Extrusion line

Extrusion Line prototype for making 3D filament out of recycled polymer. 

This year, CORE continued to work on the design and development of the Extrusion Line, a project that started in the academic year 2020-2021 at the request of Innovived. This year, the Extrusion Line was completely transferred from Innovived to CORE. 

The ultimate goal of the Extrusion line is threefold; Innovation: with the help of circular 3D printing, CORE wants to contribute to a circular economy and a sustainable society. The Extrusion Line will also serve as a fundament for further research into the recycling of plastic. Education: another part of this project is to make the Extrusion line accessible to the general public through community maker spaces, workshops, fairs, events... We want to inspire innovators by making joint use of this innovative machine. Open source: The knowledge gained in this project is shared with the community by making the machine build plans public. Since the machine itself is largely made by means of 3D printing, it can be copied by hobbyists and do-it-yourself’ers. New parts can in turn be 3D printed with the recycled filament, for example to repair existing devices. In this way, CORE wants to contribute to an 'open-source circular economy'. By sharing knowledge, the circular economy can be maximally exploited. 

Last year, the team put a lot of time and energy into making the machine work, but there was still a lot of work to be done to make it safer, more reliable and easier to use. It was therefore decided to switch to a new control system that facilitates easy implementation of the various motors and actuators. For this, the software and interface underwent a complete redesign. The optical diameter sensor was replaced by a more robust electromechanical sensor. In addition, several hardware improvements were also implemented. These improvements aim to make the machine more reliable and safer to use and to control the variability in the quality of the produced filament.