top are also printed separately. The bridge model is relatively large and does not fit into the limited area of the 3D printer, so even the individual components have to be printed in pieces.
The parts of model overlap, so there are no weak seams across the model and completed model is firm and strong after glued together.
Model design
Following pictures display the composed model and the exploded view.
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Several compromises had to be made in the model design. U and H profiles on the side panels are relatively shallow and the inner walls are at an angle of 45° to print the sidewall in one piece. Otherwise, it would be necessary to print the beams one at a time, which would complicate the final assembly. Also the lower part is simplified as we do not have detailed photos available.
The design was made for 0.2mm nozzle diameter.
The source code with the comments is in the article appendix.
Printing and model composition
The model is printed with the following slicer parameters:
- Nozzle diameter: 0.2mm
- Layer height: 0.1mm or 0.15mm
- Other settings: forced extrusion width 0.2mm (no automatic settings)
The individual components are glued together with gel CA adhesive..
The final printed, composed and glued steel bridge model:
