3D Printer Capacitors!

These models are 3D printed capacitors! What are they good for? Good question. It was just an experiment but might be an interesting STEM or introductory physics class project. Let’s take a look the design. They are printed using two filaments and in 3 layers. The two outside layers are Protopasta Electrically Conductive Composite PLA – these are the capacitor plates. The interior layer, is basic PLA to act as the insulator between the plates.The original design was a 30x30 mm plate area and printed with a 0.08 layer height with 100% fill. The design is first changed by selecting the Protopasta filament in the AMS. To create the insulator, I used the paint-by-height feature in Bambu studio. I first tried to paint one layer, the center layer, but this did not provide good insulation as an ohmmeter showed a few thousand ohms from plate to plate. So, I then painted two layers of 0.08mm - the middle two layers.Using online calculators, or your physics book, you’ll see that 30x30 mm plates