nanoparticles Archives - Perfect 3D Printing Filament

Interview with James Nordstrom of 3DPrintClean

James Nordstrom is the founder of 3DPrintClean, which specializes in 3D Printer Filtration and Safety Enclosures. They are looking to solve various issues in terms of safety and public health within the industry of 3D Printing.

What has gotten you to where you are now?

I spent 20 years in software IT, but I always had a fascination in engineering. I did a robotics project in 2010 and that taught me a lot about CAD and various skills. I also worked for various startups in my career.

Can you explain what you do with 3DPrintClean?

My brother’s girlfriend was into comic con. She was building a huge costume with 3D printed parts. Then my brother and I found research on filtration from the Illinois Institute of Technology on various articles on how emissions of 3D printing can be detrimental to one’s health. We then were able to build a prototype quickly. Then we became very involved as one of the first advocates of this. It was interesting as we first were selling a lot to Canada and Europe as they were very health sensitive. Then eventually America started to come around as well. This then allowed us to go more in depth with our solution as well. We started thinking about things like fire safety.

What are your thoughts on sustainability and the circular economy?

This is definitely something we have been thinking about. We have learned a ton about this. The amount of plastic produced with the plastic part and the scaffolding parts is large. PLA is a much better recycling material than typical plastic. If you put it in a landfill, it will not be recyclable. Recycling companies do not know what to do with the material. People use different filament types and that makes them impossible to recycle. There is some great work done in the space from companies like Filabot.

What are some typical areas of concern when a 3D printer is producing a part in terms of sustainability and safety?

Safety is our bread and butter. Filtration and unauthorized access are big areas of concern. I have seen teachers who have had problems as well. I also think it is important to know about the safety behind these materials as well. Resins are a huge problem as well. Metal Sintering powders are also very explosive as well. It is important to keep these things in mind when dealing with 3D Printing and the future of its development.

3D Print Clean

Can you talk about the technology behind 3DPrintClean’s fume and particle filtration system?

We developed proprietary solutions. Most filters do not do well based on the size of the particle. These go straight to your bloodstream when you inhale them. The filter tech addresses various nanoparticles. We also address VOC’s. We pride ourselves on being experts in this field. We constantly look for new ways to filter various products.

The filament side is really interesting. Then are loads of printers that are doing great in terms of safety, but some printers are prone to fire. One thing that shocked us about the filaments is that most printers state that they should be used in a well ventilated area. Everyone also moved to PLA because they thought it was safe.

PLA does produce ultrafine particles as well. This does not mean it is safe. It is especially important in the school when you have growing lungs. A dean from a school we go to used to be a toxicologist and she instantly realized the value of the work we were doing. She then mandated all of their 3D Printers should be using our ventilation systems.

What are some simple things we should all be aware of in terms of 3D printing safety?

I think knowing the basics about mechanical properties is important. Knowing about the heated head is important. Material handling is important especially in SLA printers. Really teaching people to wearing respirators is important. General post processing is important, but knowing about acetone as a flammable object is important. A lot of people used to make their own glue for the bed. One would take acetone and some plastic to make a slosh, but this is actually very dangerous. We realize that with all of these safety concerns taken care of it helps to make a higher quality print. When we have our enclosed system, it allows for air to not affect the temperature.

How important is public health within the growing trend of consumers using 3D printers?

Extremely. It is super critical. People are getting toys and they do not understand them. We have to make people aware of the challenges. It is not something you just put in your bedroom. Professional labs are important to be kept safe. How to be around these items is important. ABS is also flammable, so we have to think about all of these ignition spots.

What are the future plans of 3DPrintClean?

We are continuing to evolve our filters. We will also launch new sizes for printers. We will also continue to build new accessories. We will continue to improve and evolve based on what customers want. People have asked us for fire alarms and text communication to help them know about problems as a remote user. We are just making sure we cover our bases in terms of how we can aid our customers and their safety.

Wageningen University: Adding Some Sparkle to 3D Printed Objects with Gold Nanoparticles

Nanotechnology may seem novel and advanced, but it has actually been used for thousands of years. Metallic nanoparticles are present in glass and pottery from hundreds and thousands of years ago, giving the items a shiny, glittering look. In a paper entitled “Plastic embedded gold nanoparticles as 3D printing dichroic nanocomposite material,” a group of researchers discusses how they fabricated a 3D printable nanocomposite composed of dichroic gold nanoparticles and a 3D printable polymer.

“Dichroic AuNP (gold nanoparticles) were prepared using a modified Turkevich method, thus reducing gold ions to gold nanoparticles using citrate as both reducing and capping agent,” the researchers explain. “In the classical Turkevich method, a boiling chloroauric acid solution is reacted with citrate using a molar ratio citrate to gold of 10, producing AuNP of around 10 nm. When this ratio is changed, the size of the obtained nanoparticles changes as well. We discovered that a citrate/gold ratio between 0.6 and 0.8 produced dichroic nanoparticles that showed a brownish reflection and a purple transmission.”

The nanoparticle solution was studied by transmission electron microscope (TEM).

“The presented synthesis is easy and fast, as it takes only few minutes to obtain the dichroic solution after the addition of the citrate,” the researchers continue. “During the synthesis, the solution changed color multiple times: the yellow solution of the gold ions become blue one minute after the addition of the citrate solution. Two minutes later, the solution showed an intense black color, before becoming dichroic after another two minutes of boiling. The color changed during the synthesis hint that the dichroic nanoparticle formation is not just seeded growth, but a more complex mechanism.”

Once the gold nanoparticle solution was prepared, the nanoparticles were embedded in a 3D printable material that could be used with a standard off-the-shelf FDM 3D printer. The researchers used polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the carrier, as it is one of the most commonly used 3D printing materials, it is water soluble and can thus be mixed with the nanoparticles without need of changing solvent, and because it can be used as a capping agent for nanoparticles.

The researchers compared TEM results of the original dichroic solution to the AuNP-PVA dissolved in water, and found that the nanoparticles were still of the same size and shape as the original ones, showing that the embedding in PVA does not influence the stability of the nanoparticles. Finally, they extruded the material to create a filament for FDM 3D printing. The small percentage of gold did not affect the printability of the PVA. The researchers then 3D printed a replica of the fourth-century Lycurgus cup and coated it in PDMS so it could hold water.

“In conclusion, we showed how to synthesize and embed dichroic nanoparticles in 3D printable material,” the researchers conclude. “The AuNP-PVA nanocomposite is mechanically similar to the bare plastic and its dichroic optical properties are similar to the one shown by the AuNP solution. The 3D printed objects can be coated to achieve water impermeability and stability at room temperature for long time. We can envision this methodology to be used not only by artists, but also for studying optical properties of nanoparticles or, for example in 3D fabrication of optical filters.”

Authors of the paper include Lars Kool, Anton Bunschoten, Aldrik H. Velders and Vittorio Saggiomo.

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

Xjet Opens Additive Manufacturing Center Gives Details on Nanoparticle Jetting 3D Printing We Interview CEO Hanan Gothait

316L Stainless Steel part

A number of journalists and partners have been taken on a whirlwind tour of Israel by Xjet. The ceramics and metal printing company wanted to show us their homeland as well as their new Carmel 1400 AM System and the opening of their Additive Manufacturing Center was the occasion. We stay in Tel Aviv amidst gleaming towers, bustling sidewalk cafes, markets and an impossible number of young people zooming by on electric scooters. A passionate tour guide extols the virtues of the land and her people as our bus drives to Rehovot.

3D Printed Xjet Ceramics

The Carmel 1400 has a 500 by 140 by 200 mm build volume, 10 to 15 micron layer thickness and ways two and three-quarter tonnes. That’s almost two Toyotas. The printer is capable of printing zirconia parts with features of a 100 microns at 1 mm per hour build speed at a part density of 99.95%. The Zirconia Zr02 comes with a support material that let one have a high degree of geometric freedom with this technical ceramic. Part shrinkage is uniform in every direction and predictable. Another new material is Stainless Steel, 316L. Both support and build material are supplied in cartridges in a liquid suspension form.

316L Stainless Steel parts no post-processing apart from support removal and sintering.

Xjet’s technology NanoParticle Jetting has been designed as an inkjet-based technology to make parts at high volume and througput. The nanoparticle build material is then jetted with both support and build material to be jetted simultaneously. The liquid suspension that contains the nanoparticles then evaporates due to a heated chamber. Then parts are sintered, and support is removed. Support is soluble and is dissolved in a solvent bath.

Xjet’s Material Cartridges

Various 3D Printed Xjet Parts

The crowd at the speeches.

Xjet is a product of a number of industry veterans in inkjet, some of whom played pioneering roles in creating Objet Polyjet, the Stratasys inkjet technology. The team and the machine are impressive as well. Their ambition complements this with a sated claim to move into metals and ceramics printing for production. Ceramics 3D printing so far has been limited in build volume and throughput. You could print technical ceramics but could not make thousands of Zirconium parts per day.

This is precisely what companies want to do with the materials, however. Extremely high wear parts with extremely high-temperature and abrasion resistance are used widely in industry. Nozzles, high wear machinery surfaces, medical components, teeth, and other dental replacements are all candidates for Zirconium parts. As for stainless steel, that application area is much much broader, but that would have to be determined at a later date. The stainless materials would depend much more on the cost to be viable. There are also several metal printing technologies that could make them.

We are lead into a meeting room and listened to some presentations. Xjet founder Hanan Gothait told us to “enjoy the future of 3D metal and ceramics.” He was proud of the Xjet team completed the project on time and on budget. He also said that “Additive Manufacturing is moving from theory to real, ideas to products, prototypes to real parts.” He also mentioned that “the metal 3D printing, “market is boiling, and we are ready to deliver.” Next Professor Oded Shoseyov gave a presentation detailing his attempts to make a collagen replacement through getting tobacco plants to grow collagen using expressions of five human genes. He is also working on Nanocellulose as a biological additive with a wide array of applications in material science. Perry Davidson the CEO of SyQue an innovative metered dose marijuana and other botanicals inhaler then took us on a fascinating journey to see how their company used 3D printing. Mr. Andreas Berkau of engineering company Oerlikon then explained to us that “Xjet is a truly disruptive technology” and that the future of 3D printing is in “closed value chains” that have “systems beginning to end” and have “whole ecosystems for additive manufacturing.” Dror Danai Xjet’s Chief Business Officer then went on to also talk how important the Xjet team is while decrying the powder bed fusion systems. Dror believes that liquids can provide much better results than traditional powder bed systems. He mentions that powder bed fusion parts are typically limited to 50 micron parts while in the lab Xjet has printed 10 nanometer particles. He stated that the “Digital manufacturing dream vanishes” with post-processing. Manual post-processing slows part production and increases costs significantly. With Xjet’s easier post-processing using soluble support parts will be a fit for manufacturing.

Xjet CEO Hanan and Formnext VP Sacha Wenzler

We then as a group of over a hundred descend to wait before the Xjet Application center. Sacha Wenzler of Formnext opens it. Once open we can find operational Carmel 1400 Xjet systems. We are shown highly accurate and very smooth metal and ceramics parts as well as the support removal process. The machines look very complicated indeed. They hum and with a swoosh deposit every new layer from two mixing jars, one for support and one for build material. The machines are big beasts of things and dutifully lay down each layer in turn.

The Xjet Additive Manufacturing Center

Later on, we will go on to see where the Xjet systems are assembled. There whale carcasses lie of machines that will be made as well as nearly finished systems for Oerlikon, Carfulan and the University of Delaware. Larry Holmes of the University of Delaware poses for the machine his university will receive. Then we head off with dervish-like speed for a tour of Jerusalem. All in all, it was a lovely trip and an excellent chance to have a lot of in-depth contact with the Xjet team. The team are all very open and responded to in-depth technical questions with deep understanding.

3DPrint.com got the chance to interview Xjet CEO and founder Hanan Gothait. He told us that

“The significance of Xjet is that is is a new and innovative powderless nanoparticle inkjet technology which is safe, easy to use and gives you totally accurate parts with smooth surfaces. Everyone is using 50 micron layer thickness and we are using 7 micron layers which leads to better surface quality. In addition we have fine features that no one else can do. Support material is also a different material which can be removed by immersing the part in water. This dissolvable support means that you can make more complex geometries in metal. The big breakthrough is to make 3D printing for ceramics and metals safe and simple while making support easy to remove.”

He also stated that,

“The fine particles we use also create high-resolution parts while simplicity means that you don’t need to be a Ph.D. to operate the machine.”

and that,

“Medical devices, dental, industrial companies, automotive and aerospace companies are already customers. We want to partner with customers and help them grow.”

Hanan has a multi-decade in 3D printing starting with his founding of Objet, now a Stratasys unit. Since then..

“In the Objet days no one spoke of manufacturing, the dream was to become a prototype supplier. Still today most of the market is prototyping but we are targeting production now and we see ourselves as one of the leaders.”

This is a company steeped in inkjet and 3D printing. Compared to a lot of US-based startups this company has many people with ten of twenty years experience in 3D printing. Dozens more have decades of experience in inkjet. As we pass by the Intel Fab and large HP Indigo buildings where printers and inks are made we can see that near the Xjet assembly location there is a vast inkjet ecosystem. Sitting in the middle of this ecosystem, Xjet has access to a very deep and very experienced talent pool of people. Where a US based start usually throws a bunch of very bright kids at the problem, Xjet has dozens of employees who have seen this problem before and also has the bright kids as well. Especially the deep involvement with originating the Polyjet technology is a massive plus for the Xjet team. At one point Objet was nearly dead because an engineering team had not managed to turn a slick idea into a working machine and software combination. Resolute management steps and a re-engineering of the system brought the easiest to use and slickest software, materials and machine combo of the day. This kind of sophisticated engineering approach and the skills needed for it are vital to producing high-quality 3D printers. It is easy to make 3D printers and very difficult to make good 3D printers. By understanding the need to know how the complex interplay of software settings and materials interact to form the part high-quality machines can be crafted. It is not the highly detailed parts or the engineering in the machine that inspires confidence but rather the paths that the team has taken to get here. By focusing on ceramics and trying to create a highly productive solution to manufacture them Xjet has taken an interesting turn towards the future of 3D printing. A segway to metal parts could also deliver a lot of value to customers as could an investment in BMG’s or 3D printed circuits. For now, 3D printing ceramics at volume is a tremendous opportunity. If done well this is precisely the kind of technology and part that could widely expand the scope of the possible in 3D printing and Xjet may just be the company to make that happen.