APE for 3D Printers
Background
I worked as a researcher in the Structural Electronic Materials Lab at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced). This lab is supervised by Dr. Yue (Jessica) Wang. My job at the lab was machine building and multi-material 3D printing.
Project description
Multi-material DIW Printers can be very expensive ($20,000 - $200,000) and often intended for biological applications. I am building a DIW Printer that is low cost (<$700) and designed with our lab applications in mind.
As a team, we decided to purchase an inexpensive 2-material desktop Fused Deposition Molding 3D Printer. This way, we could and attach a syringe pump extruder to each motor (Figure 1). I designed the Attachable Paste Extruder (A.P.E), a syringe pump extruder customized for our lab applications that can be attached to desktop an FDM 3D Printer in order to print with pastes (Figure 2). The A.P.E design is a modification of the Large Volume Syringe Pump Extruder [1]. My biggest challenge was achieving cleaner and more reliable prints. After testing a one-nozzle system inspired from recent multi-material 3D Printing advances at Harvard University, we were able to achieve multi-material prints [2].
Dr. Yue Wang and I will share this as an open source project so that other labs can replicate this inexpensive procedure in their campuses and plan to use it for K-12 outreach.
More details of the final project outcome will be shared soon!
Reflection
Through this work, I advanced my overall knowledge in solid mechanics, wearable electronic devices, and various additive manufacturing techniques. I worked with polymers that are very inspiring to me as they appear to be biodegradable, self-healing and cheaply made, and bring new opportunities for more sustainable electronics in the future.
Current Printing Capabilities with a Two-Nozzle System
3D Solid Model of A.P.E