We are happy to share with you the latest extruder designs, simple robust and versatile, unlocking new applications for small enterprises and educational settings.

Scaling Up: Lydia-v3 extruders meet industrial robots

Beyond research and development, updates for large-scale 3D printing highlight the adoption of Lydia-v3 extruders for ABB and Kuga robots. Firmware interfaces Omron inverters and Modbus temperature controllers.

Beams: Enhancing Small Extruders for raw stock blocks

Exploring the limits of small extruders has led to innovations in producing larger blocks providing raw stock. The introduction of a spring-loaded plunger has effectively eliminated air voids.

Resources

Clients

• TheNewMaterialist - New materials & bio polymer R&D - extended Lydia v3.6
• Bio Polymer Filament @ inweb.fi - Lydia-v3.5
• Coldchaintech - USA - Packaging Solutions - Lydia-v3
• Footprintinc - LSAM - Belgium - Lydia-v3.5 @ Kuga)
• Aivox - LSAM - Lydia-v3 @ ABB) - Italy
• MIT - Research Recycled Plastic in developing countries - Lydia-v3
• Prewaste - Spain - Research of post industrial waste - Lydia-v4.5
• Theon - Development of vision equipment

Designs & Components

• Source: Lydia-v3.5
• Source: Lydia-v4.5 (Updated for better barrel)
• Source: Extruder Components
• Source: Universal Extruder Block Mould
• Source: Extruder Moulds (Universal Master Mould)
• Source: Plastichub Firmware
• PolyMech Material Testing
• Firmware documentation - Lydia-Printhead for ABB & Kuga Robots

Related Projects

• The FlipFlopi @ Lamu-Africa - Funiture & Boats
• Ecollabo8 - Bali - Funiture
• The New Raw - Largescale Print - Robotics
• The Distil Ennui Studio™ Cultural & Environmental Project Hub

New Designs

Katbot - This design reflects the past six years of experience, building injection machines for educational contexts and small enterprises. We are proud to say there's nothing to add or take away :)

Elena - Elena became now a platform of design building blocks enabling reuse of existing components, such as sheet presses and extruders. Additionally, all known issues have been resolved, introducing a toggle clamp and a shutoff valve, enabling a predictable, repeatable and clean process. The designs made finally their way into the workshops of small enterprises.

Resources

• Source: Katbot | Video
• Source: Elena-RC2 (Manual & Motorized)
• Source: Injection Components
• Source: Toggle Clamp
• Forum: Injection Machine Designs
• Source: Injection & Extruder Moulds

We tested post industrial waste (PP, MDPE and clean HDPE) and are very satisfied about the results. We also discovered new techniques, employing a die to overcome artefacts coming with shrinkage.

• flatness : within 1mm tolerances
• surface : impeccable, in particular for clean HDPE
• consistency : literally no air voids when using dies

10mm Sheets

This presents the more productive size. It takes ~45-60 minutes for heating and 3-4 hours cooling, requiring a mould of 15mm and a die of 5mm. Since less plastic needs to be penetrated, a moderate temperature can be used to retain texture properties as speckle like patterns.

20mm Sheets

~90-120 minutes for heating and 4-6 hours cooling, requiring a mould of 30mm and a die of 10mm.

30mm Sheets

~120-140 minutes for heating and 6-8 hours cooling, requiring a mould of 40mm and a die of 10mm. 30mm blocks enable access to wider applications such as mechanical and structural components.

40mm Sheets

Considerably more challanging and care taking neeed, ~140-160 minutes for heating and 6-8 hours cooling, requiring a mould of 55mm and a die of 15mm as well reheating the sheet during the die press stage near the melt point.

We are happy to share with you the latest sheetpress designs, addressing structural & quality issues. We've enhanced safety, flexibility, compactness, modularity, and accessibility, ensuring a smooth and clean process for small enterprises and educational settings.

Cassandra - 45 cm (3D Preview)

We recommend this version for Fablabs, schools and research institutions for its maximized safety. As all variants, the press can be configured for up to 4 individual heat and/or cooling zones. A fully maxed out mould weights up to 18kg.

Cassandra - 65 cm (3D Preview)

This variant is optimized for production scenarios, enabling an interlocked setup for 1.2m x 60cm sheets.

Moulds

We introduced a new mould design that allows for a clean, safe and repeatable process. The mould is height adjustable and rollers prevent damage of the heat press plate but also position the mould inside the sheetpress always at the same place. Outer protection sheets snap onto the mould frame to avoid plastic from falling out.

3D Preview | Download

Coming up next

• Cassandra - 110 cm
• Modbus capable temperature controllers that allow for precise ramping and storage of profiles, accessible on a PC, easing monitoring and the development of new materials
• Touchscreen
• Interface for industrial robots, enabling up to 200 sheets a day
• Oil-Heating, see here a complete introduction

Resources

• PolyMech Material Testing
• Contact: Jason Knight - Developer of the first sheetpress designs

Resources

Designs & Components

• Source Repository | Download
• Source: PolyMech Material Testing

We are pleased to share the tools that support us to develop open-source hardware and content technology for the public domain.

Polymech-CAD helps us to maintain and publish thousands of parts and designs.

Polymech-Language helps us with content creation as newsletters, documentation, manuals knowledgebases for various formats and platforms.

Polymech-AI leverages OpenAI to create dynamic, question-driven content, keeping articles up-to-date instead of static and often fast outdated content. It also helps us with daily research, design and maintainence tasks.

Polymech-Code-Bot As alternative to bolt.new and similar AI aided tools, we introduced a terminal variant that helps with data & code transformation, translations and reseach.

We are currently porting all packages to more recent standards, enabling free trade, modern content creation. That includes migrating content from PreciousPlastic and others sources due to massive corruption and censorship cases. See here more details.