| Title |
RepRapable Recyclebot: Open source 3-D printable extruder for converting plastic to 3-D printing filament |
| ID_Doc |
13618 |
| Authors |
Woern, AL; McCaslin, JR; Pringle, AM; Pearce, JM |
| Title |
RepRapable Recyclebot: Open source 3-D printable extruder for converting plastic to 3-D printing filament |
| Year |
2018 |
| Published |
|
| DOI |
10.1016/j.ohx.2018.e00026 |
| Abstract |
In order to assist researchers explore the full potential of distributed recycling of post-consumer polymer waste, this article describes a recyclebot, which is a waste plastic extruder capable of making commercial quality 3-D printing filament. The device design takes advantage of both the open source hardware methodology and the paradigm developed by the open source self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printer community. Specifically, this paper describes the design, fabrication and operation of a RepRapable Recyclebot, which refers to the Recyclebot's ability to provide the filament needed to largely replicate the parts for the Recyclebot on any type of RepRap 3-D printer. The device costs less than $700 in mate rials and can be fabricated in about 24 h. Filament is produced at 0.4 kg/h using 0.24 kWh/kg with a diameter +/- 4.6%. Thus, filament can be manufactured from commercial pellets for <22% of commercial filament costs. In addition, it can fabricate recycled waste plastic into filament for 2.5 cents/kg, which is <1000X commercial filament costs. The system can fabricate filament from polymers with extrusion temperatures <250 degrees C and is thus capable of manufacturing custom filament over a wide range of thermopolymers and composites for material science studies of new materials and recyclability studies, as well as research on novel applications of fused filament based 3-D printing. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
| Author Keywords |
Open source hardware; Open hardware; 3-D printing; Fused filament fabrication; RepRap; Recycling; Polymers; Plastic; Recyclebot; Waste plastic; Composites; Polymer composites; Extruder; Upcycle; Circular economy; Materials science |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) |
| EID |
WOS:000646602400009 |
| WoS Category |
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic; Instruments & Instrumentation; Materials Science, Multidisciplinary |
| Research Area |
Engineering; Instruments & Instrumentation; Materials Science |
| PDF |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2018.e00026
|