Polymaker is hosting a 3D Printed Hook Tournament.
We invite the 3D printing community to show off their engineering skills and design the strongest hook!
During this single-elimination tournament, hooks will face each other in a tensile strength contest until one of them breaks or let go. From the qualifiers to the final, only one will survive! However, the top 3 hooks will be rewarded with the below prizes.
We will start accepting entries from August 25th to September 25th.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to follow the tournament
https://www.youtube.com/c/Polymaker
There are several factors that could influence the overall strength of the 3D printed hooks. The obvious one is the material choice however in this tournament we want to focus on your design and printing skills so the material will be fixed for everyone. Other factors are:
Design:
As the hook has to be an open geometry, the design choices are crucial to prevent unnecessary deformation and take full advantage of the 50g of material you are allowed to use. The size and shape of the hook are free as long as it follows the other specifications and the hook has to be only one piece!
Slicing:
Although the STL file will give you the shape of your hook, the slicing part is also important to take advantage of certain printing settings which will enhance your hook strength.
Printing:
Finally, the printing process is the final step, properly maintained hardware and proper printing environment will ensure that the hook is printed as intended!
Several post-processing ways could improve the hook strength however no post-processing is allowed in this tournament.
What are the characteristics of the hook?
- Printed in PolyMax™ PLA (any color)
- Printed with a 0.4mm nozzle
- The weight should not exceed 50g
- The hook must allow two quick links to attach on both sides for the test (if not intuitive please attach a quick drawing of where to attach the quick links with the hooks)
- The hook must be open, it cannot contain any complete “holes”
- No post-processing (Coating, polishing, painting, annealing...)
- No internal reinforcement (steel bars, carbon fibers, ...)
*EDIT: 09/15/20 Due to the receiving of a few inquiries we would like to highlight that support removal IS indeed a post-processing step. Please note that if you have any doubts about the rules we would recommend to check with us prior to start designing the hooks.
*EDIT: 09/18/20 After receiving 2 entries a little bit on the edge of the rules which we have not predicted, we would like to highlight that the spirit of the tournament was mainly around a tensile strength battle. Although we admire the creativity and effort, we will not accept "hooks" which will make the two metal S-hook hooked on themselves since this way there will be no tensile strength applied to the PLA hook
How are we going to test the hooks?
- The two hooks will be hooked to each other as well as to the tensile test machine by metallic “s” hooks (the metallic “s” hooks are described in the following image).
- A tensile force will slowly increase until one of the hook let go or breaks.
Check this demo video for the hook battle setup
Who can participate?
- All individuals interested in participating in the tournament are welcome
- Companies can also send an official hook to represent them (only one design per company, the hook will be named after the company but it must be sent under the name of a person and this person will receive the prize in case of reaching the final)
How many hooks to send?
3 exactly same hooks have to be printed:
- The first hook will be used for the 64th, 32nd, 16th, 8th and quarter-final
- The second hook will be used for the semi-final
- The third hook will be used for the final or the secondary final.
How to send the hook?
- Here are the 5 addresses you can send the 3 hooks to:
US:
Contact: Cody McKenzie / Number: +1 8437079015
Address: Polymaker LLC, 29 Plantation park DR STE 503 Bluffton, SC 29910 - 9005
EU:
Contact: Luke Taylor / Number: +31 302819683
Address: Polymaker B.V, Vondellaan 106, 3521 GH Utrecht, The Netherlands
China:
Contact: Oriana Serra / Number: +86 2155970153
Address: Polymaker, 1018 Miyun Road, building 701, Yangpu District, Shanghai 200092
Japan:
Contact: Wada San / Number: +81 08010926514
Address: Higashiikebukuro 5-73 Bldg Nagashima 6F Toshima-Ku, Tokyo 170 0013
Australia:
Contact: Michael Tyson / Number: +618 8464 0554
Address: 1 / 1265 Main North Road, Para Hills West, SA 5096
- Put the hooks in a bag with the participant name.
- Before sending the 3 hooks please fill in the following form to record your entry:
- We accept all hooks and the packages sent before September 25.
The first 128 hooks will join the formal contest. But we have to weigh them and check if the hooks meet all the requirements.
If we have another 128 hooks that meet the requirements, we will do a bigger contest and include them all.
If any of the first 128 hooks are disqualified, we will choose the hooks from the rest based on its entry recording form submission time.
Check the latest update of this tournament from this article:
Watch the video to learn how to participate in the Hook Tournament.
Don't worry if you don't know how to design a hook. You can quickly master the designing skill on polymaker.ptt.live
Check out how you can make your hook stronger
CNC Kitchen will quickly tell you about the contest, how you can enter and what we can learn for rock climbing equipment to create the strongest hook in this video above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MUWrVKxeqI&t=
Check the video from The 3D Print General
Who has the strongest 3D printed Hook? Join the Game!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel (Polymaker) to follow the videos of the tournament, will broadcast the battles from the 64th to the final. You can also check the status of the tournament on Facebook (Polymaker.3D), Twitter (Polymaker_3D), and Instagram (polymaker_3D).
