Printing using plastics from rubish

Hello Reprap-Community,

We are a group of students from Hockenheim/Germany, which takes part on a competition called

“FLL”(First-Lego-League).

As every year, a part of the competition is a research assignment, this year about the topics waste

prevention, waste recovery and recycling.

Out of this topic we asked ourselves following question:

“ How could we make use of our plastic waste at home?”

We got the idea to recycle the plastic waste in a granulate-3D-printer, to avoid investing into

expensive printing material.

In following we tried this out. First of all we shredded different sorts of plastic waste, which worked

well by using a document shredder.

We filled this material into a slightly modified hot-melt gun, which uses a similar principle to melt

the material as usual 3-D-Printers. With the melted resin we could create some simple forms on an

aluminium foil covered surface.

During this exercise we found out that thermoplastics as PE-LD,PP,PET, and polystyrene can be

properly used for that purpose. Some experts told us that coloring the resin should be no problem as

long as dark colors are used.

Since plastic waste often contains colorants and softeners, which are usually unknown for the

users, however could create dangerous fumes during the melting process, we attached additionally a

standard active carbon filter, as known from usual kitchen hoods.

We called our creation “REPRIPUS”. Estimated total cost are approximately USD1'000, however

this figure much depends on the selected type of the 3-D printer.

Through more detailed material indications by manufacturers waste separation and subsequent use

of materials for printing could be eased.

By using “Repripus” we all could decide what happens with our plastic waste and could create

useful things out of it.

We would much appreciate receiving your comments and opinion about our idea.

It's an interesting idea and you've done great work. I see only one problem: 3D printing usually requires pretty high quality filament going into the printer in order to get high quality prints out of the printer. Mixed materials will result in unpredictable performance as 3D printing filament. Your mixed plastic material might be more useful in situations requiring bulk materials that can be formed and shaped by conventional tooling. In small quantities you can make things like cutting boards. In large quantities you might make floor tiles for work rooms or garages, or even counter tops for work benches, etc. where the appearance and absolute performance of every square mm of the material isn't very important.

One of the members at the Milwaukee Makerspace has been melting mixed plastic scraps and forming them into slabs by putting the molten plastic in old baking pans then piling weight on top. He has done some basic machining with saws and a router and finds the material cuts well.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]