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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Towards Distributed Recycling With Additive Manufacturing Of Pet Flake Feedstocks, Helen A. Little, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Matthew J. Reich, Matthew J. Fiedler, Samantha L. Snabes, Joshua M. Pearce Sep 2020

Towards Distributed Recycling With Additive Manufacturing Of Pet Flake Feedstocks, Helen A. Little, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Matthew J. Reich, Matthew J. Fiedler, Samantha L. Snabes, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

This study explores the potential to reach a circular economy for post-consumer Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (rPET) packaging and bottles by using it as a Distributed Recycling for Additive Manufacturing (DRAM) feedstock. Specifically, for the first time, rPET water bottle flake is processed using only an open source toolchain with Fused Particle Fabrication (FPF) or Fused Granular Fabrication (FGF) processing rather than first converting it to filament. In this study, first the impact of granulation, sifting, and heating (and their sequential combination) is quantified on the shape and size distribution of the rPET flakes. Then 3D printing tests were performed on …


Additively Manufactured Parametric Universal Clip-System: An Open Source Approach For Aiding Personal Exposure Easurement In The Breathing Zone, Kirsi Kukko, Jan Sher Akmal, Anneli Kangas, Mika Salmi, Roy Björkstrand, Anna-Kaisa Viitanen, Jouni Partanen, Joshua M. Pearce Sep 2020

Additively Manufactured Parametric Universal Clip-System: An Open Source Approach For Aiding Personal Exposure Easurement In The Breathing Zone, Kirsi Kukko, Jan Sher Akmal, Anneli Kangas, Mika Salmi, Roy Björkstrand, Anna-Kaisa Viitanen, Jouni Partanen, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Design for additive manufacturing is adopted to help solve problems inherent to attaching active personal sampler systems to workers for monitoring their breathing zone. A novel and parametric 3D printable clip system was designed with an open source Computer-aided design (CAD) system and was additively manufactured. The concept was first tested with a simple clip design, and when it was found to be functional, the ability of the innovative and open source design to be extended to other applications was demonstrated by designing another tooling system. The clip system was tested for mechanical stress test to establish a minimum lifetime …


Plastic Recycling In Additive Manufacturing: A Systematic Literature Review And Opportunities For The Circular Economy, Fabio A. Cruz Sanchez, Hakim Boudaoud, Mauricio Camargo, Joshua M. Pearce Aug 2020

Plastic Recycling In Additive Manufacturing: A Systematic Literature Review And Opportunities For The Circular Economy, Fabio A. Cruz Sanchez, Hakim Boudaoud, Mauricio Camargo, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

The rapid technical evolution of additive manufacturing (AM) enables a new path to a circular economy using distributed recycling and production. This concept of Distributed Recycling via Additive Manufacturing (DRAM) is related to the use of recycled materials by means of mechanical recycling process in the 3D printing process chain. This paper aims to examine the current advances on thermoplastic recycling processes via additive manufacturing technologies. After proposing a closed recycling global chain for DRAM, a systematic literature review including 92 papers from 2009 to 2019 was performed using the scopus, web of science and springer databases. This work examines …


Faculty Instruction Face Shield Project, David Holden, John Schneiderhan Apr 2020

Faculty Instruction Face Shield Project, David Holden, John Schneiderhan

Michigan Tech 3D Designs

Early in the spring of 2020 project contributors David Holden and John Schneiderhan began test printing a variety of open source Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)/Covid related items that could help protect or prevent the spread of the emerging virus. With assistance from Pete Baril of the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department (WUPHD) approval was obtained for the face shields to be used in the health care and nursing homes in the area. With the support and approval from university and library administration efforts were coordinated with Dr. Joshua Pearce and the students from the MOST lab to concentrate on the …


Dynamic Testing: An Experimental Approach To Defect Identification In Additive Manufactured Parts, Aimee Allen Jan 2020

Dynamic Testing: An Experimental Approach To Defect Identification In Additive Manufactured Parts, Aimee Allen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Today’s additive manufacturing (AM) industry produces specialized parts at low volume or with complex geometries. Traditional testing methods are effective, but costly and time consuming to perform. The AM industry lacks an optimized testing method for identifying internal defects that occur in parts. The evaluation of multiple parts printed on the same build plate for internal defects using various nondestructive (dynamic) testing techniques is presented. From these experiments, perspective was gained on when and how dynamic testing can be used to find defects. Insight gained from these experiments can help the industry in future testing for internal defects.