RecycleBot v2.2

thingiverse

The RecycleBot is a waste plastic extruder that transforms household polymer waste into valuable 3-D printer feedstock. Newer, better designs have been developed by Aubrey L. Woern, et al., published in HardwareX 4C (2018) and made available as open access. The first RecycleBot was based on a hand-powered design and while it served as a great proof of concept, its filament quality wasn't high enough for use in open source 3D printers. The waste plastic extruder (Recyclebot v2.0 and v2.1) is heavily influenced by the Web4Deb extruder, which extrudes HDPE for use as a growth medium in aquaponics. Recyclebot v2.0 was an automated device, developed by Christian Baechler during a Mechanical Engineering course, that converted household plastic waste into usable material for small-scale rapid prototyping machines like the RepRap. This design was improved upon within the group, particularly with the help of Matthew DeVuono to make v2.1. The RecycleBot work is now being carried out by members of the Michigan Tech in Open Sustainability Technology Research Group. The v2.2 version aims for reliability and improvement is ongoing, with a goal of having a fully automated system running off an Arduino. This would allow users to press a button for recyclable plastic 1-7, shred their waste container, and have the RecycleBot automatically shift settings and output commercial-grade 3-D printer filament without any intervention. The Recyclebot consists of 3/4" piping divided into gearing, hopper, and heating sections. Shredded plastic is fed into the hopper and transported to the heating section by a 3/4" - 17" ship bore auger driven by a windshield wiper motor. The motor has a stall torque of 30Nm and runs at 35rpm on the low-speed setting. The plastic is melted and forced through a die in the heating section, producing plastic filament. HDPE filament has been successfully produced with this method at an average rate of 90mm/min and used to print parts. Further improvements are needed in full mechanical assembly instructions, operation instructions, design improvements, post-extrusion winding, cooling/solidification methods, electronics/software, experimental results on filament and RepRap print quality, and tricks to print waste polymers successfully.