CONE STYLE SUPPORT STRUCTURES VS BEL SUPPORTS STRUCTURES A CASE STUDY

Date: Nov 21, 2023 Category: 3D Printing for Jewelry

CONE STYLE SUPPORT STRUCTURES VS BEL SUPPORTS STRUCTURES A CASE STUDY

What Is Bel Support & How It Is Useful For Jewelry Printing?

Bel Support, a Rhino & Gem Vision Matrix support structure plug-in, quickly became well-known after it was released in 2015. It serves as structural support for 3D printing, especially in the jewelry sector. Bel support is easy to use and almost the most favorite Supporting tool for the Designers. In the jewelry production industry, a sizable number of designers create jewelry models using Gem Vision Matrix or Rhino.

Using this plug-in a designer doesn’t have to needlessly switch between the software. The following types of supports are suitable for Bel support.

  • One Point Support: This is the simplest type of support, where one end is on the design and the other is on the build platform.
  • Two-Point support: Support that is applied between two points within a design is known as two-point support. It might be necessary to cover the islands that are inaccessible from the Ground pane or Build plate.
  • Point to n: This kind of support is typically used to either provide tree-style sprues on rings for casting or 3D printing or to cover multiple areas with a single base support.

The types of supports that were just explained are the main kinds that are usually required for jewelry.

 

What are the complications with Bel supports?

Bel support while giving a one-stop solution for supporting jewelry has a few drawbacks that arise with modern jewelry designs.

  • Bel Support while instrumental is 3D printing comes with the nightmare of cleaning supports after printing. The circle that is suppository intended for the breaking point between the support and the design is the contact point of a Bel support. But to achieve this Designers make the following mistakes.
    • Sometimes, in order to make removal easier in the future, designers include extra thin supports; however, doing so might lead to failed printing and detail distortion.
    • o Designers Rely on Hard Resins for the supports to be able to break easily. Hard Resin doesn’t always translate to good Castable Resin Because newer resins tend to be smooth and have a high wax content for optimal casting outcomes, they run the danger of losing time and labor in botched castings in their effort to save time on cleaning. As the point of contact is the circular solid while trying to remove from thin gauge surfaces and thin filigree wires. There is a huge chance of breakage which costs the jewelry manufacturer lost time.
    • Due to the circular solid support contact, when the support it broken the circle solid remains on the design. Which requires extra work in cleaning and polishing which would result in the wastage of precious metal. Additionally, the finished product would have more weight if it were eventually kept unchanged.

 

What is the Alternative or Solution to Bel Supports?

  • The best solution in practice in the Cone style of support structures. The main difference between cone style and bell support is the point of contact. The point of contact in the Bell Support is a round solid, but in the Cone design, the point of contact is the cone tip, which fractures easily. 
  • While Bel supports automatically alter their gauge based on the height of contact in the jewelry design after providing the initial radius. Cone-style support structures are more adjustable and provide you with greater freedom to create your own support.
  • Some of the known software that supports cone style of support are
    • Chitubox
    • Protoslicer
    • Lychee

This is how easily you can remove the cone style of supports

In this step by step tutorial by Protospeed. You can see how to put a support & Sprues on a single Ring using Matrix & Protosllicer. You can skip to 0:40 sec to see how easily cone supports are removed.

 

 

Conclusion:

Actually, many software packages provide various features. While providing a nearly all-inclusive service, Bel Support falls short in a few respects. This is due to the fact that 3D printing and castable resins had not developed to the same degree in 2015. Now with the advent of fast printing need for one stop solution is arising. A good Designer dealing with support structure would not confine themselves to a single software. Depending on the kind of jewelry they are manufacturing, the kinds of 3D printers, and the Castable resin they are utilizing, they would alter their workflow.

The best thing that could happen to the jewelry production sector using 3D printers is for Rhino to have a support plugin that could offer a cone style of support with more customization options.