SBIR-STTR Award

This SBIR Phase I Project will evaluate the ability to directly use local materials, such as plastic recyclables as the consumable input for affordable, industrial 3D printing. This technology will be developed with intent to scale to multiple 3D printer platforms. Hardware will be sold commercially after project completion as a novel 3D printer platform as well as a modular attachment for other 3D printers and 3D motion systems. To broaden the impact of the research, all prototyping will be documented in a series of monthly videos intended for educators, STEM organizations and US makers to witness real-world application of the hardware design process. Additionally, workshops will be held once a quarter where progress to date will be showcased and students will be invited to share feedback. This technology has significant opportunity to expand US in-house manufacturing capability, foster new job creation through enhancing industry and educational ties, stimulate US driven innovation and reduced trade dependence on imports of manufactured products.While the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) method of additive manufacturing offers tremendous potential for on-site fabrication, the technology is limited by access to extruded feedstock materials. Specifically, the ability to locally source raw material and introduce it directly into a 3D printer via direct drive pellet extrusion is necessary as the focus of industrial additive manufacturing shifts from producing prototypes to manufacturing end-use products. This need is amplified when 3D printing large-scale (defined as > 6 inches cubed) functional objects. Producing larger outputs represents a larger investment of time and material costs with existing FFF systems, which currently constrains the additive manufacturing market. Secondly, a dependence on extruded thermoform plastics limits the available library of materials. This project includes development of novel extrusion feed mechanisms for processing pelletized and non-uniform reclaimed plastic feedstock. Phase I goals include optimization for virgin and recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET/RPET), Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), and Polylactic Acid (PLA). This system will be developed for affordability and user experience to allow for easy switching between materials and print speeds 20X faster than FFF methods. Hardware will be sold commercially after project completion as a complete 3D printing system as well as an attachment for 3D printers and 3D motion platforms.

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) offers tremendous benefit for rapid prototyping, mass customization, and low cost fabrication. This creates an untapped opportunity to develop the technology further to support low volume industrial manufacturing for price sensitive and emerging markets. The ability to source locally available raw material and feed it directly as pellets or shavings into a printer rather than extruded filament is extremely advantageous for both manufacturer and end user in regards to reducing cost and increasing capabilities in prototyping. The benefits of this innovation is amplified when 3D printing large-scale industrial objects (defined as > 18 inches cubed). First, the production of large-scale products represent a larger investment of time and material costs (pellets are ~ 1/10th the cost of filament). A second reason for the importance of pellet extrusion is it addresses the need to print faster. Finally, a dependence on extruded thermoform plastics limits the available library for printing and the ability to mix materials to engineer new formulations. With domain expertise in large-scale 3D FFF printing, re:3D proposes to evolve a prototype pellet 3D printer developed under Phase I to be able to address all of these needs by coupling direct drive pellet extrusion technology with a grinder, dryer and feeding system optimized for reclaimed plastics. re:3D intends to leverage Phase I research conducted on material requirements for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP), two of the most available reclaimed plastics worldwide, to further optimize the pellet printer to be able to accept reclaimed flake as well as non uniform pellets. This effort will include developing the ability to consistently dry the input materials and to easily clean and switch between materials. A novel mechanism for feeding larger volumes of pellets and/or flake into the platform will also be developed with the requisite controls. Once complete, the company will pilot the solution in Texas through IC2 as well as in Puerto Rico, an island territory with a complicated supply chain, in conjunction with waste streams/partners identified by the Puerto Rico Science & Research Trust. The new hardware integration solutions developed in Phase 2 will be incorporated into the Phase I prototype platform which leveraged Michigan Technological University's (MTU) prior work conducting validation and materials testing in Phase I, prior work modifying direct drive recyclebots for FFF 3D printers, and open source firmware and software research. To ensure excellence, prototypes will be extensively tested using MTU's facilities with reclaimed PP and PET in prints to be used for casting, mold production and load bearing applications. Once the prototype design for commercial scalability has been validated at MTU and field-tested, all progress will be openly documented and shared in an effort to scale the solution suite to multiple platforms as quickly as possible. The hardware will be sold commercially after completing the project as both an integrated 3D printing solution and also as independent hardware due to the potential to be applied beyond Cartesian 3D printing systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.