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Full-Text Articles in Materials Science and Engineering

Decarbonizing Rural Residential Buildings In Cold Climates: A Techno-Economic Analysis Of Heating Electrification, Filippo Padovani, Nelson Sommerfeldt, Francesca Longobardi, Joshua M. Pearce Nov 2021

Decarbonizing Rural Residential Buildings In Cold Climates: A Techno-Economic Analysis Of Heating Electrification, Filippo Padovani, Nelson Sommerfeldt, Francesca Longobardi, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Given the need for decarbonization of the heating sector and the acute need of a propane replacement in the U.S. Upper Midwest, this study quantifies the techno-economic characteristics of sustainable heating electrification in isolated rural, residential buildings in cold climates without natural gas supply. Archetypal buildings are modeled under four levels of electrification. At each electrification level, a parametric solar photovoltaic (PV) sizing analysis is performed and the total life cycle cost, renewable fraction and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are calculated based on the primary energy supply for each building type. Cost optimal solutions are stress-tested with multi-dimensional sensitivity analyses. …


Open Source Vacuum Oven Design For Low-Temperature Drying: Performance Evaluation For Recycled Pet And Biomass, Benjamin R. Hubbard, Lindsay I. Putman, Stephen Techtmann, Joshua M. Pearce May 2021

Open Source Vacuum Oven Design For Low-Temperature Drying: Performance Evaluation For Recycled Pet And Biomass, Benjamin R. Hubbard, Lindsay I. Putman, Stephen Techtmann, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Vacuum drying can dehydrate materials further than dry heat methods, while protecting sensitive materials from thermal degradation. Many industries have shifted to vacuum drying as cost-or time-saving measures. Small-scale vacuum drying, however, has been limited by the high costs of specialty scientific tools. To make vacuum drying more accessible, this study provides design and performance information for a small-scale open source vacuum oven, which can be fabricated from off-the-shelf and 3-D printed components. The oven is tested for drying speed and effectiveness on both waste plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and a consortium of bacteria developed for bioprocessing of terephthalate wastes …


U.S. Potential Of Sustainable Backyard Distributed Animal And Plant Protein Production During And After Pandemics, Theresa K. Meyer, Alexis Pascaris, David Denkenberger, Joshua M. Pearce Apr 2021

U.S. Potential Of Sustainable Backyard Distributed Animal And Plant Protein Production During And After Pandemics, Theresa K. Meyer, Alexis Pascaris, David Denkenberger, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

To safeguard against meat supply shortages during pandemics or other catastrophes, this study analyzed the potential to provide the average household’s entire protein consumption using either soybean production or distributed meat production at the household level in the U.S. with: (1) pasture-fed rabbits, (2) pellet and hay-fed rabbits, or (3) pellet-fed chickens. Only using the average backyard resources, soybean cultivation can provide 80-160% of household protein and 0- 50% of a household’s protein needs can be provided by pasture-fed rabbits using only the yard grass as feed. If external supplementation of feed is available, raising 52 chickens while also harvesting …


Open Source 3d-Printable Planetary Roller Screw For Food Processing Applications, Marcello C. Guadagno, Jacob M. Loss, Joshua M. Pearce Apr 2021

Open Source 3d-Printable Planetary Roller Screw For Food Processing Applications, Marcello C. Guadagno, Jacob M. Loss, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Historically, open source agriculture (OSA) was based on grassroots technology generally manufactured by hand tools or with manual machining. The rise of distributed digital manufacturing provides an opportunity for much more rapid lateral scaling of open source appropriate technologies for agriculture. However, the most mature distributed manufacturing area is plastic, which has limited use for many OSA applications. To overcome this limitation with design, this study reports on of a completely 3D-printable planetary roller screw linear actuator. The device is designed as a parametric script-based computer aided design (CAD) package to allow for the easy adaption for a number of …


Authors From All Over The World Share Their Tech In Hardwarex To Battle Covid-19, Joshua M. Pearce Apr 2021

Authors From All Over The World Share Their Tech In Hardwarex To Battle Covid-19, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

No abstract provided.


Economics Of Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems Coupled To Heat Pumps: The Case Of Northern Climates Of The U.S. And Canada, Joshua M. Pearce, Nelson Sommerfeldt Feb 2021

Economics Of Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems Coupled To Heat Pumps: The Case Of Northern Climates Of The U.S. And Canada, Joshua M. Pearce, Nelson Sommerfeldt

Michigan Tech Publications

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is now a profitable method to decarbonize the grid, but if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided, emissions from transportation and heating must also decarbonize. One approach to renewable heating is leveraging improvements in PV with heat pumps (HPs). To determine the potential for PV+HP systems in northern areas of North America, this study performs numerical simulations and economic analysis using the same loads and climate, but with local electricity and natural gas rates for Sault Ste. Marie, in both Canada and U.S. Ground-mounted, fixed-tilt, grid-tied PV systems are sized to match 100% of electric …


The Economics Of Classroom 3-D Printing Of Open-Source Digital Designs Of Learning Aids, Nicole Gallup, Joshua M. Pearce Nov 2020

The Economics Of Classroom 3-D Printing Of Open-Source Digital Designs Of Learning Aids, Nicole Gallup, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

While schools struggle financially, capital for purchasing physical learning aids is often cut. To determine if costs could be reduced for learning aids, this study analyzed classroom-based distributed digital manufacturing using 3-D printing of open-source learning aid designs. Learning aid designs are analyzed in detail for their economic viability considering printing and assembly costs with purchased components and compared to equivalent or inferior commercial products available on Amazon. The results show current open-source 3-D printers are capable of manufacturing useful learning aids and that doing so provides high economic savings in the classroom. Overall, the average learning aid would save …


Water Conservation Potential Of Self-Funded Foam-Based Flexible Surface-Mounted Floatovoltaics, Kaomi Soulemane Hayibo, Pierce Mayville, Ravneet Kaur Kailey Nov 2020

Water Conservation Potential Of Self-Funded Foam-Based Flexible Surface-Mounted Floatovoltaics, Kaomi Soulemane Hayibo, Pierce Mayville, Ravneet Kaur Kailey

Michigan Tech Publications

A potential solution to the coupled water–energy–food challenges in land use is the concept of floating photovoltaics or floatovoltaics (FPV). In this study, a new approach to FPV is investigated using a flexible crystalline silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) module backed with foam, which is less expensive than conventional pontoon-based FPV. This novel form of FPV is tested experimentally for operating temperature and performance and is analyzed for water-savings using an evaporation calculation adapted from the Penman–Monteith model. The results show that the foam-backed FPV had a lower operating temperature than conventional pontoon-based FPV, and thus a 3.5% higher energy output per …


A First Investigation Of Agriculture Sector Perspectives On The Opportunities And Barriers For Agrivoltaics, Alexis Pascaris, Chelsea Schelly, Joshua M. Pearce Nov 2020

A First Investigation Of Agriculture Sector Perspectives On The Opportunities And Barriers For Agrivoltaics, Alexis Pascaris, Chelsea Schelly, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Agrivoltaic systems are a strategic and innovative approach to combine solar photovoltaic (PV)-based renewable energy generation with agricultural production. Recognizing the fundamental importance of farmer adoption in the successful diffusion of the agrivoltaic innovation, this study investigates agriculture sector experts’ perceptions on the opportunities and barriers to dual land-use systems. Using in-depth, semistructured interviews, this study conducts a first study to identify challenges to farmer adoption of agrivoltaics and address them by responding to societal concerns. Results indicate that participants see potential benefits for themselves in combined solar and agriculture technology. The identified barriers to adoption of agrivoltaics, however, include: …


Mechanical Properties Of Direct Waste Printing Of Polylactic Acid With Universal Pellets Extruder: Comparison To Fused Filament Fabrication On Open-Source Desktop Three-Dimensional Printers, Arthur Alexandre, Fabio A. Cruz Sanchez, Hakim Boudaoud, Mauricio Camargo, Joshua M. Pearce Oct 2020

Mechanical Properties Of Direct Waste Printing Of Polylactic Acid With Universal Pellets Extruder: Comparison To Fused Filament Fabrication On Open-Source Desktop Three-Dimensional Printers, Arthur Alexandre, Fabio A. Cruz Sanchez, Hakim Boudaoud, Mauricio Camargo, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is the most common and widespread additive manufacturing (AM) technique, but it requires the formation of filament. Fused granular fabrication (FGF), where plastic granules are directly three-dimensional (3D) printed, has become a promising technique for the AM technology. FGF could be a key driver to promote further greening of distributed recycling thanks to the reduced melt solidification steps and elimination of the filament extruder system. However, only large-scale FGF systems have been tested for technical and economic viability of recycling plastic materials. The objective of this work is to evaluate the performance of the FFF and …


Parametric Nasopharyngeal Swab For Sampling Covid-19 And Other Respiratory Viruses: Open Source Design, Sla 3-D Printing And Uv Curing System, Nicole Gallup, Adam M. Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Nagendra G. Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce Oct 2020

Parametric Nasopharyngeal Swab For Sampling Covid-19 And Other Respiratory Viruses: Open Source Design, Sla 3-D Printing And Uv Curing System, Nicole Gallup, Adam M. Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Nagendra G. Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Access to nasopharyngeal swabs for sampling remain a bottleneck in some regions for COVID-19 testing. This study develops a distributed manufacturing solution using only an open source manufacturing tool chain consisting of two types of open source 3-D printing and batch UV curing, and provides a parametric fully free design of a nasopharyngeal swab. The swab was designed using parametric OpenSCAD in two components (a head with engineered break point and various handles), which has several advantages: i) minimizing print time on relatively slow SLA printers, ii) enabling the use of smaller print volume open source SLA printers, iii) reducing …


Open Source High-Temperature Reprap For 3-D Printing Heat-Sterilizable Ppe And Other Applications, Noah G. Skrzypczak, Nagendra G. Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce Oct 2020

Open Source High-Temperature Reprap For 3-D Printing Heat-Sterilizable Ppe And Other Applications, Noah G. Skrzypczak, Nagendra G. Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Thermal sterilization is generally avoided for 3-D printed components because of the relatively low deformation temperatures for common thermoplastics used for material extrusion-based additive manufacturing. 3-D printing materials required for high-temperature heat sterilizable components for COVID-19 and other applications demands 3-D printers with heated beds, hot ends that can reach higher temperatures than polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) hot ends and heated chambers to avoid part warping and delamination. There are several high temperature printers on the market, but their high costs make them inaccessible for full home-based distributed manufacturing required during pandemic lockdowns. To allow for all these requirements to be met …


Open Source Arc Analyzer: Multi-Sensor Monitoring Of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing, Adam M. Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Paul G. Sanders, Joshua M. Pearce Oct 2020

Open Source Arc Analyzer: Multi-Sensor Monitoring Of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing, Adam M. Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Paul G. Sanders, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Low-cost high-resolution metal 3-D printing remains elusive for the scientific community. Low-cost gas metal arc wire (GMAW)-based 3-D printing enables wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) for near net shape applications, but has limited resolution due to the complexities of the arcing process. To begin to monitor and thus control these complexities, the initial designs of the open source GMAW 3-D printer have evolved to include current and voltage monitoring. Building on this prior work, in this study, the design, fabrication and use of the open source arc analyzer is described. The arc analyzer is a multi-sensor monitoring system for quantifying …


Partially Reprapable Automated Open Source Bag Valve Mask-Based Ventilator, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Nagendra G. Tanikella, Samantha Dertinger, Adam Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce Oct 2020

Partially Reprapable Automated Open Source Bag Valve Mask-Based Ventilator, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Nagendra G. Tanikella, Samantha Dertinger, Adam Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

This study describes the development of a simple and easy-to-build portable automated bag valve mask (BVM) compression system, which, during acute shortages and supply chain disruptions can serve as a temporary emergency ventilator. The resuscitation system is based on the Arduino controller with a real-time operating system installed on a largely RepRap 3-D printable parametric component-based structure. The cost of the materials for the system is under $170, which makes it affordable for replication by makers around the world. The device provides a controlled breathing mode with tidal volumes from 100 to 800 mL, breathing rates from 5 to 40 …


Economic Savings For Scientific Free And Open Source Technology: A Review, Joshua M. Pearce Oct 2020

Economic Savings For Scientific Free And Open Source Technology: A Review, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Both the free and open source software (FOSS) as well as the distributed digital manufacturing of free and open source hardware (FOSH) has shown particular promise among scientists for developing custom scientific tools. Early research found substantial economic savings for these technologies, but as the open source design paradigm has grown by orders of magnitude it is possible that the savings observed in the early work was isolated to special cases. Today there are examples of open source technology for science in the vast majority of disciplines and several resources dedicated specifically to publishing them. Do the tremendous economic savings …


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 …


Decentralized Renewable Hybrid Mini-Grids For Rural Communities: Culmination Of The Irep Framework And Scale Up To Urban Communities, Blessing Ugwoke, Adedoyin Adeleke, Stefano P. Corgnati, Joshua M. Pearce, Pierluigi Leone Sep 2020

Decentralized Renewable Hybrid Mini-Grids For Rural Communities: Culmination Of The Irep Framework And Scale Up To Urban Communities, Blessing Ugwoke, Adedoyin Adeleke, Stefano P. Corgnati, Joshua M. Pearce, Pierluigi Leone

Michigan Tech Publications

The Integrated Rural Energy Planning (IREP) framework offers a unified road map for locating, planning and operating decentralized renewable hybrid off-grid energy systems for localized (rural) applications in low-income countries. This paper presents the culmination of the IREP framework and aims to illustrate the final step of the IREP framework for two communities in Nigeria. It is focused on two aspects. Firstly, the techno-economic modeling (investment and operation optimization) of a hybrid mini-grid system using HOMER Pro, a techno-economic evaluation tool; and evaluating the benefits of demand side management (DSM) based on energy efficiency on the overall system economics using …


Open-Source Grinding Machine For Compression Screw Manufacturing, Jacob Franz, Joshua M. Pearce Sep 2020

Open-Source Grinding Machine For Compression Screw Manufacturing, Jacob Franz, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Some of the most promising distributed recycling and additive manufacturing (DRAM) technical systems use fused particle fabrication (FPF) or fused granular fabrication (FGF), where compression screws force post-consumer waste plastic through a heated nozzle for direct 3D printing. To assist the technical evolution of these systems, this study provided the details of an invention for a low-cost, easily replicable open-source grinding machine for compression screw manufacturing. The system itself can be largely fabricated using FPF/FGF following the self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) methodology. This grinding machine can be made from a cordless cut-off grinder and < $155 in parts. The new invention is demonstrated to be able to cut custom screws with variable (i) channel depths, (ii) screw diameters, (iii) screw lengths, (iv) pitches, (v) abrasive disk thicknesses, (vi) handedness of the screws, (vii) and materials (three types of steel tested: 1045 steel, 1144 steel, and 416 stainless steel). The results show that the device is more than capable of replicating commercial screws as well as providing makers with a much greater flexibility to make custom screws. This invention enables the DRAM toolchain to become even more self-sufficient, which assists the goals of the circular economy.


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 …


Open-Source Digitally Replicable Lab-Grade Scales, Benjamin R. Hubbard, Joshua M. Pearce Jun 2020

Open-Source Digitally Replicable Lab-Grade Scales, Benjamin R. Hubbard, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

This study provides designs for a low-cost, easily replicable open-source lab-grade digital scale that can be used as a precision balance. The design is such that it can be manufactured for use in most labs throughout the world with open-source RepRap-class material extrusion-based 3-D printers for the mechanical components and readily available open-source electronics including the Arduino Nano. Several versions of the design were fabricated and tested for precision and accuracy for a range of load cells. The results showed the open-source scale was found to be repeatable within 0.05 g with multiple load cells, with even better precision (0.005 …


Reprapable Automated Open Source Bag Valve Mask-Based Ventilator, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Samantha C. Dertinger, Adam Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce Jun 2020

Reprapable Automated Open Source Bag Valve Mask-Based Ventilator, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Samantha C. Dertinger, Adam Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

This study describes the development of an automated bag valve mask (BVM) compression system, which, during acute shortages and supply chain disruptions can serve as a temporary emergency ventilator. The resuscitation system is based on the Arduino controller with a real-time operating system installed on a largely RepRap 3-D printable parametric component-based structure. The cost of the system is under $170, which makes it affordable for replication by makers around the world. The device provides a controlled breathing mode with tidal volumes from 100 to 800 milliliters, breathing rates from 5 to 40 breaths/minute, and inspiratory-to-expiratory ratio from 1:1 to …


Conversion Of Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus Mask To Open Source Powered Air-Purifying Particulate Respirator For Fire Fighter Covid-19 Response, Benjamin R. Hubbard, Joshua M. Pearce Jun 2020

Conversion Of Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus Mask To Open Source Powered Air-Purifying Particulate Respirator For Fire Fighter Covid-19 Response, Benjamin R. Hubbard, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

To assist firefighters and other first responders to use their existing equipment for respiration during the COVID-19 pandemic without using single-use, low-supply, masks, this study outlines an open source kit to convert a 3M-manufactured Scott Safety self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) into a powered air-purifying particulate respirator (PAPR). The open source PAPR can be fabricated with a low-cost 3-D printer and widely available components for less than $150, replacing commercial conversion kits saving 85% or full-fledged proprietary PAPRs saving over 90%. The parametric designs allow for adaptation to other core components and can be custom fit specifically to fire-fighter equipment, including …


Distributed Manufacturing Of Open Source Medical Hardware For Pandemics, Joshua M. Pearce Jun 2020

Distributed Manufacturing Of Open Source Medical Hardware For Pandemics, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Distributed digital manufacturing offers a solution to medical supply and technology shortages during pandemics. To prepare for the next pandemic, this study reviews the state-of-the-art of open hardware designs needed in a COVID-19-like pandemic. It evaluates the readiness of the top twenty technologies requested by the Government of India. The results show that the majority of the actual medical products have some open source development, however, only 15% of the supporting technologies required to produce them are freely available. The results show there is still considerable research needed to provide open source paths for the development of all the medical …


Open Source High-Temperature Reprap For 3-D Printing Heat-Sterilizable Ppe And Other Applications, Noah G. Skrzypczak, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce May 2020

Open Source High-Temperature Reprap For 3-D Printing Heat-Sterilizable Ppe And Other Applications, Noah G. Skrzypczak, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Thermal sterilization is generally avoided for 3-D printed components because of the relatively low deformation temperatures for common thermoplastics used for material extrusion-based additive manufacturing. 3-D printing materials required for high-temperature heat sterilizable components for COVID-19 and other applications demands 3-D printers with heated beds, hot ends that can reach higher temperatures than polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) hot ends and heated chambers to avoid part warping and delamination. There are several high temperature printers on the market, but their high costs make them inaccessible for full home-based distributed manufacturing required during pandemic lockdowns. To allow for all these requirements to be met …


Parametric Nasopharyngeal Swab For Sampling Covid-19 And Other Respiratory Viruses: Open Source Design, Sla 3-D Printing And Uv Curing System, Nicole Gallup, Adam Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce May 2020

Parametric Nasopharyngeal Swab For Sampling Covid-19 And Other Respiratory Viruses: Open Source Design, Sla 3-D Printing And Uv Curing System, Nicole Gallup, Adam Pringle, Shane Oberloier, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Access to nasopharyngeal swabs for sampling remain a bottleneck in some regions for COVID19 testing. This study develops a distributed manufacturing solution using only an open source manufacturing tool chain consisting of two types of open source 3-D printing and batch UV curing, and provides a parametric fully free design of a nasopharyngeal swab. The swab was designed using parametric OpenSCAD in two components (a head with engineered break point and various handles), which has several advantages: i) minimizing print time on relatively slow SLA printers, ii) enabling the use of smaller print volume open source SLA printers, iii) reducing …


Energy Conservation With Open Source Ad Blockers, Joshua M. Pearce Mar 2020

Energy Conservation With Open Source Ad Blockers, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Internet-related electricity consumption is rising rapidly as global Internet users spend more than 6.5 h per day online. Open source ad blockers have the potential to reduce the time and thus electricity spent using computers by eliminating ads during Internet browsing and video streaming. In this study, three open source ad blockers are tested against a no-ad blocker control. Page load time is recorded for browsing a representative selection of the globally most-accessed websites, and the time spent watching ads on videos is quantified for both trending and non-trending content. The results show that page load time dropped 11% with …


From Open Access To Open Science: The Path From Scientific Reality To Open Scientific Communication, Christian Heise, Joshua M. Pearce Jan 2020

From Open Access To Open Science: The Path From Scientific Reality To Open Scientific Communication, Christian Heise, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Although opening up of research is considered an appropriate and trend-setting model for future scientific communication, it can still be difficult to put open science into practice. How open and transparent can a scientific work be? This article investigates the potential to make all information and the whole work process of a qualification project such as a doctoral thesis comprehensively and freely accessible on the internet with an open free license both in the final form and completely traceable in development. The answer to the initial question, the self-experiment and the associated demand for openness, posed several challenges for a …


Open Source Waste Plastic Granulator, Arvind Ravindran, Sean Scsavnicki, Walker Nelson, Peter Gorecki, Jacob Franz, Shane Oberloier, Theresa K. Meyer, Andrew Barnard, Joshua M. Pearce Oct 2019

Open Source Waste Plastic Granulator, Arvind Ravindran, Sean Scsavnicki, Walker Nelson, Peter Gorecki, Jacob Franz, Shane Oberloier, Theresa K. Meyer, Andrew Barnard, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

In order to accelerate deployment of distributed recycling by providing low-cost feed stocks of granulated post-consumer waste plastic, this study analyzes an open source waste plastic granulator system. It is designed, built, and tested for its ability to convert post-consumer waste, 3D printed products and waste into polymer feedstock for recyclebots of fused particle/granule printers. The technical specifications of the device are quantified in terms of power consumption (380 to 404 W for PET and PLA, respectively) and particle size distribution. The open source device can be fabricated for less than $2000 USD in materials. The experimentally measured power use …


Low-Cost Open Source Ultrasound-Sensing Based Navigational Support For The Visually Impaired, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Joshua M. Pearce Aug 2019

Low-Cost Open Source Ultrasound-Sensing Based Navigational Support For The Visually Impaired, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Nineteen million Americans have significant vision loss. Over 70% of these are not employed full-time, and more than a quarter live below the poverty line. Globally, there are 36 million blind people, but less than half use white canes or more costly commercial sensory substitutions. The quality of life for visually impaired people is hampered by the resultant lack of independence. To help alleviate these challenges this study reports on the development of a low-cost, open-source ultrasound-based navigational support system in the form of a wearable bracelet to allow people with the lost vision to navigate, orient themselves in their …


Mechanical Properties And Applications Of Recycled Polycarbonate Particle Material Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing, Matthew J. Reich, Aubrey Woern, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce May 2019

Mechanical Properties And Applications Of Recycled Polycarbonate Particle Material Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing, Matthew J. Reich, Aubrey Woern, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Past work has shown that particle material extrusion (fused particle fabrication (FPF)/fused granular fabrication (FGF)) has the potential for increasing the use of recycled polymers in 3D printing. This study extends this potential to high-performance (high-mechanical-strength and heat-resistant) polymers using polycarbonate (PC). Recycled PC regrind of approximately 25 mm2 was 3D printed with an open-source Gigabot X and analyzed. A temperature and nozzle velocity matrix was used to find useful printing parameters, and a print test was used to maximize the output for a two-temperature stage extruder for PC. ASTM type 4 tensile test geometries as well as ASTM-approved …