No off-the-shelf cover fit this HVAC opening, and an unvented plate was not an option — the system still had to breathe. The client asked for a one-off, clean-sheet design that would keep debris out without choking airflow.
The challenge
The opening sat where dropped debris could fall straight into the ductwork, and the cover had to survive the occasional knock. It also lives next to conditioned and unconditioned air, so the part would see repeated temperature swings without the luxury of loose tolerances.
The customer specification was clear: impact-resistant, breathable, and dimensionally stable through temperature changes — and it had to fit an opening no catalog part matched.
Our approach
We designed the panel from scratch around the measured opening: a hexagonal ventilation field sized to stop debris while keeping the open area the system needs, a recessed rear tray that seats into the opening, and relief cutouts that clear the surrounding hardware.
Large-format FDM in an impact-tolerant thermoplastic handled both requirements at once — a tough panel at full size, printed as a single piece.
- Clean-sheet design to the customer’s specification
- Hex-perforated face balancing airflow and debris protection
- Recessed mounting geometry fitted to the measured opening
- Single-piece large-format FDM build
The outcome
The finished panel drops into the opening, breathes, and shrugs off contact — exactly the one-off the specification asked for.
Because the cover exists as a parametric model, a replacement or a variant for a second opening is a print away.
