Beer/Soda Can Insulating Sleeve

This sleeve for soda and beer cans provides insulation comparable to a foam holder, but much cooler (figuratively), keeping your drink cold but remaining warm to the touch. It's designed in OpenSCAD and extensively parameterized with 19 settings for can dimensions, shell thicknesses, texture design, and radial text label content/font/size on the bottom. In its default form, it snugly accommodates a US standard 12 oz (355 ml) aluminum beverage can. Ribs on the inside provide the actual insulation by minimizing contact area with the cold can while creating a static air space around it.

I'd recommend loading Can_Insulator.scad into OpenSCAD (version 2021.01 or later), using the Customizer window to tweak it if desired, then rendering it (F5 = Preview, F6 = Render, F7 = Export Render to STL). Along with Can_Insulator.scad, I've included the required, excellent font metrics library written by Alexander Pruss. That library hacks around an OpenSCAD deficiency in which programs can't query the font metric data necessary to space characters correctly. The two font metrics .scad files should be in the same directory as Can_Insulator.scad. This allows the Can Insulator to have high quality radial text engraved on/through the bottom surface.

This model started out as an exercise in OpenSCAD and evolved into something more sophisticated and useful. If you're interested in reading further about it, please see my blog post here: https://www.fishlet.com/2021/10/29/soda-can-insulator-3d-printed-and-customizable/

Print Settings

Infill of 20% is fine.

I'd recommend setting the slicer Wall Line Count to 1. Cura will print the 1.5 mm wall as two thin shells with sparse infill between. That creates a second air space further improving insulation. If you choose not to do that, you might consider reducing the Wall_Thickness parameter to 1 mm to make it slightly lighter and reduce the overall rim thickness from 4.0 mm to 3.5 mm.

Small differences in the inside diameter make a big difference. A can may fit loosely using an inside diameter of 67 mm, but nice and snug with 66.5 mm.

Category: Kitchen & Dining