I do not know anything about 3D printing, let me know if another place might be more appropriate for this post.
My friend about three months ago was in a catastrophic motorcycle accident. He was hit by a texting F150 truck driver. He lost his leg, an eye and has had pretty much full body reconstruction, including jaw and face. He was wondering if he could 3D scan in the helmet he was wearing with all the first responders/doctors (who helped save him that night) signatures then give each one a copy to thank them. He is in Ontario/Brampton area. He can pay for it.
Picture is not of actual helmet. Being sent down from up north right now.
The scan is the easy part. The easiest option is photogrammetry (here are phone apps for that), but it’s also quite bad in terms of quality.
Some iPhone models have special hardware in there that allow for better 3D scanning (they originally added it for face unlock), which is probably your best cheap option.
You can also get a professional 3D scan, they aren’t that expensive. I’d guess it should be doable with <€100.
The real problem is reproducing this. Most 3D printing technologies only allow for a single color or maybe 4-8 colors at max, with no color mixing.
The only technology that comes to mind that can do full color 3D printing and is somewhat widely available is MJF, but that technology is firmly professional-grade only, and even small prints are really expensive. Also, depending on how small the prints will be scaled to, the resolution of the color texture and the finish of the final print might not be satisfactory.
All MJF prints I have seen so far had a low-saturation fuzzy look to the printed colors.
Just to give you a very rough overview of MJF printing costs, check out this link: https://all3dp.com/1/mjf-3d-printing-price-comparison-charts-5-sample-projects/
Depending on the size of the finished helmet, expect between €300 and €5000 for one piece.
Thank you. Will pass it on. (Excuse my ignorance in advance not knowing exact terms) I think the best way would be to copy original helmet and scale down, make more copies to cover all the 1st responders. Do a photo scan of surface with signatures etc and wrap it on helmets. Best of both worlds. Not that I know what I am doing. I am sure we will figure it out.
Doing a single colour print and then copy paint onto it sounds really hard. I wouldn’t even know which process to use for that.
Not paint. Scan the whole outside of helmet, print it on a wrap and wrap around the helmet is the idea.
Yeah, that’s what I mean. I wouldn’t even know how to get a wrap onto a complex 3D print.
I have yet to see the helmet and the damage it received(it’s in transit). Guess would depend on how not smooth it is.
Like with all the dents and scrapes? Because a scan is the best tool in that case.
If it’s just a motorcycle helmet, you’d likely have an easier time finding a model that’s close enough and using that.
But yes, you can 3D scan and print a miniature of it. Maybe post in a local sub to see if anyone can meet you somewhere. Or else you’ll have to ship it. I don’t have a scanner unfortunately or else I’d love to help.
I’m glad your friend survived and I wish him a quick recovery!
I should add, that scanning the transparent face/eye guard there will prove challenging, you might want to cover whatever is left of that with tape to help scanning…
Perhaps if you tape transparent parts, only from the inside, then perhaps you might be able to better capture the cracks themselves…
Just my thoughts on it…
Some dulling spray will give you decent enough coverage for a laser scanner to pick up the shape. Helmets tend to have large featureless areas that make optical based scanners struggle and photogrammetry not feasible. A good engineering level scanner will be just fine.
I once ran out of contrast spray on a job, ended up using Tinactin. No shit, it produces a very scannable white matte surface.
Yup all the bumps and dents. Knowing him he would leave the viscera on for effect if. He also wants all the signatures as well.
Yeah like someone else mentioned, printing in color AND detail is tough. Resin prints have the best detail, but you would have to paint it after the fact.
I think binder jet printing is what you’re looking for, after you get the scan.
You can create a full color 3d model of the helmet including signatures by using photogrammetry. A phone is enough to do it, there are even apps that do it for free. There are also desktop apps that are open source that can do it. Color 3d printing is also possible with technologies like HP (Multi) Jet fusion. Hobbyist are unlikely to have them but a maker space might.
I would like to point out that while this comment is technically correct, it’s far from the entire story. There’s a lot more that can go wrong when 3D scanning an object than can go right. There’s usually some surface prep needed, black objects can be difficult, you need a good background, and there will also inevitably be some cleanup of the model needed.
Going to look for local. He won’t be in any shape for DIY projects for a while IMO. I figure he will be more focused on designing a new leg for himself once he is.
I used to work for a company that would have been your best chance to get this done, but the business didn’t survive the pandemic.
3D scanning is perfectly plausible; hell it’s not that difficult to rig up an old Kinect (from an Xbox) to do it. Bespoke 3D scanners can get expensive but you can probably find someone to do it. Some 3D scanners will only catch the shape of an object, some can do color as well. The tool I would want to use for this is a structured light scanner, like an Artec Eva.
Most 3D printers would be up to the task of making a little helmet shaped object, but not get the color, especially the signatures. Common FDM or SLA machines aren’t up to that task. The only tech I know of that’ll get you a full color 3D print with the signatures and such will be a color SLS machine.
Selective Laser Sintering is a process where a thin layer of fine plastic powder is laid down, and then a laser shoots the plastic to melt some of the grains together to form a solid object. If you hear about 3D printed metal, this is how that process is done, just hotter. Some SLS machines can also either spray ink or drop colored powder in order to form a more or less full color model. These machines aren’t user friendly, so you’re really only going to find them in professional settings. We didn’t even have one, so when we used one we contracted with a service that had them.
Back when I was working for this company, I would have done the 3D scan and the prep work to turn the raw model into a printable model in-house, and then sent the file out to the fab shop. I’d expect this to run at least a thousand dollars maybe more. And I don’t know who I’d send you to these days, especially not in Canada.
Thank you. Gives him a starting point. He won’t even be out of the hospital for another month or 2 IMO. Going to look for local place that may do it.
It’s definitely possible. Depending on the budget, you can take the helmet to a professional that does 3D fabrication.
I’d say the first step should be to find a local maker space and see if anyone there can help you. Most will have 3d printers, and some might have 3d scanners. If they don’t, maybe someone there personally owns one.
Yes. With the feedback we got best to go local and see if a shop can do it.
No.
(this is the motivation he needs)
Yup
Everyone else is correct that you can scan the helmet and 3d print it but it won’t include the signatures which you seen to want as well.
Yup, to him the focus is the signatures on the helmet. Will be interesting to figure it all out. Plan to go local.
Amusingly, this was just a bit down in my feed
