HOUGHTON, MI – Buying plastic filament for 3-D printing can be expensive. But a Michigan Technological University researcher and his students have whittled the cost of printing to ten cents per kilogram — down from $30 per kilogram.
The team was able to make this leap by recycling plastics that had already been printed.
The students were led by Joshua Pearce, the head researcher in the Open Sustainability Technology group at Michigan Tech. The lab initiated the project because they were seeking ways to recycle their own printed materials, a variety of different polymers. In the process, they were struck by how difficult it is to recycle 3-D printed plastic.
“We want to know about polymers the same way a chemist would,” Pearce says, admitting that the seven codes in the US plastics recycling system fall short. In comparison, China has 140 codes for different polymers.
So, Pearce and his students designed a new recycling code system that could make 3-D printed more environmentally friendly — and save quite a few bucks.
Click To Submit Press Releases, News, Calendar Items, and Community Events to mediaBrew radio stations WFXD, WKQS, WRUP, GTO, Fox Sport Marquette, and 106.1 The Sound
Marquette, Michigan Calendar; Ishpeming Calendar; Negaunee Calendar; Gwinn Calendar; Negaunee Calendar and Events; Upper Peninsula Calendar of Events; Escanaba Events and Calendar