The Folding Swatch Fan is a practical filament sample system that is nice to look at and fun to use - as it's naturally a functional fan. Many swatch examples I have seen only serve one purpose and are rather uninspiring, so this design was my answer. It is based very loosely on traditional folding hand fans, especially in the use of concentric zones of pattern or design.

The printing tests included on the blade are quite limited, but I tried to pack what I could think of in there while making the design and weight distribution sensible.

Printing Details

There are two versions included:

Swatch Fan 200mm 1

• Complex version with various simple test patterns such as layer thickness, infill, bridging (3MF / STL). Edge tab that interlocks with adjacent blade to hold the fan open evenly and to keep the set stored straight more easily.
• Starting with the 3MF file in PrusaSlicer is recommended, so the intended model arrangement and settings can be noted - the three .STL files are combined for the zones of different infill and solid layers needed.
• The only settings intended to be changed here are the infill percentage and pattern; for the normal scale of 200mm length (100%) I would keep the infill at around 30% depending on pattern.

Swatch Fan 200mm 2

• Simple version of a plain blade (3MF / STL / SVG) for flat/infill only or for complete rework in this form.

Assembly and Finishing

The swatches are meant to be joined with an M3 screw and bolt, (On the set of sixteen I have printed here, a 25mm screw fits them neatly) but it could also be done with a variably-sized printed plastic pin. Thick knotted string, wire or leather could also be used.

Marking of the filament details is nothing complicated - simply use a fine marker on the back side if you wish.

Other Notes

• My swatches pictured here were all printed with a 0.4mm nozzle; mostly in PLA and also some in PETG. I've not used any other nozzle sizes or scales so cannot say how these would turn out.
• The edge tab/notch design used is far from perfect (it can be difficult to spread out in the normal direction and prefers to go the opposite way) - I welcome any suggestions for how it can be improved.
• Suggestions on how to improve the printing tests would also be most welcome.
• I reckon around 24 samples to a fan is the sensible limit.