SealingLid: FDM 3D Printing Technique that Bends Thin Walls to Work as a Lid

3D printers inspire user creativity by allowing them to design and create actual 3D objects. Unfortunately, printers often require long printing time and waste a lot of materials. Various techniques have been proposed to alleviate the issues, such as modification of the model and the user’s intervention during the printing process. We propose another approach, SealingLid, that creates thin walls and bends them by the printer’s head to form lids. It does not require model modification or user intervention and works with simple unmodified FDM 3D printers. A test confirms that the technique reduces the materials used for infill and support structures. Some primitive objects are fabricated to explore the possibilities of the technique.