{"id":3537,"date":"2014-07-28T23:37:22","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T04:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/?p=3537"},"modified":"2014-07-28T23:45:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T04:45:15","slug":"sector67-interns-make-filament-extruder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/2014\/sector67-interns-make-filament-extruder\/","title":{"rendered":"Sector67 Interns Build Filament Extruder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sector67 interns, Mitch and Kyle, already have their main summer project in working condition.\u00a0 Their new filament extruder is able to take plastic pellets, and convert them into plastic that can be fed into Sector67\u2019s 3D printers.\u00a0 The main motivation for the extruder (other than awesomeness!) is that extruding plastic pellets costs about a third of what filament does.\u00a0 \u201cCheap ABS pellets can be put in, and a more valuable product comes out,\u201d says Mitch.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3538\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Mitch-Kyle.png\" rel=\"lightbox[3537]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3538\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3538\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Mitch-Kyle-300x225.png\" alt=\"Kyle (left) and Mitch (right) in front of their filament extruder\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Mitch-Kyle-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Mitch-Kyle.png 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3538\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kyle (left) and Mitch (right) in front of their filament extruder<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Not only the does the extruder work, but the interns have already successfully used their filament to print plastic parts on Sector67\u2019s 3D printers. \u00a0And as long as Sector67 doesn\u2019t try to fund the next addition by selling filament, Mitch and Kyle\u2019s extruder should have plenty of throughput.\u00a0 \u201cThis extruder will be able to extrude 5-7 pounds of plastic per day\u2014far more than we use in the printers\u201d, says Jim, a long-time Sector67 member and 3D printing entrepreneur. \u00a0Jim is also responsible for building the hopper using his patent-pending interlocking container design.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Extruder.png\" rel=\"lightbox[3537]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3539\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Extruder-226x300.png\" alt=\"Extruder\" width=\"226\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Extruder-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Extruder.png 581w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>How it works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0\u00a0 ABS pellets are fed into the hopper.\u00a0 The hopper was made by Jim using his patent-pending interlocking container design.<\/p>\n<p>2)\u00a0\u00a0 Pellets flow into a heated column where they melt.<\/p>\n<p>3)\u00a0\u00a0 An auger applies a constant pressure to the liquid plastic to extruder it at a constant rate.<\/p>\n<p>4) \u00a0 \u00a0A height sensor keeps the filament at a constant height above the ground.<\/p>\n<p>5)\u00a0\u00a0 The variable speed winder responds to the height sensor to maintain the filament at a constant tension as it cools.<\/p>\n<p>6)\u00a0\u00a0 A guide arm moves back and forth more and more slowly as more and more filament is wound onto the spool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sector67 interns, Mitch and Kyle, already have their main summer project in working condition.\u00a0 Their new filament extruder is able to take plastic pellets, and convert them into plastic that can be fed into Sector67\u2019s 3D printers.\u00a0 The main motivation<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/2014\/sector67-interns-make-filament-extruder\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[309,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3537"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3544,"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537\/revisions\/3544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sector67.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}