3D Printing in Africa: 3D Printing in Ghana

3D printed hydraulic robot

3D printing in Ghana can be considered to be in transition from the early to middle stage of development. This is in comparison with other active countries such as South Africa or Kenya. Despite the slow development, the West African country has brought quite unique and interesting innovations to the 3D printing ecosystem.

Klaks 3D printer

When one looks at Ghana’s 3D printing landscape, the most outstanding story is the university students who built a 3D printer from electronic waste. The students identified as Klaks 3D took two weeks to build a 3D printer using electronic waste for the bulk of the components. The innovation was intended to enhance teaching and learning basics in schools, particularly in 3D printing. From an African viewpoint, this is encouraging and motivating and even from an environmental worldview, this could be an inspiration. The students approach aligns very well with the principle of zero waste: make a printer from waste and print objects at zero waste.

Student flying 3D printed drone

Another interesting development from Ghana’s 3D printing landscape is the building of a drone by students from a private university. The students at Ashesi University constructed the drone using 3D printed parts and actually posted a video on their Facebook wall showing its flight. The drone is still more of a prototype but is more than good enough to further democratize drone technology. It is not known how long it took the students to build the drone but at least it’s a very positive start.

Little girl with 3D printed arm prosthesis.

A very recent development worth mentioning is the partnership between Tech Era (award winning tech non-profit based in Ghana) and Dextra (Canadian based social enterprise and engineering company) for the creation of an Assistive Technology Makerspace in Ashesi University. The purpose for this development is to create and develop teaching and learning materials for learners with disabilities. Using 3D printing, students working in the Ashesi D-lab will design and develop learning materials for assistive technologies for children with disability. This is a promising development for children with disabilities as they will be able to participate in STEM related programs and make use of the assistive technologies in the future. One can only imagine the joy and relief such an initiative will bring to both the parents and their children with disabilities. The thought of developing learning materials so that they are equipped to be able to participate in the economy is more than blessing if one would put that way. This initiative by Ghana should surely spread to the rest of the continent. I am positive it will make a massive impact not only in Ghana but the continent at large.

Ghana is still treading the journey in utilizing 3D printing technology and with the above mentioned developments they are getting there. The West African country is also on a positive growth phase and so a market based approach would work for Ghana considering the kind of development that it wishes to pursue with 3D printing technology. Delivery of products and services to underprivileged and undeserved markets is very important and required for economic growth and improving standard of living. Funding and resource mobilisation may be important for Ghana in its pursuit to applying 3D printing. The young generation has great interest and are enthusiastic with an eagerness to provide solutions. This is a very healthy condition for 3D printing and an innovative community will emerge as the technology develops.

Caterpillar Is a Powerful Rhino Grasshopper Plug-in for Greater Customization in 3D Printing

Bio-inspired 3D printings by (Zheng and Schleicher 2018)

Whether you are a serious 3D printing user or not, you have probably heard of Grasshopper, a popular add on of 3D modeling software Rhino. Grasshopper lets you use scripts and algorithms to create 3D models and generative designs. It is one of the quickest ways through which designers can get started with generative designs and lets you in a visual build things such as parametric designs or designs based on datasets. You may not yet be familiar with other features, however, recently outlined by University of Pennsylvania’s Hao Zheng in ‘Caterpillar – A GCode Translator in Grasshopper.’ Here, we learn more about a new plug-in Caterpillar and its ability to unleash full use of the three degrees of freedom of Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machines and non-traditional 3D printing. Caterpillar lets you generate Gcode from within Grasshopper. Your dataset or generative algorithm or existing model can now be quickly turned into Gcode that you can then optimize for 3D printing. This will enable people to quickly implement very creative and new 3D printing methods and techniques as well as enable the making of more non-traditional 3D printing processes.

Zheng points out what many of have noticed over time, as 3D printing users are simply not satisfied to stop and enjoy what has been supplied to them in terms of what is now traditional 3D printing in the layer-by-layer, bottom-to-top approach. For better control, Zheng postulates that users must be able to use ‘the three degrees of freedom’ – meaning X, Y, and Z and also go beyond them. More degrees of freedom and different ways of printing mean more applications are possible. The developers have added to conventional methods previously with accompaniments such as robotic arms, 3D printers that print on curved surfaces, as well as those that extrude alternative materials like wire.

For Caterpillar to do the necessary work, you must first give it the necessary data required. This means printers settings, to include many different parameters:

“Printer bed size (MM) contains three numbers (x, y, z), indicating the maximum printing size of the printer. Heated bed temperature (°C), extruder temperature (°C), and filament diameter (MM) are based on the printing material, which normally will not be changed once settled. Layer height (MM) and subdivision distance (MM) control the precision of the printing, while printing speed (%), moving speed (%), retraction speed (%), and retraction distance (MM) control how fast the printer will act when printing, moving without printing, and retracting materials. Extruder width (%) and extruder multiplier (%) together decide the width of the printed toolpaths.”

Work flow of Caterpillar in Grasshopper

Most users can just go with their default settings to be safe, but there may be some cases where you want to customize without default restriction. Infill settings must be considered too if you are slicing the model to provide infill.

For slicer and toolpath generation, there are numerous options:

  • Planar slicer
  • Curved slicer
  • Curved toolpaths for special use
  • User-defined toolpaths

Planar Slicer (left), Curved Slicer (middle), User-defined Toolpath (right)

The workflow of the GCode generator then creates toolpaths based on points based on inputted curves, and optimization occurs:

“So before inputting the given curves to the dividing component, the program will detect and separate curved toolpaths and linear toolpaths, then divide the curved toolpaths as usual and extract the start and end points to represent the linear toolpaths.”

The GCode decoder then translates text files, assisting users in further design and control through keywords extraction and model rebuilding.

Commonly-Used Gcode.

“In the future, non-conventional customized 3D printing will be highly developed for both educational and industrial purposes,” concludes Zheng. “Low-cost 3-axis 3D printers with extra toolkits can handle a variety of tasks, providing an alternative for expensive robotic fabrication.”

In 3D printing, the central theme is customization. Users can create on an infinite scale, whenever they want, rapidly and affordability. Hardware choices continue to expand with the needs of 3D printing enthusiasts around the world, as do materials. Changes and evolution in software tend to be even more sweeping—and desired—as computer programs allow us to design objects and then control printing processes. While add-ons, plug-ins, and updates are continually available, software programs drive innovations—whether in allowing more advanced bioprinting and tissue engineering, scanning, or simulation of other processes. Caterpillar makes is much easier to implement, design and develop completely new 3D printing techniques and we can not wait to see the impact that this will have.

What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

Printing Simulation

[Source / Images: ‘Caterpillar – A GCode Translator in Grasshopper]

London: Researchers Use Drop-on-Demand Method to 3D Print Latex & Rubber

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London are exploring a new drop-on-demand (DoD) method with latex, and rubber. They explain their work in ‘Additive Manufacturing with Liquid Latex and Recycled End-of-Life Rubber,’ detailing how they have been able to create a new method to overcome some of the challenges in compatibility between materials and inkjet systems.

The authors, Miguel A. Quetzeri-Santiago, Clara L. Hedegaard, and J. Rafael Castrejón-Pita are aware that while many companies have been interesting in using elastomers and rubbers in additive manufacturing, the end product has often been inferior to those made through traditional processes. Liquid elastomers have also been considered as an option, but viscosity restrictions prohibited their use, or success in fabrication. Clogging and agglomeration have also been stumbling points.

With drop-on-demand inkjet printing, the researchers considered a way to bypass previous challenges and take advantage of printing with droplets that can be printed close to each other, subsequently coalescing and creating strong layers. The process can be driven by different types of pressure pulsing that cause the droplets to be ejected from the nozzle. Advantages of this process include:

  • Lack of substrate contact, preventing nozzle contamination
  • Higher printing speeds
  • Greater control
  • Variability in droplet volume and speed
  • Flexibility in production and options for customization
  • Potential for recycling rubber

Two printheads, one small and one large, were created in the lab, with pulse generators driving the actuator—and each pulse resulting in one drop:

“The small printhead uses a 20 mm diameter loudspeaker (8 Ohms, 0.1 W), has an inner liquid reservoir volume of 4 mL, and a conical nozzle with an outer diameter of 1.0 mm,” stated the researchers. “The larger printhead uses a Visaton Structure-Borne Driver loudspeaker (8 Ohms, 25 W) with a 9 mL volume reservoir and a 0.85 mm conical nozzle.”

The inks used in this research were as follows:

  • Pure liquid latex – from Liquid Latex Direct (UK), containing 60 percent natural rubber, 40 percent water, and less than .3 percent ammonia.
  • Liquid latex – also from Liquid Latex Direct, containing 60 percent natural rubber, 40 percent water, and less than three percent ammonia.

“While being able to inkjet undiluted liquid latex is an interesting prospect in itself, the ability to add solid particles to form a colloidal ink widens the market applications for this technique,” state the authors. “The addition of particles can be used to reinforce the positive mechanical properties or improve other properties such as thermal and electric conductivity, stiffness, or elasticity of a given construct. Moreover, this includes the possibility of reusing discarded rubber materials, in the form of micronized rubber powder (MRP), in the manufacturing of new products.”

For 3D printing, the research team loaded each printhead, controlling backpressure and monitoring pulse duration and intensity. Each droplet was meant to coalesce into a form, building with layers. They used two different methods for curing, via ambient air and hot air. Continuous printing of the pure liquid latex was noted as ‘consistent and reliable’ in timeframes of up to one hour.

Printing with liquid latex. (a) The experimental setup showing the Grbl controlled stage and the printhead mounting (the 9 mL reservoir printhead is shown); (b) an example of a single layer structure made from pure liquid latex, using a droplet interval of 2.5 s with two close-ups of the corner resolution; (c) varying the droplet interval keeping the pulse signal and nozzle diameter constant: from left to right increasing the interval length from 1.0 to 5.5 s (inserts show bird-eye perspective). All scale bars 1 mm.

In adding parlon powder or micronized rubber powder (MRP), the authors discovered that both materials had a tendency to clump together in the nozzle, and in printing with MRP, ‘solid tire rubber could be clearly visualized in most of the droplets.’ The researchers theorize that a better mixing procedure and more vibration of the printhead reservoir could improve these issues. They also noticed that MRP particles combined with latex decrease the amount of elasticity but do not have any impact on stiffness at all. Overall, their work in 3D printing high solid content latex was successful though, and the researchers stated that this study offers ‘new possibilities’ for recycling tire waste.

“The capability of printing with a high particle loading (high solid content latex with the addition of parlon powder or MRP) and a heterogeneous particle size distribution shows that the printhead design can operate in a wide range of solid particle loadings,” concluded the researchers. “This is a great advance, as most conventional inkjet-based 3D printers cannot operate with viscous liquids or liquids with solid particle loading.”

“A reliable method of AM with liquid latex would bring great merits to the industry, by reducing cost of manufacturing (no molds needed) and adding an unprecedented degree of flexibility in the manufacturing process. Moreover, the study has highlighted a novel method of recycling end-of-life tires. With this work, it is foreseeable that in the future we can create 3D printed objects with rubber tire waste, expanding the current recycling and waste management methods.”

Liquid latex with rubber particle loading. (a) Time-lapse of the printhead mounted to the x/y stage, jetting pure liquid latex (1 drop/1.5 s) (scale bar 1 mm); microscopy images of liquid latex with (b) 3.5 wt. % and (c) 6.7 wt. % parlon loading; (d) a defined array made by jetting liquid latex containing 6.7 wt. % parlon powder; (e) cast rubber samples of pure liquid latex and with increasing MRP loading (5, 9, and 16 wt. %); (f) a graph of Young’s Modulus, determined using indentation and tensile testing, of cast samples with 5, 9, and 16 wt. % MRP (control; 0 wt. % MRP), and printed samples of one and four layers (1LP and 4LP, respectively) (control thin: a pure latex cast). Data reported as mean ± standard deviation; (g) example of elongation of a one layer printed sample (1LP) under a constant strain tensile test (insert: original sample) and (h) tensile stress and strain at breaking point, derived from the constant tensile strain experiments. Data reported as mean ± standard deviation. MRP, micronized rubber powder.

The science and study of materials plays a huge part in 3D printing, and there has been great interest in exploring rubber also to its flexibility, as well as using it in the tire industry, and creating other materials like TPU to simulate its qualities. Find out more about liquid latex in 3D printing here. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

[Source / Images: Manufacturing with Liquid Latex and Recycled End-of-Life Rubber]

External spool holder for FlashForge Finder & Inventor II 3D printer #3DPrinting #3DThursday

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CreativeTools shared this project on Thingiverse!

The FlashForge Finder and Inventor II series are compatible with 1.75 mm PLA filament. If you happen to have PLA spools that don’t fit inside the build-in filament casing, then this external spool holder makes it easy to fit them on your 3D printer.

The holder’s axle is hollow to accommodate one or more units of the Universal Filament Filter and Lubricator. The end of the axle has a thread that fits the corresponding screw cap. We recommend using this small filter/lubricator to keep the filament clean before it enters the extruder.

Please note that when using this external holder, the filament bypasses the built-in filament detection switch. Therefore the printer won’t be able to sense when the spool runs out of filament and pause the 3D-print. If you use external spools you will need to turn of the filament sensing feature under the settings menu on the machines touchscreen display.

See more!


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Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

Rock Pi 4 (with heatsink) case #3DThursday #3DPrinting

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Shared by xaxas on Thingiverse:

This is a case for the Rock Pi 4 SBC with installed large heatsink. The top part snaps on the heatsink to create a tray that slides into the base part. Thanks to another snap fit both parts should stay together without screws.

Because I reduced tolerances between both parts after my print this thing has work-in-progress state. Additionally, maybe the ventilation has to be imporved to promote the heatsink’s convection.

Download the files and learn more


649-1
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

Articulated hand #3DPrinting #3DThursday

35824bf78b15b49fed3ab0098bc49bc6 preview featured

NOP21 shared this project on Thingiverse!


649-1
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

Wind-Up Bathtub Boat #3DThursday #3DPrinting

70039a1361331c47fc4640798e39eed3 preview featured

Shared by GreenDot on Thingiverse:

Sunday is bathing day.

My daughter has a squeaky frog with which she can splash around water.
My son has a small boat that he happily shoves through the tub. Only me, I have nothing. I want something too.
I want a working wind-up boat!

Everything can be printed in PLA.

Download the files and learn more


649-1
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

Alchemite Machine Learning Engine Used to Design New Alloy for Direct Laser Deposition 3D Printing

Artificial intelligence (AI) company Intellegens, which is a spin-off from the University of Cambridge, created a unique toolset that can train deep neural networks from noisy or sparse data. The machine learning algorithm, called Alchemite, was created at the university’s Cavendish Laboratory, and is now making it faster, easier, and less expensive to design new materials for 3D printing projects. The Alchemite engine is the company’s first commercial product, and was recently used by a research collaboration to design a new nickel-based alloy for direct laser deposition.

Researchers at the university’s Stone Group, along with several commercial partners, saved about $10 million and 15 years in research and development by using the Alchemite engine to analyze information about existing materials and find a new combustor alloy that could be used to 3D print jet engine components that satisfy the aerospace industry’s exacting performance targets.

“Worldwide there are millions of materials available commercially that are characterised by hundreds of different properties. Using traditional techniques to explore the information we know about these materials, to come up with new substances, substrates and systems, is a painstaking process that can take months if not years,” Gareth Conduit, the Chief Technology Officer at Intellegens, explained. “Learning the underlying correlations in existing materials data, to estimate missing properties, the Alchemite engine can quickly, efficiently and accurately propose new materials with target properties – speeding up the development process. The potential for this technology in the field of direct laser deposition and across the wider materials sector is huge – particularly in fields such as 3D printing, where new materials are needed to work with completely different production processes.”

Alchemite engine

Alchemite is based on deep learning algorithms which are able to see correlations between all available parameters in corrupt, fragmented, noisy, and unstructured datasets. The engine then unravels these data problems and creates accurate models that are able to find errors, optimize target properties, and predict missing values. Alchemite has been used in many applications, including drug discovery, patient analytics, predictive maintenance, and advanced materials.

Thin films of oxides deposited with atomic layer precision using pulsed laser deposition. [Image: Adam A. Læssøe]

“Worldwide there are millions of materials available commercially that are characterised by hundreds of different properties. Using traditional techniques to explore the information we know about these materials, to come up with new substances, substrates and systems, is a painstaking process that can take months if not years. Learning the underlying correlations in existing materials data, to estimate missing properties, the Alchemite™ engine can quickly, efficiently and accurately propose new materials with target properties – speeding up the development process,” said Gareth, who is also a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. “The potential for this technology in the field of direct laser deposition and across the wider materials sector is huge – particularly in fields such as 3D printing, where new materials are needed to work with completely different production processes.”

Direct laser deposition – a form of DED – is used in many industries to repair and manufacture bespoke and high-value parts, such as turbine blades, oil drilling tools, and aerospace engine components, like the Stone Group is working on. As with most 3D printing methods, direct laser deposition can help component manufacturers save a lot of time and money, but next generation materials that can accommodate high stress gradients and temperature are needed to help bring the process to its full potential.

When it comes to developing new materials with more traditional methods of research, a lot of expensive and time-consuming trial and error can occur, and the process becomes even more difficult when it comes to designing new alloys for direct laser deposition. As of right now, this AM method has only been applied to about ten nickel-alloy compositions, which really limits how much data is available to use for future research. But Intellegens’ Alchemite engine helped the team get around this, and complete the material selection process more quickly.

(a) Secondary electron micrograph image for AlloyDLD. (b) Representative geometry of a sample combustor manufactured by direct laser deposition. [Image: Intelligens]

Because Alchemite can learn from data that’s only 0.05% complete, the researchers were able to confirm potential new alloy properties and predict with higher accuracy how they would function in the real world. Once they used the engine to find the best alloy, the team completed a series of experiments to confirm its physical properties, such as fatigue life, density, phase stability, creep resistance, oxidation, and resistance to thermal stresses. The results of these experiments showed that the new nickel-based alloy was much better suited for direct laser deposition 3D printing, and making jet engine components, than other commercially available alloys.

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

Solvay Announces Winners of 2019 Solvay AM Cup, First Place Winners Take $10K Home

It’s that time of year again, as Italy’s Solvay announces winners for what seems to have become a yearly tradition with their AM Cup. For 2019, students were at the ready, and given an industrial task as they were challenged to use Radel® PPSU AM-ready filament for creating an ASTM D638 Type V size tensile bar in the z-axis, along with a wavy-shaped pressure pipe.

While it may seem like an easy challenge to be given an assignment to print out a couple of parts, there was much more to it than that; in fact, students from three continents participated in this contest, with 35 student teams from 32 universities. Solvay’s ultimate goal in initiating the 2019 Solvay AM Cup was to highlight the impact 3D printing materials can have on different applications today due to the high performance of parts—and the availability of different materials and methods. Solvay’s focus was for the students to explore the disruptive technology and learn more about ‘the art of the possible.’

The teams were judged on their collective enterprise in making the parts, judged on:

  • Creativity in 3D printing
  • Maximum dimensional accuracy
  • Mechanical properties
  • Performance in burst pressure tests and translucency

Each team was provided with a spool of Radel® polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) AM filament and sent on their way to make plans for winning the competition. Those who were successful in their mission have just been announced:

“The team secured the first prize due to its ability to achieve 100 percent z-axis strength in the Type V size tensile bar and its wavy pipe showed overall dimensional accuracy, surface uniformity, and a remarkable mechanical performance by enduring a burst pressure test of 1,400 psi (96.5 bar) for two hours,” states Solvay in their press release, also commenting that there was very little separating the teams who won second and third place regarding performance in strength and ductility of their parts.

The winners won $10,000, $5,000, and $3,000, respectively, with the idea that these funds would be well-invested in activities related to higher learning, or ‘societal or entrepreneurial’ endeavors. The 3D printed parts they submitted for the challenge will be on display at the Rapid + TCT show in Detroit, MI (Booth #747) from May 21-23.

“It was inspiring to see the various approaches to solving the challenges of fused filament fabrication (FFF) such as bed adhesion and chamber temperature management. The winning team demonstrated once more that 3D printed parts can virtually match the performance and quality of conventional injection molded parts, provided material, hardware, and process are optimized together,” said Ryan Hammonds, R&D platform manager for Solvay’s Specialty Polymers global business unit and president of the AM Cup Jury.

“We look forward to sharing with our customers the benefits gained from this edition of the Solvay AM Cup for 3D printing the best possible PPSU parts for applications in various industries such as aerospace, healthcare and industrial.”

Along with inspiring students to explore the infinite opportunities available with 3D design and printing, Solvay has continued their momentum, offering strong opinions on the future of 3D printing, expanding materials within their manufacturing processes, and entering into dynamic partnerships. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

[Source / Images: Solvay]

Tree – strom attiny85 #3DPrinting #3DThursday

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pihrt shared this project on Thingiverse!


649-1
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!