3D Printing Materials Archives - Page 42 of 43 - Perfect 3D Printing Filament

Adaptive3D CEO Discusses the Chemistry of 3D Printing Materials

Dr. Walter Voit

In April of this year, Dallas, Texas company Adaptive3D launched what it said was the highest-strain 3D printable photopolymer in the world. Dr. Walter Voit, CEO of Adaptive3D, played a big role in the development of the material, called ToughRubber, and recently discussed it in more detail. Adaptive3D claims that ToughRubber can stretch to four times, or 450 percent, its original length, absorb deformation and then recover. This is in contrast to many 3D printable materials, which tend to be brittle. These properties could make ToughRubber ideal for numerous applications, such as the aerospace, automotive, medical and footwear industries.

A lot of careful science went into the development of the material, said Dr. Voit.

“There is this critical space between chemists and materials scientists,” he said. “Chemists are dealing with how reactions happen at the atomic scale and material scientists are building parts from the top down. And they kind of meet in this realm—the nano world—and it’s really difficult for computers, still today, to model that world.”

In the lab, Dr. Voit and his team study the physics of polymers and the properties of mixing compounds and ratios. In addition to the development of ToughRubber, the team has made several fascinating discoveries through their work. For example, they worked with a sulfur-hydrogen group called thiols, which have a rapid reaction with other components. The team discovered how to change this reaction to the thiol groups using the right combination of monomers, oligomers, dyes, inhibitors, initiators, sensitizers, and fillers, resulting in materials that can produce strong and durable 3D printed products.

ToughRubber is another addition to the growing market of functional 3D printable materials, meant not just for prototyping or visual appeal but for actual use in final products. Next, Adaptive3D is looking towards using 3D printing to develop sneakers.

“So what we’re trying to do is lighten that midsole portion to more effectively translate stresses and strains from your leg, knee, foot to ground—to have a lighter-weight shoe that’s more comfortable; that gives you more energy back when you’re running,” said Dr. Voit. “It uses less material, it’s greener, it’s more sustainable, and it’s made with superior plastics and then rubbers.”

Dr. Voit is also a tenured professor at the University of Texas, Dallas, and took a sabbatical to work with Adaptive3D on the development of 3D printing materials. The research that went into ToughRubber began at the university.

“What’s been exciting is to see this whole team of great scientists, researchers, and chemists—a lot of whom are former students from UT Dallas—getting to be in the lab making these discoveries daily and weekly,” he said. “Success really is luck—you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time and get lucky. To the credit of the administration here, they’ve created that right place and right time and so now it’s up to really talented teams to get lucky. That’s happening with greater and greater frequency and I’m very excited about what we can do for Dallas, for Texas, and for the country.”

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[Source/Images: UT Dallas]

Breakthrough Made in 3D Printing White and Brightly Colored Objects with Polymer Powder

The Sinterit Lisa [Image: Sinterit]

Selective laser sintering is becoming an increasingly popular method of 3D printing, due to its numerous advantages: it produces parts with high strength and stiffness, is capable of creating extremely complex geometries, and requires no supports and therefore very little post-processing. It’s also becoming more accessible, thanks to the development of desktop SLS 3D printers such as the Sinterit Lisa. The use of photothermal sensitizers to facilitate the sintering of polymer powders is becoming more common, but there’s one drawback: conventional carbon-based synthesizers can only produce gray or black parts.

3D printed parts can be dyed or painted, but dark gray or black objects are much harder to color than white or lighter-colored ones. Therefore, a group of researchers decided to find out of photothermal sensitizers could be developed that would produce white or colored parts. They presented their research in a paper entitled “White and Brightly Colored 3D Printing Based on Resonant Photothermal Sensitizers,” which you can access here.

“The use of photothermal sensitizers to facilitate the sintering of polymer powders is rapidly becoming a pivotal additive manufacturing technology, impacting multiple sectors of industry,” the researchers state. “However, conventional carbon-based sensitizers can only produce black or gray objects. To create white or colorful prints with this method, visibly transparent equivalents are needed. Here, we address this problem by designing resonant photothermal sensitizers made of plasmonic nanoparticles that strongly absorb in the near-infrared, while only minimally interacting with visible light.”

To create stable colorful nanocomposite powders, gold nanorods were coated with silica before being mixed with polyamide powders. At resonance, according to the researchers, the composites showed greatly improved light-to-heat conversion compared with equivalent composites using the industry standard carbon black as a synthesizer. The composites could also be sintered using low-power light sources. The resulting powders and 3D prints made from the powders appeared bright white and could produce colorful objects when mixed with dyes.

“Our results open a new route to utilize plasmonic nanoparticles to produce colorful and functional 3D-printed objects,” the researchers explain.

The recently published study is encouraging for those who want to pursue applications in which color is a necessary element. Even the best dyes have trouble turning black objects into brightly colored ones, and it’s especially difficult to get white objects from black or gray. There’s a reason that white is such a popular color choice for FDM filament; it can easily be dyed or painted to obtain just about any color. Thanks to this research, people working with photothermal sensitizers for laser sintering can have that option as well.

When discussing the properties of 3D printed objects, color may not seem like the most important element, but it does carry a lot of importance in many applications – artistic ones, for example, or in manufacturing environments where different parts are identified by color. When black and gray are the only options, applications are limited. With bright white or color as options, however, new possibilities are opened up.

Authors of the paper include Alexander W. Powell, Alexandros Stavrinadis, Ignacio de Miguel, Gerasimos Konstantatos, and Romain Quidant.

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Use of Simulation to Evaluate How Well 3D Printing Bioinks Work

[Image: CollPlant]

Plenty of research has been completed regarding the different materials we use to create biomedical parts. Many innovative bioinks – biomaterials loaded with cells to 3D print biological structures – have been developed for 3D bioprinting purposes, from materials like stem cells, gelatin hydrogels, and even sugarcane waste. 3D bioprinting itself is changing the field of medicine as we know it, because we can now fabricate patient-specific human tissues in a laboratory setting.

However, this technology only works if researchers and doctors have good bioinks on hand…and how do we know the materials are good? It’s expensive, difficult, and can take a long time to evaluate if these bioinks are 3D printable. That’s why many many researchers, like a team from the Wallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC) in Sweden are starting to rely more and more on computer simulations to optimize these biomaterials.

Kajsa Markstedt, a PhD student of chemistry and chemical engineering and biopolymer technology at WWSC, and her colleagues recently partnered up with Johan Göhl’s Computational Engineering and Design team at the Fraunhofer Chalmers Centre (FCC) to test out a process for using a computational fluid dynamics tool to model the way bioinks are dispensed.

“As well as allowing us to evaluate the printability of a bioink, simulations could also help us choose the printing technique that should be employed depending on the target tissue. Such techniques vary depending on the viscosity and nature of the ink being printed, and include ink-jet printing, laser-induced forward transfer, microvalve- and extrusion-based bioprinting,” said Markstedt.

“To model how a bioink is dispensed, we used its mass flow rate and density as input in our calculations. These parameters are the ones most commonly evaluated in experiments when printing designs such as lines, grids or cylinders.”

The team published a paper, titled “Simulations of 3D bioprinting: predicting bioprintability of nanofibrillar inks,” in the Biofabrication journal; co-authors include Göhl, Markstedt, Andreas Mark, Karl Håkansson, Paul Gatenholm, and Fredrik Edelvik.

The abstract reads, “To fulfill the multiple requirements of a bioink, a wide range of materials and bioink composition are being developed and evaluated with regard to cell viability, mechanical performance and printability. It is essential that the printability and printing fidelity is not neglected since failure in printing the targeted architecture may be catastrophic for the survival of the cells and consequently the function of the printed tissue. However, experimental evaluation of bioinks printability is time-consuming and must be kept at a minimum, especially when 3D bioprinting with cells that are valuable and costly. This paper demonstrates how experimental evaluation could be complemented with computer based simulations to evaluate newly developed bioinks. Here, a computational fluid dynamics simulation tool was used to study the influence of different printing parameters and evaluate the predictability of the printing process. Based on data from oscillation frequency measurements of the evaluated bioinks, a full stress rheology model was used, where the viscoelastic behaviour of the material was captured.”

Visual comparison between (L) photo of printed grid structure and (R) simulation of printed grid structure when using 4% CNF ink.

According to Markstedt, 3D printability of a bioink is most often determined by the ratio of line width to the diameter of a 3D printer’s nozzle, the curvature of 3D printed lines, and how many layers can be printed before structure collapse. The FCC scientists also used a dynamic contact-angle model, which uses surface tension and a contact angle as input, to the bioinks’ wettability on a substracte.

“In our simulations, we also used the printing path of a grid structure as input,” Markstedt said.

The full rheology model was based on the material’s viscoelastic behavior and the ink-oscillation frequency data obtained in the team’s experiments. For cellulose nanofibril (CNF) bioinks with different rheological properties, simulations produced outcomes that were similar to experimental results in lab evaluations. Additionally, the researchers could use the computer model the follow the real-time 3D printing process and study the behavior of various inks during dispensing.

Markstedt said, “In experimental evaluations, we often only have the properties of the final, printed grid structure to go on. This is a time-consuming way to develop new bioinks or to optimize printing parameters for a specific ink. It is also expensive since the prepared bioink containing cells is precious.”

It’s also important to test the biostructure soon after it’s 3D printed, because the cells are still viable at that point; this limits how long evaluations can last.

“This often leads to many bioinks being printed at printing parameters that have not been optimized for a specific bioink composition. The result is that the right architecture is not produced, which can be catastrophic because the printed tissue does not function properly,” said Markstedt. “For example, the printed line may be too thin causing the structure to break, or too thick, which prevents nutrients and oxygen reaching all the cells in the bioink.”

Comparison of the distribution of viscoelastic stresses in lines printed with 4% CNF ink and ink 6040 at 0.3, 0.4 and $0.5,mathrm{mm}$ distance between nozzle and plate.

The researchers are fairly certain that their new simulation tool will be able to provide them with far more feedback during 3D printing, like how viscoelastic- and shear stresses are distributed in the ink, while still surmounting all of these issues.

Markstedt said, “This provides a better understanding of why certain printer settings and bioinks work better than others. For example, it allows us to isolate individual parameters, such as printing speed, printer nozzle height, ink flow rate and printing path to study how they influence printing.”

The team will now work on modeling bioink flow inside nozzle geometries that are pre-defined.

“This addition to the model will allow us to observe what effect shear stresses from the nozzle have on the printing process. This will help us to determine how different printing pressures and nozzle shapes affect the bioprintability of a bioink,” explained Göhl.

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[Source: Physics World / Images: Göhl et. al.]

Global Environment Concerns Support R&D for Plastic Recycling in 3D Printing

A recent series of major developments and events has created a new impetus for 3D printing plastic recycling. 3D printing of recycled plastics has multiple benefits, including lower costs and control over the amount of materials that can be used by 3D printers. Currently, 3D printing filament is produced by melting down virgin plastic pellets and extruding the melted plastic through a circular die which is then rolled up into spools. Printing with pellets or recycled materials is more cost effective and energy efficient than printing with new plastic filaments. In addition, direct printing of plastic pellets eliminates the need for further processing and therefore makes them less expensive.

Plastic has always been one of the leading 3D printer material categories. Now there is an expanding global concern about the amount of plastic product waste and in particular its negative impact on oceans and waterways. Improved pellet 3D printing recycling technology can play an important part in helping solve this environmental problem. 3D printing product developers, engineers, designers and environmentalists working on pellet recycling projects have the opportunity to earn US R&D tax credits.

The Research & Development Tax Credit

Enacted in 1981, the now permanent Federal Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit allows a credit that typically ranges from 4%-7% of eligible spending for new and improved products and processes. Qualified research must meet the following four criteria:

Must be technological in nature
Must be a component of the taxpayer’s business
Must represent R&D in the experimental sense and generally includes all such costs related to the development or improvement of a product or process
Must eliminate uncertainty through a process of experimentation that considers one or more alternatives

Eligible costs include US employee wages, cost of supplies consumed in the R&D process, cost of pre-production testing, US contract research expenses, and certain costs associated with developing a patent.

On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed the PATH Act, making the R&D Tax Credit permanent. Beginning in 2016, the R&D credit can be used to offset Alternative Minimum tax for companies with revenue below $50 million and for the first time, pre-profitable and pre-revenue startup businesses can obtain up to $250,000 per year in payroll taxes and cash rebates.

The Growing Scale of the Problem

The March 2018 issue of the Economist contained three articles devoted to the plastic waste environmental issues. Since the 1950s, humans have created 8.3 billion tons of plastic. According to the Economist since the 1950s, 7 to 9% has been recycled. In 2015, it is estimated that humans have generated 8.3 billion tons of plastic, 6.3 billion tons of which has already become waste. If the trends continue, then 12 billion tons of plastic waste will be in landfills.

Global production of plastics has increased from 2 million metric tons in the 1950s to over 400 million metric tons in 2015, most of which are man-made materials. Plus, half of all the plastics that are used become waste after four years. The plastic production in the US doesn’t show signs of slowing.

A team of researchers led a study in 2015 that calculated the amount of plastic waste that drains into the oceans. The results showed that 8 million metric tons of plastic lay in the oceans in 2010. Indonesia is the world’s second biggest plastics polluter. They have pledged to decrease plastic waste in the ocean by 75% by 2025, however some observers doubt that legal rules will be able to enforce and achieve such goals. Last year the government called for a “garbage emergency” where cleaners and trucks were deployed to collect rubbish off the shoreline.

The repercussion of plastic fragments in marine waters is alarming. For the most part, this pollution is not in the form of large, visible containers, but rather small particles. Two main types of small particle plastic pollutants are common in the environment: microfibers and microbeads. Most plastic is not a biodegradable material and when it is exposed to the sun’s UV radiation, it will break down into microfibers. Aside from degradation, these microfibers are produced at industrial quantities as polyester fabrics that are used to create durable and stretchy fabrics. Microfibers enter the water stream when polyester fabrics are washed, and only a fraction is caught by waste treatment facilities. It is estimated that a washing machine could release more than 700,000 microfibers into the environment. Microbeads are less than 5 millimeters long and are added as exfoliants to health and beauty products. Others come from plastic pieces that are degraded over time. In recent years, countries have taken initiatives to ban the sale of products containing microbeads, but this is only a fraction of the plastic waste entering the water stream.

Here are some recent developments involving plastic waste:

Coca-Cola’s announcement that they are committed to 100% recycling by the year 2030
China’s new law prohibiting the importation of plastic waste
Major NGO efforts to address the problem including the MacArthur Foundation
Study finds plastic water bottles contain micro plastics
Improvements in 3D printer recycling technology

The Coca-Cola Announcement

In its January 19th “World Without Waste” announcement, Coca-Cola pledged to recycle 100% of packaging by 2030. Coca-Cola has been a long-time thought leader on environmental issues and previously led efforts for major reductions in water consumption. The company is embracing a multi-faceted approach including material reduction, reuse and recycling. Coca-Cola produces an estimated 110 billion plastic bottles a year, of which the majority around the world ends up in landfills, beaches, and in the ocean.

The Coca-Cola Company announced in January of this year that by 2030, for every bottle they sell they will recycle the equivalent number of bottles. If the plastic waste problem is not solved, Coca-Cola’s CEO said that if Coke can manage to recycle the equivalent of 100% of its packaging, then “there’s no such thing as a single-use bottle.” If plastic is not solved, then the oceans and waterways will suffer. If Coca-Cola is successful in this endeavor, presumably beverage companies and packaged goods companies will follow their lead.

China: No More Western Garbage

As of January 1, 2018, China has banned the importation of 24 categories of waste including plastic waste. China’s government is enacting a plastic waste import ban which is in an attempt to cut down millions of tons of plastic and other recyclables each year. China doesn’t want to be the “world’s garbage dump” as they recycle about half of the globe’s plastics and paper products. Therefore, they are figuring out ways to reduce the waste.

The ban includes plastics, slag from steel making, unsorted scrap paper and discarded textiles. According to China’s WTO, the list has been adjusted to protect both the environment and people’s health. China has been importing loads of waste used as raw materials in industrial production. Last year, China imported 7.3 million tons of plastic waste, nearly half of all world plastic imports. The volume of some waste categories are so great that the new import ban is causing a reverse supply chain waste back up. The best way for the Western waste producers to tackle the problem is to reduce the amount of underlying waste created at the source. Domestically, one compelling use case is to convert plastic waste to 3D printer pellets for the creation of new products.

According to a recent study, China is the country that mismanages the most amount of plastic waste.

NGO Efforts to Address Plastic Waste

In 2016, 90 NGOs joined together to fight plastic waste. It is important for the NGOs fighting plastic waste to learn more about 3D pellet printing technological developments. Three of the major NGOs with plastic waste initiatives are described below:

Ellen MacArthur Foundation

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation provides a vision for the global economy. The MacArthur Foundation is using the principles of the circular economy to bring together the stakeholders to rethink and redesign the future of plastics by starting with packaging. The circular environment will prevent waste and make sure that products will be recycled. Most plastic packaging is used once, which is 95% of the value of plastic packaging material and worth between $80-120 billion per annum. Given projected growth in consumption, by 2050, the oceans are expected to contain more plastic than fish and the entire plastics industry will consume 20% of total oil production and about 15% of the annual carbon budget.

The UN is looking to solve the micro plastic dilemma and reduce marine litter. The UN has drafted goals to decrease plastic waste and marine plastic pollution by 2025. The draft outlines these three key points:

The importance of long-term elimination of litter in oceans and of avoiding detriment to marine ecosystems
Urge other organizations to get involved and join the movement against marine pollution
Encourage all Member States to prioritize policies to avoid marine litter and microplastics from entering into the marine environment

The life in the seas is a “planetary risk” and the UN hopes to send a powerful message that changes the way the world consumes, produces, and tackles pollution. For instance, in Kenya, there is a turtle hospital which treats animals that have ingested plastic waste. In Tanzania, there is plastic waste that litters the coast. Plastic rings and rims of plastic bottle caps have bite marks on them demonstrating that fish have nibbled on them thinking it was potential food. Local townspeople try to clean the filth up, however it is difficult to keep the beaches clean with the amount of waste that washes up on the shore. Some environmentalists feel it is too large a problem to be able to solve by 2025.

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is an NGO with offices around the world including the US, Amsterdam and Scotland. Greenpeace has been observing the coastlines of Scotland to find plastic waste in the environment. Plastic is harmful for marine life including fish, seabirds, and other animals. Plastic has been found at shark feeding grounds, and in Scotland, it is now being discovered in the beaks of seabirds. The NGO is working with the country’s environment secretary, Roseanna Cunningham, to introduce a deposit return scheme for drink containers in Scotland.

Micro plastics

A study conducted by scientists at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Fredonia found that 93% of 259 water bottles contain micro plastic. Bottles of Aqua, Aquafina, Bisteri, Dasani, Epura, Evian, Nestle Pure Life, San Pellegrino and Wahaha water from India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico and the US were sampled, and the researchers identified 325 particles of micro plastic per liter of water. In one study, it was discovered that in one bottle of Nestle Pure Life, the concentrations reached about 10,000 plastic pieces per liter of water. Out of the 259 bottles that were tested, only 17 were plastic free. This is a growing concern among health specialists and more analyses need to be done to prove how detrimental this is for one’s health. A truckload of plastic enters the ocean every minute. Plastics are building up in marine animals which means that humans are also exposed. The micro plastics that are found in the oceans and the toxic chemicals in plastics are creating threats to the environment and its inhabitants. It is essential for individuals to be vigilant about recycling and start using 3D printers which recycle plastic waste.

3D Printer Recycling Plastic Technology

3D printing with pellets provides an alternative way to develop objects instead of reverting to plastic filaments. Due to the lower cost, individuals are able to print with higher-quality materials for the same price as a filament counterpart. However, small, low-cost machines are available that allow for local production of 3D printing filament from pellets or recycling at a reasonable cost.

Engineering students at the University of British Columbia in Canada created the Protocycler which takes plastic water bottles and recycles them back to usable form. In addition, the Filabot is another filament extruder that has been on the market since 2013. These extruders grind the pieces, melt them down, and extrude the plastic filament on a spool. This provides an opportunity for individuals to easily recycle their plastic waste. Instead of throwing out your food container, you can put your plastic waste in the extruder and then make your own plastic spool that you can later print with again. Printing from recycled materials with Protocycler or the Filabot provide an estimated 90% cost savings on every spool that is printed.

The fully automatic operation, combined with real-time diameter feedback, means that anyone can get perfect filament every time they use the device. Small-scale extrusion also disposes of any extra waste that is usually the byproduct from printing. The extruder “closes the loop”, by taking the failed prints and allowing them to be used again to 3D print objects.

Protoprint is a company in India that uses 3D printing as a way to rid their waste and separate recyclables. There are filament sites at garbage dumps and they have developed and trained a network of waste pickers to sort and process the plastic. Once the waste is sorted, they are brought to the shed where they pass through a sorting and grinding machine which converts the plastic into pellets or flakes. The flakes are then passed through the refill-bot which uses a mechanism to create the recycled filament, which is spun on a spool to be used for later use. Protoprint has discovered that this low-cost technology is able to produce a plastic filament which then can be used in 3D printing.

Conclusion

The global community is focusing on problems related to plastic waste both on land and in our oceans. Plastics are the most common type of trash found in the sea. This is a perfect time for filament producers and product designers to offer their recycling solutions. The large volumes of this excess material make it particularly important to develop large footprint plastic products such as car parts, carpets, fencing, and infrastructure products using recycled waste. R&D Tax Credits are available for product designers and engineers who engage in this important effort.

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Charles Goulding & Steve Kelly of R&D Tax Savers discuss plastic recycling.

Estonian Researchers Create 3D Printable Peat Mixture for Cost-Effective Home Construction

Artist’s impression of five 3D printed concrete houses that will be built in Eindhoven. [Image: Houben/Van Mierlo Architects]

By using 3D printing to fabricate structures ranging from hotels and houses to bridges and bus stops, the global construction industry is able to lower costs and increase production speeds, along with making improved, eco-friendly structures with better designs and building materials.

The most commonly used materials for 3D printing structures are concrete and cement. However, there has been research on more unique materials like cellulose, a mixture of seeds and clay, and even materials like bone, skin, bark, and coral for living structures that can fix themselves. Now, scientists from the University of Tartu in Estonia and the Estonian University of Life Sciences have developed a novel new construction material that’s made primarily from peat.

Peat is a soft, heterogeneous mixture of mostly decomposed plant material that’s accumulated in water-saturated environments, like wetlands, in the absence of oxygen. The Estonian Peat Association says that peatlands cover roughly 3% of the Earth’s land area, and peat is also a good alternative to imported fossil energy. You can even mine it through a milling process, where 10 to 20 mm layers are cut loose from the deposit and left to dry; however, most fields need to be larger than 100 hectares for this to pay off.

Peatlands [Image: Estonian Peat Association]

22% of Estonia’s land area is covered in wetlands, which are ripe for growing peat. But, only the drier top part of the peat layer in these areas has been deemed suitable for use, while the unused portions are left to decay. These portions could still be used to help save money – many fractions, like waxes and humic substances, can be separated out from the peat, and you can even produce cellulose with the final residue.

That’s why Estonian researchers have created a self-supporting 3D printing construction material made up of peat and oil shale ash that could lower the costs for a two-story house 3D printed on-site by nearly tenfold.

“So far, no one has produced peat composite as a construction material because peat prevents many materials from hardening,” said Jüri Liiv, a doctor of chemistry at the University of Tartu. “In our project, we managed to overcome this issue.”

Liiv created an organic humate bedding powder out of peat, poultry manure, and wood ash a couple years ago, and while testing which pellets had suitable hardness, he started wondering if peat could be used to create a self-sustaining building material. The answer was yes, and the scientists got right to work.

Instead of using cement, Tartu researchers chose oil shale ash as their mixture’s binder. Because it becomes very basic when it comes into contact with water, this material is classified as a hazardous waste, with a pH of nearly 13. But, ash with such high pH levels is the best for construction materials, and once developed, it’s environmentally harmless.

About 7 million metric tons of oil shale ash are created each year in Estonia, but only 5% is reused – the rest causes major environmental pollution once it’s deposited in ash hills. During tests, scientists discovered a way to reduce the setting time for the peat down to one day from 30 – the material won’t harden if the pH of the pore solution is below nine, so they bind the potassium oxide and alkali metals found in oil shale ash to insoluble compounds to create a very high pH.

Oil shale ash reacts with humic acid while inside the peat, and absorbs carbon dioxide. Then, this binder material succumbs to chemical reactions and turns into regular concrete and limestone. Toomas Tenno, a professor of colloidal and environmental chemistry at Tartu, said that nanosized additives, like nanosilica or silicon smoke, are also added to the peat and oil shale ash to improve their properties.

After determining the humic and fulvic acid content in peat and conducting the XRD analysis of elements and minerals, the possible test mixtures were modeled and small test pieces 3D printed. Here, Toomas Tenno is showing these test pieces. [Image: Merilyn Merisalu]

“As the particles are very small, they dissolve well and distribute throughout the material evenly,” explained Tenno. “Silicon smoke improves the quality of this material significantly.”

It took the team a year to find the optimal mixture that’s strong, with high thermal conductivity. Once it’s hardened, the material is lightweight and durable, with low heat transfer, and is incombustible – even though peat can be used as fuel. While the material takes a day to achieve its initial hardness, it stays elastic for much longer, so you don’t need any fillers or insulation, and structures 3D printed with the peat material become airtight, and noise-blocking, without adding any type of wind protection.

Plenty of research and tests have been completed on this new material, and it’s ready to be manufactured for smaller elements. Additionally, Liiv said the scientists calculated that it would only cost about €5,000 to 3D print the shell of a 100-150 square meter house with this new material, due to the face that peat and oil shale are inexpensive; it would cost ten times more to construct the shell of a framed building of the same size. But while the cost savings alone may make you want to start milling peat for your own 3D printed home, the scientists say that the material isn’t quite ready for 3D printing just yet.

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[Sources: Phys.org / University of Tartu]

Formlabs Introduces New Castable Wax Resin for 3D Printing Jewelry

Formlabs has built its success not only on its high-quality 3D printers, the SLA Form 2 and the SLS Fuse 1, but its wide variety of materials, to which the company is constantly adding. It introduced two new resins at the beginning of the year, then followed up with a novel ceramic resin just a couple of months ago. Today, Formlabs has announced that its latest resin, Castable Wax Resin, is now shipping.

The jewelry market is a competitive one, and more and more jewelers are turning to 3D printing to cast their pieces rather than crafting them by hand or using older techniques to create their casting molds. 3D printing is much faster than any other jewelry manufacturing method, and while the market is full of attractive options for jewelry 3D printers and jewelry casting resins, Formlabs has always been one of the leaders in this particular market – partially because of the time-tested quality of its printers, and partially because of the many material options it presents.

Castable Wax Resin is a wax-filled material designed for direct investment casting, with zero ash content and clean burnout. It’s capable of 3D printing custom parts that are suitable for both try-ons and final pieces. Castable Wax Resin combines a smooth finish with increased part strength and precise print settings for sharp detail in the finished pieces. The material clearly displays fine features such as raised text, filigree wires and meshes, and detailed pavé with no visible layer lines.

“Before bringing 3D printing in-house, I’ve outsourced waxes to be printed, only to discover I needed thicker or thinner dimensions in the first design,” said Andrew Goldstein, Vice President of Zina Sterling Silver. “I’m super excited about the new Castable Wax Resin, the detail was outstanding in the initial prints and the material was so much easier to invest and cast.”

In terms of retail value, Asia Pacific is the largest global market for jewelry, and Formlabs worked closely with jewelry manufacturing partners in China, Japan and India to make sure that Castable Wax Resin could reliably print complex pavé pieces and filigree bracelets, which are especially popular in this region. Formlabs focused on the most challenging designs during product development to ensure that the resin could 3D print virtually anything.

“3D printing is an essential part of the jewelry making process for my jewelry line, LACE by Jenny Wu, because of the complex architectural forms that would be impossible to create by hand,” said designer Jenny Wu. “I was able to test out Castable Wax early with great results and I look forward to continuing to test out materials for future projects. I am excited to work with Formlabs to continue to push the boundaries of 3D printing materials for jewelry.”

Castable Wax Resin is 20% wax-filled and is suitable for a standard burnout schedule or a short eight-hour burnout schedule using strong investments. The resin does not require post-curing; just a quick isopropyl alcohol wash and the part is ready to go with no residual tackiness. The Standard Burnout Schedule is recommended for overnight cycles and for larger flasks and heavier geometries.

If you’re interested in Castable Wax Resin, you can download Formlabs’ Usage Guide, request a free sample part, or check out the company’s recommended casting houses to find a casting partner validated in casting Formlabs resins.

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[Images provided by Formlabs]

Update On Made In Space’s 3D Printed Asteroid Spacecraft Research

California 3D printing and space technology firm Made In Space is responsible for such out of this world innovations as the first commercial 3D printer on the International Space Station, the multi-armed 3D printing space robot Archinaut, and the manufacture of the first extended 3D printed objects in a space-like environment. The company works closely with NASA, and two years ago received funding from the agency for its ambitious plan to turn asteroids into autonomous spaceships, which could help NASA finalize its long-term goal of constructing human colonies in space.

Right now, NASA can only bring back small pieces of space rock. But Project RAMA (Reconstituting Asteroids into Mechanical Automata) hopes to establish the concept feasibility of using analog computers and mechanisms – along with 3D printing – to convert asteroids into huge mechanical spacecraft, which could carry large amounts of raw asteroid material. This could be the impetus for the off-Earth mining that will be necessary if humanity wants to survive and thrive among the stars.

Artist’s illustration of an asteroid that has been turned into a giant mechanical spacecraft, which could fly itself to a mining outpost. [Image: Made In Space]

Asteroids are pretty cool – many of them contain valuable resources, such as water and platinum-group metals, and roughly 100 tons of asteroid and comet material hit the Earth’s atmosphere each day. As part of the plan to turn these massive rock formations into functioning spacecraft, Made In Space plans to send an advanced, robotic seed craft out to space, in order to to meet with several near-Earth asteroids.

This craft would then harvest space rock material and turn it into feedstock, which can be 3D printed to build energy storage, navigation, propulsion, and other important systems on-site. Once the converted asteroid is ready, it can be programmed to autonomously fly to a mining station; according to Made In Space representatives, this approach is far more efficient than having to launch new capture probes out to space rocks.

While we don’t currently have the ability or the technology to 3D print something like a digital guidance computer with materials found on an asteroid, Made In Space realized that one doesn’t have to rely on digital electronics if a huge amount of raw material, with no constraints on mass or volume, is available instead.

“At the end of the day, the thing that we want the asteroid to be is technology that has existed for a long time,” said Made In Space Co-Founder and CTO Jason Dunn. “The question is, ‘Can we convert an asteroid into that technology at some point in the future?’ We think the answer is yes.”

Two years ago, NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which encourages development of space-exploration technologies, awarded Made In Space a $100,000 Phase 1 grant for nine months of initial feasibility studies. During this phase, the company focused on how the seed craft would have to work, defining its requirements, and building a technological roadmap. If the company chooses, it can also apply for a two-year, $500,000 Phase 2 award for continuing concept development. In the meantime, Made In Space is counting on NASA to push forward in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) – the art of living off the land, which is necessary for astronauts who could someday live on planetary outposts.

Required capabilities of the RAMA craft, arranged in approximate order of mass requirements, showing the source of the materials used to provide each capability as assumed for the rest of this study.

These asteroid ships will probably not look much like traditional spaceships, with their electronic circuitry and rocket engines, but instead would use analog computers and a catapult type of propulsion system that will launch asteroid material in a controlled way. By using mass drivers to shoot chunks of itself in one direction, an asteroid could potentially accelerate itself in the opposite direction. While this method is only about 10% as efficient as a chemical rocket engine, the propellant is free.

3D printing could be used to make some of the asteroid spacecraft parts, like flywheel gyros for guidance and stabilization, tanks for storing volatile materials, and solar concentrators to generate mechanical power through the release of pressure to open the tanks.

While Project RAMA is still moving forward, Dunn acknowledges that its completion is still way in the future…and that eventually, it could even have applications on Earth.

Dunn explained, “The anticipation is that the RAMA architecture is a long time line, and when it becomes capable is about the same time that people really need the resources.

“You could build infrastructure in remote locations somewhat autonomously, and convert resources into useful devices and mechanical machines. This actually could solve some pretty big problems on Earth, from housing to construction of things that make people’s lives better.”

Diagram of an asteroid that has been converted into a mechanical spacecraft by a robotic “Seed Craft.” [Image: Zoe Brinkley]

The other goal of Project RAMA is to be able to make asteroids into self-assembled spacecraft.

“One of the big questions is, how do you take today’s most intricate machines and make them replicate themselves? That seems really hard: how do you replicate electronics and processing units and so on,” Dunn said. “And that’s when we had this concept that there are types of machines that could potentially be easy to self-replicate, and those would be very basic, analog type devices. The problem is if you have a small mechanical machine, it’s not very useful. But what if the machine itself was the size of an asteroid? What could you do with a mechanical machine that large?”

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ECCO Steps Forward with 3D Printed Custom Silicone Midsoles

German company ViscoTec, which manufactures systems required for conveying, dosing, applying, filling, and emptying medium to high-viscosity fluids for multiple industries, including automotive, medical, and aerospace, is well-known in the 3D printing world for its two-component print head for viscous materials like silicone. The Bavaria-based company, which began working with 3D printing four years ago, employs about 200 people worldwide, and is now putting its print head to the test through a collaboration with Danish heritage footwear brand and manufacturer ECCO.

ECCO, a family-owned business founded in 1963 with factories and subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Portugal, Slovakia, Thailand, and Vietnam, has a vision of becoming the top premium brand for leather goods and shoes. The latest innovation to be introduced by the Innovation Lab of ECCO is called QUANT-U, an experimental footwear customization project.

QUANT-U relies on three core technologies: real-time analysis, data-driven design, and in-store 3D printing. The project combines these technologies to create custom, personalized midsoles, in just two hours, out of a heat cured two-component silicone.

Most everyone likes personalized products such as shoes, but due to the necessary cost, production time, and expertise involved in making custom footwear, they’re typically not available to everyone. But thanks to ECCO’s partnership with ViscoTec, this is going to change.

3D printing of silicone midsoles with ViscoTec printhead.

In order to specifically coordinate the material properties and the process, ECCO had to rethink its approach to customization, and now plans to utilize ViscoTec’s print head technology and two-component silicone to 3D print customer-specific midsoles for its customers, so each person can enjoy their own tailored fit and comfort.

According to the Innovation Lab ECCO website for QUANT-U, “A midsole is the functional heart of the shoe. It plays a key role in the performance and comfort of your footwear. Two years of research has proven that replacing the standard PU midsoles with 3D printed silicone can tune its inherent properties; viscoelasticity, durability and temperature stability.”

The QUANT-U process has three steps, starting with using scanners and wearable sensors to measure the customer’s feet and build a unique digital footprint. This biomechanical data is then evaluated and interpreted using a sophisticated algorithm, and a unique configuration is generated through structural simulations and machine learning.

This augmented pattern is optimized for each person’s respective feet and activity level by making adjustments to its densities, patterns, and structures, and the final 3D printed midsoles are personalized according to the customer’s own orthopedic parameters for a far more comfortable fit than you’d get with typical store-bought midsoles. Within just a few hours, you’re able to take home your custom 3D printed midsoles, along with your chosen pair of ECCO shoes.

Thermal cross-linking of the individual silicone layers.

By 3D printing the two-component silicone, ECCO is able to optimally counteract the high mechanical stresses we often deal with in everyday life; this is thanks to the midsole’s algorithmic designs combining with the silicone’s unique properties. By utilizing 3D printing, ECCO will be able to fabricate large quantities of personalized midsoles.

Using ViscoTec’s print heads gives ECCO several unique advantages, such as the usage of heat cured two-component silicone and precise 3D printing results, in addition to making sure that the silicone is uniformly mixed in the static mixing tube.

The footwear industry, which often utilizes 3D printing, has been growing fast over the last few years, with its global market expected to reach $371.8 billion by 2020. We often see 3D printed insoles and midsoles available for purchase now, and ECCO’s collaboration with ViscoTec and its unique 3D print head will certainly help keep it in the game.

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[Images provided by ViscoTec]

Metal 3D Printing and Classic Foundry Techniques: Friends or Foes?

The first question that is often asked when a new technology is introduced is: what of the old way of doing things? Sometimes the answer is that it fades into oblivion — think: fortran and floppy disks — other times it falls out of use in mainstream society but becomes the domain of a small, especially devoted community, like calligraphy or pedal loom weaving. And in other cases, it simply shifts its focus and allows itself to flower as it removes extra ‘noise’ from the workflow. John Phillip Sousa wondered if the invention of the phonograph might cause human beings to lose their vocal chords as they would no longer have to sing any song they wished to hear, and an equally pessimistic (although slightly more realistic) group worried that the Kindle would eradicate books altogether.

What has happened is that humanity has access to more music than ever and book production may see a fall in the print of throwaway paperbacks, but there appears to be no reason to fear that beautiful books will be eliminated from publication. One new technology that is causing both concern and overinflated speculation is the introduction of metal 3D printing. The question is: what impact will this technology have on traditional foundries? Foundry work is not inherently antithetical to 3D printing as many have, in fact, been using 3D printing to create molds for years now and have found the technology to be quite helpful in their production.

Beyond the printing of 3D molds, metal 3D printing is demonstrating a capacity for directly creating metal objects that is improving with each passing project. Voxeljet, which recently produced a new design for aircraft doors using 3D metal printing, doesn’t think that this signals the end of the classic foundry, however. Instead, they see it as something akin to a separate track of printing. What made the doors they produced such a good candidate for 3D printing was the need for a precise internal geometry, something impossible to be produced in a foundry. So rather than stealing work from a foundry, they were doing work that otherwise would not have been performed at all. And there are other reasons not to see metal 3D printing as a threat to foundry work, as voxeljet explained in a statement:

“3D metal printing, such as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), currently only competes with foundries in a relatively small segment. The build spaces of DMLS systems are ideally suited to smaller components. And 3D-printed components for aerospace require time-consuming certification, which metal casting has had for decades already. Direct 3D metal printing is also relatively expensive. This is not only due to the high cost of metal powder, but also the high cost of 3D printers and the comparatively slow building speeds.”

In addition to these factors, the products of 3D printing in metal require hand finishing which is labor intensive. All of these factors lead up to an average cost for 3D printed metal pieces that hovers around $160 per pound for aluminum, and $215 per pound for stainless steel, whereas pure cast steel has a price point of about $15 per pound. However, with the introduction of less expensive machinery, greater build bed sizes, and a more experienced workforce, the input prices for 3D printed metal are bound to come down. And so the question arises: will there be a change as the costs associated with metal 3D printing fall?

This uncertainty necessarily creates a degree of concern among those whose businesses and livelihoods depend upon a demand for foundry work. Rather than viewing the technology as an enemy to be shut out, perhaps the best solution is for foundries to get ahead of the game and embrace the tech, integrate it into their workflows and determine for themselves what makes sense to leave to a 3D printer and what can still only be produced at the hands of skilled foundry workers. As Ingo Edere, CEO at voxeljet, stated:

“3D sand and plastic printing are a perfect alternative for foundries, both in terms of cost, as well as the printable complexity. Foundries can manufacture equally complex components without having to change the process chain. Foundries do not have to purchase their own 3D printing systems as there are service providers worldwide supplying 3D sand or plastic printing.”

Clearly, a company such as voxeljet believes in the efficacy of this technology and its firm place as part of the landscape of future production. However, just because something can be 3D printed, doesn’t always mean that it should be, and discerning artisans and clients alike are the ones who will ultimately have to determine where that line lies.

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GROWLAY 3D Printer Filament Allows You to Grow Plants, Mushrooms or Even Cheese

If you grew up in the 1980s or ’90s, you’re likely familiar with Chia Pets, those terra cotta figures shaped like animals, cartoon characters or people’s heads. All you had to do was put moist chia seeds in the terra cotta’s grooves, and they would quickly sprout and give you a green fuzzy “pet.” Chia Pets are still around today, though not as popular as they used to be. Now a German filament maker has designed a sort of Chia Pet for the 21st century. Kai Parthy of Lay Filaments has designed unusual 3D printing filaments in the past, and his latest, GROWLAY, brings to mind a technological Chia Pet, though you can use it to grow much more than just chia seeds.

GROWLAY filament is microcapillary, meaning that it has cavities that absorb and store water, dissolved nutrients or fertilizer. Place seeds or spores on the 3D printed material, and you can grow grass, moss, lichen, fungus, and even cheese or pharma-cultures. The material acts like a breeding ground, allowing for indoor farming without soil. Grass seeds can easily catch and sprout through the filament, while mold grows through the open-cell capillaries and forms a mycelium. The filament also has space for roots to grow, anchoring grass and other small plants to the 3D printed structure. Even fungal spores can germinate in the tiny cavities, so you can grow your own mushrooms. (Maybe not eat them, though – you can never be too careful with mushrooms.)

Above: Growing Gorgonzola; below: white cheese

GROWLAY can be sterilized for food or research purposes with liquid or gas, though not thermally. The material is an absorptive carrier for agents and comes in two different versions: GROWLAY White and GROWLAY Brown. GROWLAY White is fully compostable and has open capillaries, and is a more experimental filament designed for experienced users. GROWLAY Brown is easier to print, with higher rigidity, temperature stability and tensile strength than GROWLAY White. It also has open capillaries, but contains organic nutrients in the form of wood particles to help your plants or cultures grow.

If you want a different color option than white or brown, GROWLAY can also be colored with food coloring. There are many possibilities for a filament like this – adding some grass seed or moss to an intricate 3D print will provide some creative decor, or some alfalfa or broccoli seed will sprout into edible greens. If you’re brave, you can try growing your own cheese, or you can conduct your own research on mold or fungi.

Lay Filaments has a number of other unique materials, such as the lightweight LAYWOOD and the reflective REFLECT-O-LAY. GROWLAY is the latest addition to the filament line, and may be the most interesting yet – it’s not every day you encounter a 3D printing material that allows you to grow food or conduct scientific research.

Left: GROWLAY Brown, middle: GROWLAY with mold, right: GROWLAY with lichen

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[Images: Lay Filaments]