25
2021
INNOVATION
tally a much slower process’ compared to
injection moulding because each layer needs
to be deposited sequentially. While printing
can be accelerated using multiple nozzles,
it is best targeted at applications in w...
tally a much slower process’ compared to
injection moulding because each layer needs
to be deposited sequentially. While printing
can be accelerated using multiple nozzles,
it is best targeted at applications in which
customisability offers a tangible advantage.
‘Ensuring reliability is also a challenge since,
with embedded electronics, post-hoc repairs
are virtually impossible,’ Dyson laments. One
strategy is to use image analysis to check each
layer and perform any repairs before the next
layer is deposited.
Author: Kirstin Linnenkoper
Goodbye to the ‘Wild West’
Denmark has granted EUR 85 000 in funding to Aarhus University to determine the best
way to turn plastic scrap into high-quality filament for 3D printing.
Filament can vary greatly in quality despite coming from the same supplier and being
manufactured from the same plastic type. There are no standards for filament as yet,
laments Professor Mogens Hinge from the university’s department of engineering, ‘and
therefore it is like the Wild West for users of 3D printers’.
The project is supported by Scandinavian plastics recycler Aage Vestergaard Larsen, which
acknowledges that no-one has yet managed to produce filament from 100% recycled plas-
tic, let alone a filament based on a detailed data sheet in order to ensure uniform quality.
