ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | MAY/JUNE 2024 64 3D PRINTSHOP 3D PRINTER CAN IDENTIFY MATERIAL’S PROPERTIES Researchers have developed a 3D printer that can automatically determine the parameters of an unknown material by measuring its forces and flow. The team from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Center for Scientific Research in Greece (Demokritos) modified the extruder, the “heart” of a 3D printer, so it can collect the data. This information, gathered through a 20-minute test, is fed into a mathematical function that is used to automatically generate printing parameters. These parameters can be entered into off-the-shelf 3D-printing software and used to print with a never-before- seen material. The automatically generated parameters can replace about half of the parameters that typically must be tuned by hand. In a series of test prints with unique materials, including several renewable materials, the researchers showed that their method can consistently produce viable parameters. This research could help to reduce the environmental impact of additive manufacturing, which typically relies on nonrecyclable polymers and resins derived from fossil fuels. “We demonstrate a method that can take all these interesting materials that are bio-based and made from various sustainable sources and show that the printer can figure out by itself how to print those materials. The goal is to make 3D printing more sustainable,” says Neil Gershenfeld, who leads CBA. The group’s research is published in the journal Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation. mit.edu. AN OLYMPIC CELEBRATION FROM OCEAN WASTE A company from the Czech Republic is working with sources around the world to create a 14-meter-high, 3D-printed model of the Eiffel Tower to help celebrate the Paris 2024 Olympics this summer. The structure will be installed at a festival in the north of the Czech Republic, where the public can try different Olympic sports during the Paris Games in July and August. Jan Hrebabecky, owner of 3DDen printing farm, is using printing filament made from ocean waste. The material for the Eiffel Tower comes from the shores of Thailand, and has excellent mechanical and chemical qualities, great UV resistance, and is less costly than traditional filaments. The plastic waste is collected by Thai fishermen, sorted, cleaned, desalinated, and dried. Then a Swiss company turns the waste into granules, which a Czech company then processes into 3D-printing filaments. Hrebabecky had to build a new printer to cope with the material, noting that “it can crystallize in the printer and destroy it immediately.” His printers are now busy with the Eiffel Tower, a puzzle of 1600 3D-printed pieces fortified with steel rods, which Hrebabecky says will be solid enough to hold a helicopter. He also notes that the two-ton structure is made from material equivalent to 800,000 plastic bottles. 3dden.com. The University of Maine unveiled a 3D printer that is four times larger than one that was listed as the world’s largest 3D printer five years ago. The new printer’s frame fills up the large building in which it is housed and can print objects 96 feet long by 32 feet wide by 18 feet high. The machine consumes as much as 500 pounds of material per hour and plans for use include building 3D-printed homes using bio-based materials. composites.umaine.edu. BRIEF Researchers developed a 3D printer that can automatically identify the parameters of an unknown material on its own. Courtesy of MIT. A 14-meter replica of the Eiffel Tower is printed from plastic waste found in the ocean. Courtesy of 3DDen.
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