Living hinge design in 3D Printing - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Living Hinge Design

📖 Scenario: You are designing a simple plastic container with a lid that opens and closes using a living hinge. A living hinge is a thin, flexible section of plastic that connects two rigid parts, allowing them to bend without breaking.This project will guide you through the basic steps to understand and create a living hinge design.

🎯 Goal: Build a basic living hinge design by defining the container parts, setting hinge thickness, applying the hinge design, and completing the assembly.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary called container_parts with keys 'base' and 'lid' and values 'rigid'

Create a variable called hinge_thickness and set it to 0.3 millimeters

Create a dictionary called living_hinge with keys 'type' set to 'flexible' and 'thickness' set to hinge_thickness

Create a dictionary called assembly with keys 'parts' set to container_parts and 'hinge' set to living_hinge

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Living hinges are commonly used in plastic packaging, containers, and lids to allow repeated bending without breaking.

💼 Career

Understanding living hinge design is important for product designers, mechanical engineers, and 3D printing specialists working on flexible plastic parts.

1

Define container parts

Create a dictionary called container_parts with two entries: 'base' set to 'rigid' and 'lid' set to 'rigid'.

3D Printing

# Create the container_parts dictionary with 'base' and 'lid' as rigid parts
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces to create a dictionary with the exact keys and values.

2

Set hinge thickness

Create a variable called hinge_thickness and set it to the float value 0.3 representing millimeters.

3D Printing

container_parts = {'base': 'rigid', 'lid': 'rigid'}
# Define hinge_thickness as 0.3 millimeters
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign the number 0.3 to the variable hinge_thickness without quotes.

3

Create living hinge design

Create a dictionary called living_hinge with keys 'type' set to 'flexible' and 'thickness' set to the variable hinge_thickness.

3D Printing

container_parts = {'base': 'rigid', 'lid': 'rigid'}
hinge_thickness = 0.3
# Create living_hinge dictionary with 'type' and 'thickness'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the variable hinge_thickness as the value for the 'thickness' key.

4

Assemble container with living hinge

Create a dictionary called assembly with keys 'parts' set to container_parts and 'hinge' set to living_hinge.

3D Printing

container_parts = {'base': 'rigid', 'lid': 'rigid'}
hinge_thickness = 0.3
living_hinge = {'type': 'flexible', 'thickness': hinge_thickness}
# Create assembly dictionary combining parts and hinge
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Combine the previous dictionaries into one assembly dictionary.