Replacement buckle for Exped backpacks

The Buckle of my Exped Serac Backpack broke because I unintentionally stepped on it with my hiking boots. I decided to design and print the replacement buckle myself.

Design Preparation:

I have a few different Exped Backpacks and luckily even they are from a different product series they have the same buckle system.

First I scanned the contour of the buckle with a conventional 2D scanner. After that I modelled the buckle in 3D with the scan and some measurements as reference.

Print Preparation:

I printed the the buckle on my Bambu Lab X1C. The nozzle size is 0.4mm and the layer height was set to 0.1mm for a smooth and precise print. I used PETG over PLA because it is more flexible, does not tend to break easily and is better for outdoor use. I printed the first few layers in red (to signal the back face of the buckle) and the rest in grey. For the triangular bridge of the buckle a support structure is needed. The support is only needed for the first line of the triangle (the tip). The support can be easily removed because there are almost no contact points. (when using a printer with sufficient cooling it maybe works without support)

The first print turned out great right away. The tolerances did fit perfectly. The printing time was about 50 minutes. (I used a bit slower speeds as in the standard settings)

Reference Buckle:

Replacement Buckle:

I already used the backpack a few times and the buckle holds up great. When using the buckle I can feel almost no difference to the original one.

original:

replacement:

The buckle can be used for following products:

• EXPED - Serac (the one I made it for)
• EXPED - Black Ice (the one I got my template part from)
• EXPED - Whiteout

[https://www.exped.com/en/products/backpacks](https://www.exped.com/en/products/backpacks)