Have I come up with a unique idea?

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First, I have a hard time believing no one thought of this before.

I needed to bond metal window screen to a 3D printed cylinder. Then, the cylinder would get a 3mm epoxy layer to seal it.

I just needed to hold the screen on long enough for the epoxy to cure. And I thought the epoxy might make tape let go.

So I came up with the following. I put the screen on the surface, then used a 1/8” drill bit in my fingers to ‘grind’ a hole through the screen, and a little bit into the plastic.
Then I took the 3D pen and extruded the hole full and left a 3mm ball above the surface. Then I grabbed the little spatula and squashed it flat before it cooled.
The result was way past what I expected. It seems to be a very thin, robust, connection.
I started thinking about cosplay applications for a light diffuser or speaker grills on battle armour, etc.
Anyway, I’m curious if anyone has seen something like this before. Could be useful
I attached a picture of the test piece I did.

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image1920×1203 239 KB

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If I were you, I’d hold off on calling a patent attorney. Sorry.

What you’re doing could be described as “hot air”, “heat” or “heat stake” (as well as other names) riveting. In these processes, a thermoplastic is heated into an opening in another material and then pushed down to form a rivet fastener.

I’ve seen variations on what you’ve done used in a wide variety of products.

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Yeah. I had ZERO plans to do that. I was just curious what it’s called.
Thanks! I’ll look that up

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