After spending our first remote semester researching, the Extrusion team has come up with a concrete plan of action for in-person research.
First, they have created a detailed system to document their actions in the lab, including the color of the granules used, the ratio of recycled to virgin granules, the temperature of extrusion, and the diameter of the extruded filament. With this documentation system, we will be able to record and analyze our methods of extrusion for the optimal performance of the recycled filament.
The details provided in this lab documentation will be used after the 3D Printing and Mechanical Testing team quantifies the properties of the printed recycled filament in order to analyze which parts of the extrusion method are creating the desired properties and which parts are leading to undesirable properties.
The Extrusion team also made plans to test the most effective cooling methods for the recycled filament. The effectiveness of the cooling methods is measured based on the ability to thread our recycled filament into our automatic spooler as well as the ability to maintain a constant diameter of the recycled filament. Both of these properties are ideal for the 3D printing process and will be necessary to reach our goal of selling our recycled filament back to the school for use in 3D printing labs.
The implementation of both of these plans will allow the Extrusion team to jumpstart their research once they can return to in-person research.
This blog post was written by Brooke Chang.
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