Brass 3D printing material

Particulary adapted for jewelry creation, discover all information and advice to help you print your 3D model in our Brass (metal) material.

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Brass Material Guide

What is Brass?

Sculpteo’s brass material is composed of 80% copper, 15% zinc and 5% tin. It can be raw, mirror polished or mirror polished and plated. The final product is solid but susceptible to scratching and tarnishes quickly when exposed to air. It wears as would a brass product purchased from a mass-producing jewelry store.

What can you do with Brass?

Our brass models are assumed to encounter prolonged skin contact and will cause no harm in doing so. In fact, our brass models are particularly adapted for jewelry creation.

Brass oxidizes in air, especially in humid conditions. We recommend keeping your brass models separately from your other jewels and to maintain them using a soft cloth slightly moistened with soapy water.

Pricing and delivery

The printing price of your design is calculated automatically the moment it is placed online. As you modify your object you will note that the price changes automatically. The pricing is based on a series of factors, including: total volume, object size, and bounding box.

Turn around time for our brass material is 7 to 9 business days. The plating option can extend the processing time by 2 days on average. That delay can vary depending on our 3D printers’ load. The estimated shipping time is also calculated automatically as the object is uploaded.

Delivery time is in addition to the processing time. The shipping speed is determined by the shipping option you choose at checkout.

3D printing process for our Brass material

For our brass 3D prints, we use a lost-wax casting technique, where the original wax model is first printed using our 3D printers. From there a mold is made around the wax, before it is melted and filled with brass, creating your object. 

Finishing options available for Brass

We offer 6 different finishes for your brass object’s exterior surface.

  • Raw: The model goes through a quick sanding process, removing any of the large impurities in the object. The remaining surface is rough but wearable as a ring or otherwise.
  • Mirror Polish: The model is polished to a mirror shine in several steps through a tribofinishing machine. The mirror polishing uses a method of subtractive polishing, thus finer details may be less visible after the process. The inside of the object will also not be polished as it cannot be reached by hand.
  • White Rhodium Plating: The electroplating technique is used to plate your brass model. During electroplating, the 3D printed object is covered with a very thin layer of white rhodium, which is considered to be a precious metal. White Rhodium is similar to white gold and is used to protect your brass object from oxidation that may suffer from its exposure to air. 
    White Rhodium Plating thickness: 1 μm.
  • Black Rhodium Plating: As during the White Rhodium Plating, also, in this case, is used electroplating. During electroplating, the 3D printed object is covered with a very thin layer of black rhodium. As black rhodium is a precious metal, it gives your 3D printed parts a dark grey tint. Moreover, it is recommended to use black rhodium plating finish on your brass objects as it protects them from oxidation. 
    White Rhodium Plating thickness: 1 μm.
  • Gold Plating: During this procedure, a thin layer of gold is applied onto the surface of your 3D printed brass part. As explained in the previous plating options, this option protects the brass from getting oxidized. In addition, it gives your brass objects a shiny and elegant gold surface, perfect for jewelry and decorative parts. 
    Gold Plating thickness: 3 μm.
  • Pink Gold Plating: When you plate your brass objects with Pink Gold Plating, a thin layer of pink gold is applied on your brass model. This prevents the surface of your 3D printed from oxidation and it gives your brass items a pink-gold finish, perfectly adept for jewelry. 
    Pink Gold Plating thickness: 3 μm.
For additional finishes, you can contact our sales team at sales[at]sculpteo.com 
 
While designing your parts, please take into consideration the minimum detail volume. If the restrictions are not respected, elements too thin and too sharp edges will be smoothed out while being polished, affecting the look of your model.
Standard layer thickness25 μm
AccuracyUnpolished Max: 0.8mm 
Polished Max: 0.8mm 

As a result, it is important that your uploaded file is the highest quality possible, such that no triangulation will occur in the final print. Yet, keep in mind that your 3D file cannot be up to 50Mb in size. 

The layer thickness for our Brass is 25 µm. Shrinkage may occur during the printing process. Thus, parts should be designed with the following shrinkage considerations:

  • Raw parts: up to 2% shrinkage (On Average) 
  • Polished parts: up to 3% shrinkage (On Average) 
Minimum size0.6 x 2.4 x 2.4 mm
Maximum size125 x 125 x 40 mm
Minimum wall thickness0.8 mm
Minimum wall thickness stemmed elements1 mm
Minimum wall thickness particular design aspects 1 mm

3d printing casting

The walls of your design must adhere to the minimum thickness in order to guarantee the structure will be supported without breaking under its own weight. If the walls of your model are less than this minimum, you should simply thicken the walls in a 3D designing program or choose a material more adapted for thin designs.

A stemmed element is a design aspect that is at least twice as long as it is thick. For unsupported and stemmed elements or parts of the design with a particular design constraint, it is also important to respect a greater thickness in order to guarantee the object will not break.  Please mind that if your model has a very weak geometry, it will need a more supported structure to survive the whole casting and finishing process. Also, try to avoid the very sharp edges. Due to our intensive polishing process, these edges will get rounded off, and the final result might be different than what you expected.

With a 0.8 wall thickness, your design will be slightly flexible. To obtain more rigidity, we advise a 2mm wall thickness. Brass is a relatively malleable and heavy material, it can be distorted if too much weight is applied to an area of your object. We recommend that you thicken the most stressed parts, or choose a more fitting material for your design.

Good to know

Brass is a relatively malleable material. The most stressed and fragile areas may be distorted. We recommend that you thicken them to avoid distortions.

Do not forget

Icon to keep in mind that solidity check tool don't detect physical aberrations

Keep in mind that our solidity check tool does not detect physical aberrations such as floating parts, unstable position, parts supporting too much weight relative to their thickness, etc. Particular care must be given to the geometry of your design and the most stressed parts must be thickened.

Minimum size of details0.4 mm
Minimum height and width detailsEmbossed: 0.5 mm 
Engraved: 0.4 mm
Minimum height and width for a readable textWidth: 0.5 mm
Height 1.5 mm
Enlargement ratio1/1

For your plated 3D printed objects,  the polished/premium cast materials the minimum wall thickness is 0.8mm. In wire, it should be 1.20mm. 

For your plated 3D printed objects, the minimum engraved and embossed detail level should be 0.3mm for raw and 0.35 for polished cast material. The depth to width ratio should be 1:1. If the depth of the model is larger than the width we can have problems in casting.

For brass, the main determining factor in a detail minimum size is the casting process. As an object is copied into a mold then refilled with brass, some etched and embossed details become more complicated to fill. Thus in order for detail and text to be visible and will not break we recommend following our recommended sizes at the very least. To ensure better visibility, details’ width must be at least as big as their depth.

Enclosed parts?No
Interlocking parts?No

interlocking parts

Brass models do not have the ability to be printed with objects enclosed within another object. This is because the object is first printed in wax, which requires supports for otherwise free-floating objects.

Minimum spacing between fixed walls0.3 mm

Clearance is the space between any two parts, walls or wires. Products are printed in wax, and then a liquid plaster mold is poured around them. If the clearance between features is very small, the plaster may not fully infiltrate the tiny gap. And if it does, a plaster wall that is too thin can break when the liquid metal is poured around it. Both issues can cause defects in your product.  To ensure the successful creation of your product, make the clearance between walls and wires greater than the indicated minimum. If your clearance is too small, try making the gap bigger, or consider fusing the features if their independence is unnecessary.

Assembly?No

Assembled pieces are currently not possible with our brass printing option.

Hollowing?No

hollowing

As the print is first carried out in wax, the object cannot be hollowed in the manner some of our other materials are able.

Files with Multiple Objects?No


Icon to show that you can't print a 3D file containing several objects

It is not possible to 3D print a 3D file containing several objects in brass.

Mechanical PropertiesConditionsUnitValue
Composition of our brass materialCopper: 80% 
Zinc: 15% 
Tin: 5%
Elongation at break%30
Tensile moduleGPa111
Tensile strengthMPa250
Melting point°C927
BiocompatibilityNo

Ready to 3D print with Brass?

With Sculpteo’s online 3D printing service you’re just a few clicks away from professional Brass 3D printing. Your 3D model is printed with the highest quality and delivered straight to your door. 

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