Case Study: Nokia achieves a fully functional, 3D-printable Lumia 820 cover with Materialise

Optimizing a Nokia Lumia 820 Cover for 3D Printing

Nokia released schematics for a customizable Nokia Lumia 820 cover so consumers could 3D print their own cases, but the design wasn’t optimized for additive manufacturing. Materialise’s consumer service, i.materialise, picked up a Lumia 820 and tested the files, finding that buttons didn’t function, separately printed buttons didn’t fit, and covers often broke when clipped on or off — prompting the need for engineering adjustments by Materialise’s specialists.

Materialise’s Engineering Services used Materialise 3-matic and Magics to re-engineer the cover for multiple technologies (Stereolithography, Laser Sintering, FDM), increasing wall thickness (from 0.9 mm to 2 mm), splitting the shell, adjusting button tolerances, printing buttons separately in resin, rounding corners for ABS, and optimizing print orientation. The result from Materialise was fully functional, durable covers with working buttons that can be reliably 3D printed by consumers or online services.

Nokia