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#226 2020-09-03 09:53:46

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

This update is in 3D Printers topic because it is of an instructional nature.  The work underway is to show RobertDyck's Circle Y space vessel design rotating.

The Blender program is designed primarily to create animation.  This YouTube video shows how to rotate an object ** and ** how to make a loop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDFQVm1TcvY

The YouTube service would be a suitable location for an animation of this type.

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#227 2020-09-06 12:39:06

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

The article at the link below shows a 3D Printed house in Belgium.  The roof and windows were supplied as add-ons, as well as a steel stairway to reach the second floor.

I would assume the second floor was supplied as an add-on as well.

https://www.businessinsider.com/kamp-c- … ium-2020-8

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#228 2020-09-10 18:53:56

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

This post is about making a movie to show rotation of RobertDyck's Circle Y spacecraft design.

It would go into Large Ship topic if I were finished, but all that is working right now is rotation in the movie making part of Blender.

The model does look good (considering how simple it is) but at this point, I'm having to relearn how to record an mpeg file to go up to YouTube.

Edit#1: The link to the movie is: https://youtu.be/UyyPf8U5p2g

UyyPf8U5p2g

(th)

Last edited by tahanson43206 (2020-09-15 07:04:48)

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#229 2020-09-14 18:42:53

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

I was happy to see this report of another (and to me unexpected) application of 3D Printing.

The article at the link below goes into some detail explaining how the inventor(s) (several patents) have employed 3D printing to make complex hybrid rocket shapes that do better (I gather) than traditional poured hybrid rocket engines.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/fire … 29360.html

Another mention is of the advantage of hard polymer from the 3D printer outlets that is better able to handle the stresses inside a working rocket engine.

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#230 2020-10-18 17:03:53

SpaceNut
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Re: 3D Printers

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Zort … A_999.html

3D printing high-performance composite parts out of two blends of PEEK filament in dual extrusion on Zortrax Endureal industrial 3D printer across the aerospace sector, there is an increasing demand for high end composite parts 3D printed out of two high-performance polymers.

The top extrusion temperature now stands at 480C. Maximum temperatures in the printing chamber and on the build platform can reach 200C and 220C, respectively, to further reduce warping and shrinkage of high performance materials. Printing composite parts out of two materials also required innovative changes in both firmware and software.

zortrax-3d-printing-marker-hg.jpg

https://zortrax.com/3d-printers/endureal/

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#231 2020-10-25 09:36:43

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

Here is an update for 3D Printers topic, which ** may ** lend itself to Calliban's asteroid "bagging" concept.

The difference is influenced by GW Johnson's observation that results from the Asteroid Bennu visit suggested (to him as I recall the post) that an ordinary cloth bag might "leak" the fine material so loosely bound to the aggregation by microgravity.

The ability of the new 3D Printers described in the article at the link below to make complex shapes using glass fiber and carbon based adhesive inspires (me at least) to imagine fabrication of an entire shell customer fitted to a given asteroid.  The components would be designed to fasten together to make a (comparitively) leak-proof enclosure.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/italian-comp … 00205.html

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#232 2020-11-05 14:07:29

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

The announcement below was part of a news item about 3D printing.   It is encouraging to see that 3D printing is moving toward commercial levels of production. At Mars, I would expect to see most manufacturing carried out by various forms of 3D printing.

Bulk 3D Printing – A Complete Guide
Bringing 3D printing into industrial production can offer significant advantages over traditional manufacturing workflows, such as on-demand production, fewer kinks in the supply chain, reductions in storage and inventory costs, and reduced waste. Check out our complete guide to learn how you can utilize 3D printing for high-volume manufacturing.

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#233 2020-11-05 20:12:08

SpaceNut
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Re: 3D Printers

This will also require more refining of materials to give the correct feed stock for the printer units to make use of.
That means we will use more mining equipment as well to get the raw materials to make the refined materials with.
So for a complete process we need to see what the energy requirements and mass are for each of these aspects take to bring the printer units to make the near finished products with.
We would also need to know more about the flow rates of the production process for what we are making for time and pieces to make a complete analysis for each type of machine type we would want to bring.

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#234 2020-12-12 18:50:53

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

https://www.yahoo.com/news/3-floor-apar … 00255.html

Peri's apartment building will be made of printable concrete and i.tech3D, a dry mortar developed by the concrete supplier, HeidelbergCement. Pipes for water and electricity can't be 3D printed in, and will instead be manually added while the home is being built.

I'm glad to see this progress in designing, building and deploying 3D Printers able to tackle projects on this scale.

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#235 2020-12-28 14:16:32

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

This item showed up in a tech newsletter today .... it captures (what I ** think ** is ) an application of 3D Printing that puts protective foam and film precisely where it is needed on electronic assemblies.

3D packaging technologies benefit from proven underfill protection to secure long-term reliability and performance
Keeping up with accelerating mobility and computing.

Download this white paper to learn how non-conductive paste (NCP) and non-conductive film (NCF) materials have emerged as the most reliable underfill solutions for Cu pillar and TSV packaging approaches.

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#236 2021-01-09 12:47:27

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

This post announces a competition for 3D Printer practitioners and Advocates ...

"Soft Lead Pencil" challenge ...

A premise I am considering is that Mars settlers will be greatly benefited if they have available a robust 3D Printing capability in lieu of the massive global supply system that exists on Earth in 2021.

The challenge on offer here is simple to state, but (I suspect) quite difficult to achieve:

Develop a combination of materials, 3D Printer hardware and 3D printer software to make what is called "soft lead pencils" in the stores on Earth.

These devices do not contain lead.  They contain a column of carbon (graphite) surrounded by solid carbohydrate(*) material (wood).

The standard model includes a tip at the end opposite the "point" which provides a rubber surface for erasing graphite laid on a surface.

For the purposes of this challenge, it will be sufficient to create a usable #2 pencil.

The reward for all the work that will be involved will be the achievement in itself, since it has been estimated that it may take as many as 1,000,000 separate steps on Earth to make a standard #2 pencil.

(*) Per Wikipedia, "wood" contains approximately 50% Carbon, 42% Oxygen, 6% Hydrogen, and a variety of other elements in trace amounts.

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#237 2021-01-09 14:38:40

SpaceNut
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Re: 3D Printers

Wood contains the same ingrediencies as Plastics which are easy for a 3d printer to make use of.

The real trouble is there is no direct source for the pencil to be made from without quite a bit of processing from a raw source to make the writing portion from.

The question then becomes one of can it make use of raw elemental ingrediencies to process into a plastic and into the graphite carbon product for the lead for the pencil to work.

I think that ink jet printing is simular when used to make solar cells but there would be many steps to do a layering from raw sources to form the pencil.

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#238 2021-01-09 17:34:13

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

For SpaceNut 237

I read your post here with the first thought that the properties of plastic are distinctly different from the properties of wood.

Wood has a rigidity that I've not seen in plastic.  However, I recognize I've not seen more than a tiny subset of the varieties of plastic that have been created over recent decades.  Perhaps there exists a plastic that has the properties that anyone can test by holding up a wooden pencil and bending it gently.

However, picking up on your post, I asked Google for help and it came up with these snippets:

3D Printed Wood: the Material
Models in wood are constructed from a brown, very fine, granular powder made from wood chips. The surface has a sandy, granular look, and is slightly porous. Wood is perfect for complex models, as it allows for interlocking and moving parts.Jun 3, 2015

3D Printing Wood is Possible | 3D Printing Blog | i.materialisei.materialise.com › blog › 3d-printed-wood-is-coming-t...
Feedback

Wood 3D Printing Guide: How to 3D Print Wood | All3DPall3dp.com › Basics
Depending on the brand, you can find several different types of wood filament, like bamboo, birch, cedar, cork, ebony, olive, pine, and even coconut! But pay close ...
People also ask

Since this is my first encounter with this subset of 3D printing technology, I'm taken aback to see the words "wood filament" published in this context.

***
Regarding the graphic cylinder that is the heart of a pencil ... it might be possible a 3D printer filament exists that has the properties of graphite, but again, I've not seen it.

Assuming for a moment that the linear strength of wood can be imparted to the outer cylinder of a 3D printed pencil, then the challenge would appear to be laying a spot of graphite in the center of the circle you are printing.

The "normal" orientation for a cylinder like this would be vertical, but conceivably it would make sense to print horizontally.

Edit#1: Apparently there is already some experience 3D printing graphite, although the application appears to be electrodes ...

Scholarly articles for 3d printing graphite electrodes
… and DNA-coated graphite electrodes in 3D-printed … - Bishop - Cited by 36
… ‐Polystyrene 3D‐Printed Electrochemical Device with … - Rymansaib - Cited by 86
3D printed mould-based graphite/PDMS sensor for low … - Nag - Cited by 31

Three-Dimensional Printed Electrode and Its Novel ... - Naturewww.nature.com › scientific reports › articles
May 9, 2018 — In this study, a printable graphene-based conductive filament was employed to create a range of 3D printed electrodes (3DEs) using a commercial 3D printer. This printing technology provides a simplistic and low-cost approach, which eliminates the need for the ex-situ modification and post-treatment of the product.
by CY Foo · 2018 · Cited by 69 · Related articles

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#239 2021-01-09 20:45:20

SpaceNut
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Re: 3D Printers

Interesting wood filament but we can do saw dust with adhesives as we do that for particle board so why not dust with a 3 d printer with adhesive as well. Just hit the layers with laser heat to cure as its laid down.
Hard plastics...
https://www.3dnatives.com/en/plastics-u … 110420174/
3D Printing Materials Guide: Plastics

http://makemode.co/3d-printing-materials/hard-plastic/
3D Printing in Hard Plastic

https://www.polymersolutions.com/blog/p … -printing/
3 Types of Plastic Used in 3D Printing

https://www.engineering.com/3DPrinting/ … astic.aspx
The Significance of Completely Biodegradable 3D-Printed Plastic

Now that we have a pencil we will need to make sharpeners????

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#240 2021-01-09 20:56:46

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

For SpaceNut re #239

Thanks for your impressive (to me for sure) follow up! 

The state of the art of 3D printing definitely includes creating metal shapes, but to the best of my knowledge, we do not currently have the ability to make cutting quality blades.  That is definitely a capability I'll be watching for, and I'll inquire at the next local 3D Printer meeting.

The simplest pencil sharpener I'm acquainted with (aside from a whittler's knife) consists of a sharp blade set inside a solid plastic housing, with a conical entry that allows the pencil to advance into the cone while rotating, so that protective wood is removed and the central graphite shaft is exposed.  Current 3D Printers are capable of making the plastic part.  I'll watch for information about the metal blade.

My guess is that metal might be shaped in a form that could then be heat treated or otherwise manipulated (hammered) to yield pieces with desired qualities.

I once wrote to a US based entertainment entity, suggesting they add 3D Printed swords to their (quite popular) metal smith programmed competitions. I suspect my email was years ahead of its time.

(th)

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#241 2021-01-09 21:03:31

SpaceNut
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Re: 3D Printers

The cutting blades would require a value adding process of hardening and shaping of the edges. We are doing alot with this adding of secondary processes in make even rocket engine parts. So its just a matter of time before they will see away around these sort of issues.

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#242 2021-01-09 21:10:52

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

For SpaceNut re 241 .... Nice follow up ... I think you are right, but the activity needed would probably be the responsibility of robot devices programmed for that task, rather than humans, except those who might want to pursue metal working as a hobby.

In listening to the Competition presentations on City-States with a million residents, I recognize there would be enough people to justify encouraging specializations in such crafts as metal working, but for a smaller population (such as My Hacienda 7800) it seems to me enlisting robots to do as much as possible would make sense.  Like 3D Printers, robots would embody knowledge in their instructions, and humans would (presumably) develop and maintain the ability to design programs and alter them as needed.

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#243 2021-01-13 19:33:05

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

The local 3D Printer group held it's monthly meeting this evening.  The attendees could have been anywhere (of course) but as it happened we were all local.  We used the gather.town system again, and I have to admit I ** really ** like it!

However, the reason I am posting now is to report that as I asked about 3D Printing:

1) a pencil
2) a piston engine
3) a turbine engine

one of the attendees asked if we had considered a Wankel engine?  We had not, and I'm definitely interested in tossing that question out to the Internal Combustion engine topic participants!

The piston engine will have hundreds if not thousands of parts, most of which needed to be given manual attention to bring them to the necessary precision.

The turbine idea met with approval, but with the observation that unlike with a forging, 3D printed parts may have flaws which would have to be detected before the parts are put into service.

The Wankel engine concept was offered as a simpler rotary engine that still has a decent track record on Earth.

(th)

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#244 2021-01-21 12:56:25

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

Here is part of an email from Shapeways .... I am not familiar with the technology they are discussing, but thought it might be of interest to someone in the forum readership:

SLS technology has stood the test of time, only growing stronger over the years as a reliable industrial 3D printing tool. This powder-based process relies on fast, powerful lasers to create structures known for strength, accuracy and excellence in mechanical properties. While other technologies such as SLA, DLP, and SLM are extremely popular with users too, SLS continues to reign over other processes due to its impressive versatility for printing both small and large parts.

Find out more about:
The history behind SLS printing.
How SLS printing actually works.
Applications in which SLS is commonly used.
The enormous benefits offered in comparison to other types of industrial 3D printing.

I do think that 3D Printing (or its successor technologies) is going to be a critical part of any successful, longlived settlement on Mars.

(th)

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#245 2021-01-21 18:19:45

SpaceNut
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Re: 3D Printers

https://3dinsider.com/3d-printer-types/

Stereolithography (SLA) Technology. SLA is a fast prototyping process. Those who use this …
Digital Light Processing (DLP) Technology. DLP is the oldest of the 3D printing technologies, …
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) Technology. FDM is a 3D printing process developed by Scott …
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) Technology. An American businessman, inventor, and teacher …

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#246 2021-01-28 14:17:37

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

Here's another update for Louis' topic ...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/italian-comp … 05053.html

This Italian company is 3D-printing eco-friendly homes made entirely of sustainable, recyclable materials Courtesy: TECLA, 3D Printed House by ©WASP Location: Ravenna, Italy The TECLA eco-homes are made with soil from the building site which is then mixed with rice waste and stabilizers producing a clay that is strong and water-resistant The building design is then fed into the 3D printer which only requires two people to operate and 200 hours of printing later ... voila! (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALBERTO CHIUSOLI, BUILDING ENGINEER OF WASP 3D PRINTING CONSTRUCTION TEAM, SAYING: “The eco-houses are, I think, the right way and the right approach, thanks to 3D. So this can be also time-saving of course and cost-saving, to replace a new way of living. Because in some ways, planet earth is asking us for this approach, this challenge. So eco-houses turn the traditional model into a new one that can be carbon neutral and zero emissions.“

The houses remind me of igloos, or perhaps African dome houses ...

The design appears to have plenty of dead air space between the outer wall and the inner one, which (I would think) would serve to help reduce thermal flows.

(th)

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#247 2021-02-16 19:12:56

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

Here's an update from a tech newsletter ...    

Lobsters inspire stronger concrete

Researchers have strengthened steel-fiber reinforced concrete by 3D printing it in a helicoidal lobster shell design. The spiral design of the 3D printed concrete was inspired by the biological design of lobster shells.

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#248 2021-03-15 09:28:41

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ca … 00125.html

California will soon be home to the world's first 3D-printed housing community and it's powered by solar and a Tesla Powerwall
Brittany Chang
Business InsiderSun, March 14, 2021, 8:28 AM

The California-based business isn't the first or only company taking advantage of this growing 3D printing tech. But unlike other companies, Mighty Building's upcoming project in Rancho Mirage, California will have the title of "world's first planned community of 3D printed homes," according to its maker.

Read more: This company is building 3-D printed, small homes on existing residential properties to fight back against California's housing shortage. Look inside a unit that was move-in ready in one week.

"This will be the first on-the-ground actualization of our vision for the future of housing - able to be deployed rapidly, affordably, sustainably, and able to augment surrounding communities with a positive dynamic," Alexey Dubov, cofounder and COO of Mighty Buildings, said in a press release.

The tech-forward housing development will consist of 15 homes across five-acres. This $15 million project will be built using the Mighty Kit system, which utilizes prefabbed panels to create custom homes.

Through this system, gone are the days of concrete. Instead, the homes will be based on Mighty Building's 3D printed proprietary Light Stone Material, which sets its shape upon UV light exposure, according to the company. The printers also rely on "robotic automation" and robotic arms, the latter for functions like quality control scans, Ruben told Insider in an email interview.

Using this construction method has several sustainability, speed, and cost advantages. Similar to the general prefabricated home industry, Mighty Building's 3D printing process allows the homebuilders to create units in a quicker and 40% less expensive manner, all while reducing construction waste by 99%, according to Ruben.

This is encouraging news! 

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#249 2021-04-07 08:52:09

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

This topic is available for display of 3D Printer objects, created by members of the forum.

Until recently, it appears that no current member actually ** owns ** a 3D Printer.

I have been working with Shapeways for several years, but have recently invested in a starter 3D Printer because Shapeways wants hundreds of ($US) to print the objects I've designed.  As a reminder, objects I've designed (or modified from work of others) are on display at the shop tahanson43206 at Shapeways.

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#250 2021-04-14 12:27:54

tahanson43206
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Re: 3D Printers

The local 3D printer meeting is this evening, and the organizer sent the link to this article for discussion ...

Since Noah reported he is venturing into the 3D Printer ownership ranks, I thought this extended capability might be of interest ...

https://opensource.com/article/21/3/desktop-3d-printer

About the authorJoshua PearceJoshua Pearce - Dr. Joshua M. Pearce is the Richard Witte Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and a Professor cross-appointed in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the Michigan Technological University where he runs the Open Sustainability Technology Research Group. He is a...

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