Students create a machine that turns used plastic into 3D printing materials

Three geniuses from the University of British Columbia have nailed a problem with 3D printing: waste.  As much as they were using their 3D printers, they realized that they were coming away with buckets of excess plastic, from failed prototypes and trimmings.

Their solution was to build a machine that is capable of taking plastic and crushing it into small enough bits that it can be melded into a spool of plastic filament (the 'thread' that is fed into 3D printers).  Not only does it recycle plastic waste, it saves money and time in ordering new materials.

It's not the only 3D material recycler on the market, but what makes it unique is its size, price and the fact that it is a combo unit (grinder and spool creator).  It is small enough to fit on a desktop and cheap enough to pay itself off after a relatively short use period (it cuts the cost of a 1 kilo filament spool from $50 (store bought) to $5 (recycled material)).  It can also print 10 feet of filament per minute, which Dennon Oosterman, one of the inventors, says is the fastest filament creator on the market.

 

Here, the inventors discuss the technology behind the ProtoCycler

 

If you are so inclined, you can watch the spool flow for a minute

 

http://inhabitat.com/students-create-a-machine-that-turns-pop-bottles-into-3d-printing-materials/

http://phys.org/news/2015-03-students-desktop-recycler-bottles-3d.html

Image Credit: www.redetec.com