Printing a detailed design from a paper drawing, casting the result in clear cast to make a night light, need some advice  

Printing a detailed design from a paper drawing, casting the result in clear cast to make a night light, need some advice

Encapsulating printed objects in resin

I want to make a lamp or night light and have a clear vision of what I want to do but no clue on how. My goal is to get practical suggestions on how to proceed rather than canned solutions (although I will certainly take a complete solution!!).

The finished product has a thin (1/8” or so) print with several isolated parts which together make up the design. The print is then covered with a casting resin to make a ¼” thick flat panel. The panel is then displayed using a back-lighted frame.  The result should be a soft glow outlining the encapsulated object.

I have several production issues to solve in order to get to the finished product. The two most pressing issues are:

The design is pen and ink on actual paper. I need to convert this into a printable 3D construct. The design has several tiny, disconnected parts. These need to be kept in the proper physical relationship and cannot shift during the casting process.

Creating the Print:

I’m currently using Autocad Fusion to generate mechanical objects.  I am competent in the parts of the program I use but don’t use many of the features and none relating to images.  I am willing to use other software if it better fits the problem. I also use the Corel suite of products for image processing.

I have the design in image (jpeg) or vector (svg) formats and can likely get to anything else.

I’m looking for recommendations on both process and software.

Printing:

My initial thought is to print a thin white mat or bib under all the parts then print the actual parts in silver or black.  This will keep the small parts aligned and prevent them from shifting during the casting process.  A variation would be to print a sparse lattice of thin lines to accomplish the same thing.

The finished panel is roughly playing card size and ¼” thick.  If this works as well as I hope there will be panels up to 8 or 10” on a side in the future.

The printed assembly is then placed into a mold and clear or near transparent resin is cast.

There are then several choices:

If the mat is translucent it can be incorporated into the finished product. It provides for even diffusion of the light and softens the impact of the LED lighting. For casting, the mat will be suspended about 1/8” above the bottom of the mold so that the resin totally encapsulates the print. The casting will be done under pressure so that no air bubbles are visible. If the mat is not translucent or is “blotchy” then adhere the print to the bottom of the mold so that no resin gets under. The mat then forms the back of the cast panel. Break the mat away leaving only the parts in the casting. The mat can be coated to prevent the resin from adhering. This will make the cleaning process easier. Should (2) be impractical, then print the parts onto a transparent carrier of some kind with no mat. This is a variation of choice (1) above. The parts and carrier would then be cast as a unit. If all else fails, print the parts individually and attach them to a transparent carrier manually. This will work but gets labor intensive and precludes intricate designs.

Thanks for spending some time helping out.