Hi there !
If you find a local hub that offers CAD designing and printing you should be fine. The problem that you will have is the limitation of materials. Can you describe how flexible your parts should be ? Also something that’s important to know is, if the part should be just flexible or not only flexible, but also elastic.
I could design you the parts from scratch and print them in a wide variety of materials, also some that are flexible. You can directly contact me via 3dHubs by following this link:
https://www.3dhubs.com/siegen/hubs/marius/
Otherwise you could also contact me via skype:
Nickname: “railes123”
You’d need to give me more details about the parts that you require in order to get the correct material for you, some properties of the part that i need to know are mentioned above, but here are some more questions that will help finding the right material:
-Surface properties: Should the print be sticky, normal or even slippery
-Durability: Does the part need to resist strong impacts or any other heavy abuse ?
-Grade of flexibility: Please comment to this with an everyday-object that has the flexibility that you are looking for
-Elasticity: Should your part only bend or should it elongate / be elastic?
-Resistances: Some materials are biodegradable or dissolve in certain chemicals, are there solvents or acids that the print has to resist
-Food safety: As your parts are for use with animals you might want the parts to be food safe, in case that one part gets loose and eaten up by either a child or horse, …
I can’t find Coho 3D’s hub at the moment so i don’t know, what materials and prices that hub offers. At first sight I’d recommend Nylon as material for you. Nylon is durable, a little bit flexible, has a smooth surface and is accurate (no warping or contracting when heated), resistant to most chemicals and it resists very much abuse. The downside is, that Nylon can take up water so you should keep those parts as dry as possible, some rain wont dissolve the part, but you shouldnt let it sit in water.
There is a variety of Nylons that you can choose from, at the moment I do only offer Bridge Nylon which is especially good for parts with holes etc. in it, as it can easily “bridge” over gaps in the print (hence the name). Another concideration would be Taulman3d’s 910 Alloy which has similar properties, but is much stronger and a little bit stiffer, also it doesn’t take up as much water (I think it doesnt take up any water/moisture).
Contact me if you need more informations and guidance.
Hope to hear from you,
Marius
EDIT: I forgot to mention, that shipment, for orders placed before the first of may, is free. Also the Taulman 910 Alloy that I’ve mentioned earlier doesn’t take up any moisture according to my informations. There are other materials that might fit your needs depending on the flexibility that you want.
