Inspire to Do More | Lattice Geometry 3D Printed Glove Dryer
Altair Employee
Ski season is almost here, marking the return of shredding with your friends and family, cozying up in the lodge, and the smell that permeates your apartment after many weekends of not properly drying your gear. I decided to take action on the third, starting with my ski mittens. There are various off-the-shelf options for drying your ski gloves, some ingenuously using AC vents, some quite sophisticated options using electronic heated fans, but many have questionable airflow paths through the gloves. I do not have an AC vent or money to spend on an electronic dryer, but what I do have is a box fan, the latest copy of Inspire, and determination! With these two assets (and one liability) I set about designing a glove dryer in Inspire that could utilize lattice technology to make a better flowing, box fan compatible glove dryer.
The core idea here is that Inspire’s lattice generation makes it easy to design a permeable lattice to space apart the glove from the dryer’s solid duct. This allows air to flow out of the glove even on its top surface which touches the duct.
Airflow model clearly not made in Inspire fluid
Creating this permeable lattice was super easy in Inspire. All that’s needed is to CAD two solid bodies (one for the lattice and one for the solid).
This humble cone is about to have an amazing glow-up
Next, we can convert the outer solid to a surface lattice body. I spent some time tuning these parameters to make a lattice that I thought would allow air to flow through without restriction, minimize contact with the glove’s interior, and be easy to 3D print.
It’s actually what is on the surface (lattice) that counts
Eventually, we’ll want to Boolean combine the lattice geometry with the solid geometry. Shelling the lattice outward helps to make a smooth transition when we perform the union.
Come out of your shell to make new connections
The last operation we do to the lattice is smooth it out. I just used the default settings here and it removed most of the aliasing on the implicit lattice edges. This lattice will 3D print nicely with the sharp edges smoothed.
Smooth out your rough edges to conform to society’s manufacturing expectations
The final step for the part is to Boolean Combine the lattice with the solid geometry. You’ll want to make any final changes to the solid before you do this - in my case this means creating mounting clips.
You’re ready to meet your fans
Yay! Off to the printer we go. I printed off a couple of glove dryers and gave them a try on my wetsuit gloves and boots which had been wet for days; they dried out overnight! The box fan needs to be tilted on angle so the gloves don’t fall off, but the box fan doesn’t seem to mind. I’m looking forward to using them on my ski gloves!
Add some status to your parts with a lattice!
These glove dryers work, flow sure
My .stmod file is attached and you can print this design from Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6824953