Bringing the Helmet to Life

Halloween was coming and I wanted a fancy dress. I did not need to go purchase one thing and I did not need to put on something lame. With the brand new WASP printer that simply arrived in our showroom, I needed to make the most of its energy. Lastly, a pal instructed Iron Man. It was excellent, however I had each intention of doing it proper. 

The helmet mannequin was designed by drumguy560 on the Duplicate Prop Boards. I did a number of digging and though this mannequin has been round some time, it nonetheless appears to be the group favourite for 3D printing. It additionally has some wonderful element within the mouth space. I am reposting the recordsdata right here (with permission) in your comfort.

It is not likely apparent the place the smaller items go, so I additionally included a Blender file of the totally assembled helmet so you may see the way it all matches collectively.

I printed the Iron Man helmet with MatterHackers’ PRO Collection Pink PLA and normal sequence Gold PLA. I like the best way the gold appears; it is semi-translucent, so you may see the infill sample (image does not actually seize this). The purple items had been printed on an Ultimaker 2 at 0.1 mm layers, and the gold ones had been performed on a WASP 40 70 at 0.2 mm layers. I estimate the entire print time at about 120 hours. The print time was a bit longer because of the positive layers. We additionally had so as to add a number of vital assist materials, which additionally elevated print time.

Sooner or later I intend on portray all the pieces with Rustoleum, however for the aim of displaying off the capabilities of 3D printing, the helmet will stay unpainted for now.

Most of it’s held along with superglue, nonetheless there was not a very good floor for this between the highest and center purple items. I ended up utilizing a soldering iron on low warmth to weld them collectively on the within.

The default scaling of the helmet is a little bit small for my head, and my head shouldn’t be massive. I printed it at 100% and I can not get it on with out eradicating the jaw. As soon as inside, although, it is fairly roomy. I take this as incentive so as to add servos for the jaw and face plate.

The face plate doesn’t match completely across the high. I think that the WASP was not likely calibrated nicely. I used our temperature managed vacuum oven to heat it up simply previous the glass transition temperature of PLA (65 C). Then I bent it into form and used tape to carry it in place because it cooled off. It matches completely now.

This was actually tougher than it ought to have been. I do know that lots of people have performed this earlier than, so I searched and checked out a number of completely different approaches. I wasn’t actually happy with the present designs folks had printed, and the great ones appeared to have been stored to themselves. Ultimately I made a decision to give you my very own factor based mostly on a 4 bar linkage. This could let me get the exact movement I needed.

Going into this, I knew roughly the place I needed the arms to go. I made a decision to place the motor beneath the middle piece on the brow, like this man did. It is a great spot for conserving the entrance arms hidden. The helmet has two slots alongside the highest which had been clearly supposed for the face plate mechanism. The again arms might undergo there. I lower these out utilizing a Dremel. I at all times prefer to benefit from the pure options of the prop. This makes it extra reasonable. I’ve discovered that when artists design issues like this, they often have some thought of how the piece would really work, even when they do not flesh it out totally.

Motors, Arms, and Stuff

The motor is a normal HiTec interest servo that I acquired out of the storage. I designed this factor to carry it, together with the arm on the opposite facet. The joints are 623ZZ ball bearing and M3 screws.

These are the again arms, which match beneath the slots within the helmet.

I knew it will take a few iterations to get the lengths of the arms proper, and the positions of all of the joints, so I quickly fitted all the pieces along with sizzling glue. What I didn’t understand is that sizzling glue and PLA stick to one another REALLY WELL (it is because the recent glue partially melts the PLA).

4 Bar Linkage

By means of in depth analysis (watching the film lots) I made up my mind that the faceplate ought to transfer out a little bit bit first, then flip up and again. The trick to getting the right movement is to determine the right lengths of the arms and the right positions of the joints.

I took footage of the helmet with the faceplate in 3 completely different positions; closed, open, and midway open. Then I introduced the photographs into GIMP and overlayed them on high of one another. This was the end result:

In SolidWorks, I traced over the composite picture and marked the place the joints can be in all three positions. This totally outlined the arcs and gave me the size of the arms and the centerpoints. It additionally helped that I had already arrange the entrance arm (since I knew the place the motor can be and the place it had to hook up with the face).

I refined it a little bit extra and got here up with the next dimensions for the 4 bars:

Placing all of it collectively

That is the top end result. Every little thing is sizzling glued in place contained in the helmet.

The half that the motor was glued to was form of flimsy, as a result of the vent was proper there. So I took a Craftypen and added some further materials round there to bolster it. You may as well see the chamfers on the entrance of the slots to assist information the arms in.

The helmet was having bother opening typically. This was because of the Grashof situation. The entrance arms would attempt to go a technique, however the again arms would attempt to go the opposite approach and it will get caught. This was fastened by including some weight to the entrance of the face (a bolt), so it will are inclined to tilt in the suitable course.

The entrance arms are what prevents it from going again additional. I intend on bettering this sooner or later  by including a bend to them, so they do not hit the highest.

The setup I’ve proper now could be largely for testing. It is simply an Arduino Mega 2560, with a toggle swap and a 5V PSU. For sensible use, I am going to want one thing extra compact and everlasting. However, for now, this works.

That is the Arduino code to make use of for the toggle swap:

#embrace

Servo faceServo;

void setup(){
  faceServo.connect(9);  // Servo PWM     - Pin 9
  pinMode(40,INPUT);    // Toggle Change - Pin 40
}

void loop(){
  if(digitalRead(40)){
    faceServo.write(45);
  }else{
    faceServo.write(180);
  }
}

And that is one other sketch that allows you to set the servo angle over the serial port:

#embrace

Servo faceServo;

int command =0;
int angle =0;

void setup(){
  faceServo.connect(9);  // Servo PWM - Pin 9
  Serial.start(9600);
}

void loop(){
  if(Serial.obtainable()){
    angle =Serial.parseInt();
    if(angle <=180and angle >=0){
      faceServo.write(angle);
      Serial.println("Shifting");
    }else{
      Serial.println("ERROR");
    }
  }
}

• PET as an alternative of PLA. Extra versatile, extra sturdy, and does not soften on a sizzling day. 

• Bigger. The default scaling is a little bit too small. I’ve to take away the jaw to get it on my head, and even then its a decent squeeze. I shouldn’t have a giant head.

• Folding components in again, like this man did, would make it lots simpler to get on and off.

• Transfer one set of arms to facet temple space as an alternative of the brow. I must redesign all the pieces so as to do that, and the arms would not be as hidden, however it will remedy a number of issues it has with the movement. It additionally would match higher with the unique artist’s intentions (there’s a bolt proper there).

Whether or not you go off the plans of Model 1 or 2, good luck and completely happy printing!

For extra helmet enjoyable, take a look at our CES response video to our undertaking.