RepRapable Recyclebot: Open source 3-D printable extruder for converting plastic to 3-D printing filament

Michigan Tech's Open Sustainability Technology Lab.

Wanted: Students to make a distributed future with solar-powered open-source 3-D printing and recycling.
Contact Dr. Joshua Pearce - Apply here
 MOST: Projects & Publications, Methods, Lit. reviews, People, Sponsors, News
Updates: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube

This page is part of an international project to use RepRap 3-D printing to make OSAT for sustainable development. Learn more.

Research: Open source 3-D printing of OSAT • RecycleBot • LCA of home recycling • Green Distributed Recycling • Ethical Filament • LCA of distributed manufacturing • RepRap LCA Energy and CO2 • Solar-powered RepRaps • solar powered recyclebot • Feasibility hub • Mechanical testing • RepRap printing protocol: MOST‎• Lessons learned • MOST RepRap Build • MOST Prusa Build • MOST HS RepRap build • RepRap Print Server

Make me: Want to build a MOST RepRap? - Start here! • Delta Build Overview:MOST • Athena Build Overview • MOST metal 3-D printer • Humanitarian Crisis Response 3-D Printer

Pearce Publications: Energy Conservation • Energy Policy • Industrial Symbiosis • Life Cycle Analysis • Materials Science • Open Source • Photovoltaic Systems • Solar Cells • Sustainable Development • Sustainability Education

Source

  • Aubrey L. Woern, Joseph R. McCaslin, Adam M. Pringle, and Joshua M. Pearce. RepRapable Recyclebot: Open Source 3-D Printable Extruder for Converting Plastic to 3-D Printing Filament. HardwareX 4C (2018) e00026 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2018.e00026 open access
    • Just the code: OSF
    • FreeCAD users: On the OSF link above the entire assembly is available in the STP file. Open it in FreeCAD and pick what part you would like to modify, export it as .stp, and you will be left with just the part you need. Once you have that, you can save it as just about anything.
    • Smaller FreeCAD 55 MB version - compliments of Marcin at Open Source Ecology - removed all the nuts and bolts and screws
    • Please note that all the instructions are in the HardwareX article above

Updates and Improvements

machine runs. The auger thrust is fully resolved symmetrically about the auger. This redesign also corrected the tangential "pinch" in the hopper that would trap the pellets. Additionally, the center-line distance was some random number, and the sketches were not always anchored to the center line, so the parts where out of alignment as well as portions of the hopper were randomly out of alignment with other parts. This is all fixed.

Open Source Ecology Improvements

Abstract

In order to assist researchers explore the full potential of distributed recycling of post-consumer polymer waste, this article describes a recyclebot, which is a waste plastic extruder capable of making commercial quality 3-D printing filament. The device design takes advantage of both the open source hardware methodology and the paradigm developed by the open source self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printer community. Specifically, this paper describes the design, fabrication and operation of a RepRapable Recyclebot, which refers to the Recyclebot’s ability to provide the filament needed to largely replicate the parts for the Recyclebot on any type of RepRap 3-D printer. The device costs less than $700 in mate rials and can be fabricated in about 24 h. Filament is produced at 0.4 kg/h using 0.24 kWh/kg with a diameter ±4.6%. Thus, filament can be manufactured from commercial pellets for <22% of commercial filament costs. In addition, it can fabricate recycled waste plastic into filament for 2.5 cents/kg, which is <1000X commercial filament costs. The system can fabricate filament from polymers with extrusion temperatures <250 °C and is thus capable of manufacturing custom filament over a wide range of thermopolymers and composites for material science studies of new materials and recyclability studies, as well as research on novel applications of fused filament based 3-D printing.

Keywords

Circular economy; Distributed recycling; Energy conservation; Polymer recycling; Sustainable development; distributed manufacturing; life cycle analysis; recycling; recyclebot; 3-D printing; polymer filament; Open source hardware; Open hardware; Fused filament fabrication; RepRap; Recycling; Polymers; Plastic; Recyclebot; Waste plastic; Composites; Polymer composites; Extruder; Upcycle;  Materials science

See Also

See Also

RepRapable Recyclebot and the Wild West of Recycling
<iframe title='Play video' src='//www.youtube.com/embed/b04mUaI-oTU?enablejsapi=1&rel=0' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'></iframe>
<iframe title='Play video' src='//www.youtube.com/embed/JxF5gunuM1A?enablejsapi=1&rel=0' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'></iframe>

Recycling Technology

Distributed Recycling LCA

Literature Reviews

Externals

  • Cruz, F., Lanza, S., Boudaoud, H., Hoppe, S., & Camargo, M. Polymer Recycling and Additive Manufacturing in an Open Source context: Optimization of processes and methods.
  • Investigating Material Degradation through the Recycling of PLA in Additively Manufactured Parts
  • Mohammed, M.I., Das, A., Gomez-Kervin, E., Wilson, D. and Gibson, I., EcoPrinting: Investigating the use of 100% recycled Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) for Additive Manufacturing.
  • Kariz, M., Sernek, M., Obućina, M. and Kuzman, M.K., 2017. Effect of wood content in FDM filament on properties of 3D printed parts. Materials Today Communications.
  • Kaynak, B., Spoerk, M., Shirole, A., Ziegler, W. and Sapkota, J., 2018. Polypropylene/Cellulose Composites for Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing. Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, p.1800037.
  • O. Martikka et al., "Mechanical Properties of 3D-Printed Wood-Plastic Composites", Key Engineering Materials, Vol. 777, pp. 499-507, 2018
  • Yang, T.C., 2018. Effect of Extrusion Temperature on the Physico-Mechanical Properties of Unidirectional Wood Fiber-Reinforced Polylactic Acid Composite (WFRPC) Components Using Fused Deposition Modeling. Polymers, 10(9), p.976.

News

  1. Michigan Tech researchers invent open-source grinding machine for compression screw 3D printing 3D Printing Industry 72k SVMakers
  2. Open-Source Grinder Makes Compression Screws For Plastic Extruders Easy Hackaday 9.8k, Tech Street Now
  3. Open Source Grinding Machine Cuts Cost of Pellet 3D Printing 3D Print 75.7k, 3D Printing Today
  4. Latest News of 3D Printing Morgen Filament
  5. Grinding Machine from Professor Pearce Medium 79

Literature Reviews

In the News

This article is issued from Appropedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.