Distributed Recycling for Additive Manufacturing
Visiting PhD research period
Distributed Recycling for Additive Manufacturing
Fused Granular Fabrication 3D Printing
Research collaboration
- 📅 · Period:
September 2022 – March 2023 💰 · Collaboration:
FAST Lab, Western University, Canada.🏛 · Main facility:
Western University, Canada🤝 · Lab collaboration:
+LAB and FAST Lab (visiting research)⭐ · My Role:
Visiting researcher🏫 · My Affiliation:
Visiting researcher, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western University (Canada) Research fellow, Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta", Politecnico di Milano (Italy) PhD Candidate, Design Department, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)🏷️ · Keywords:
Additive manufacturing, Material extrusion, Distributed Recycling, Circular materials, Circular design, 3D printing, Open-source, Open Hardware.
Overview
Circularity through Materials, 3D Printing, and Design: Agro-Food Supply Chain is a research collaboration carried out during my visiting PhD research period as part of FAST Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western University (Canada). The project focused on the use of open-source large-format Fused Granular Fabrication (FGF) for distributed recycling of post-consumer and post-industrial thermoplastic materials. The research investigates the modification and validation of low-cost, open-source, large-format FGF 3D printers, including cable-driven systems such as the Hangprinter and pellet-extruder platforms such as GigabotX, for printing virgin, recycled, and blended thermoplastic materials, including PC, PC/ABS, and PLA. This work contributed to develop the broader DRAM research agenda on recycled granulate feedstock through the characterization of recycled feedstocks and the optimization of printing parameters for circular economy product applications. 1
Romani A*, Levi M, Pearce JM (2023) Recycled polycarbonate and polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene feedstocks for circular economy product applications with fused granular fabrication-based additive manufacturing. Sustainable Materials and Technologies, 38, e00730. DOI: 10.1016/j.susmat.2023.e00730
Project partners
Politecnico di Milano (IT) 🇮🇹
Western University (CA) 🇨🇦
Team members
FAST lab Team: Joshua Pearce, Alessia Romani.
💡
My contribution:
- Hardware development: Modified and/or validated low-cost open-source large-format FGF 3D printers (GigabotX and Hangprinter) for printing virgin, recycled, and blended thermoplastic materials; tested open-source and commercial filament extruders (Recyclebot and Protocycler) with recycled feedstocks.
- Materials: Experimental work and characterization on virgin and recycled post-consumer PLA feedstocks, and on recycled PC and PC/ABS feedstocks and blends for large-format Fused Granular Fabrication (FGF) additive manufacturing.
- Additive manufacturing: Process optimization of large-format FGF 3D printing parameters for recycled and composite thermoplastic feedstocks.
- Product design: Development of product concepts and applications for FGF, especially connected to furniture, exhibition, and sports sectors. Development of the parts and samples included in the RepMat library (Replicating Materials Library), an open-source replicable materials library for circular materials.
- Dissemination: Publications, academic webinars, participation in community outreach events and design exhibitions, and MOOC lectures.
Research and dissemination output connected to my work
- 📚 Publications: 2 Journal Articles
- ⚙️ Technology Transfer: 2 on OSF.
- 🎤 Presentations: Work presented at academic webinars and workshop presentations, including RE:Fish international workshop (2023) and T4C webinar (2024).
- 📢 Dissemination & outreach: Work featured in Wikipedia pages and part of a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course).
Selected dissemination and media outreach
- Hangprinter Wikipedia, Feb 2023.
- Recyclebot Wikipedia, Feb 2023.
Materials from waste and additive manufacturing for the circular economy
Video from the T4C Webinar (EU project Tracks4Crafts, 2024)
Publications from the project
Conference papers
- Romani A*, Levi M, Pearce JM (2023) Recycled polycarbonate and polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene feedstocks for circular economy product applications with fused granular fabrication-based additive manufacturing. Sustainable Materials and Technologies, 38, e00730. DOI: 0.1016/j.susmat.2023.e00730
- Rattan R, Nauta N, Romani A*, Pearce JM (2023) Hangprinter for large scale additive manufacturing using fused particle fabrication with recycled plastic and continuous feeding. HardwareX, 13, e00401. DOI: 10.1016/j.ohx.2023.e00401
Technology transfer from the project
Technology transfer repositories
- Pearce JM, Romani A (2023) GigabotX Improvements. OSF. Available at: https://osf.io/gxuqf/overview
- Pearce JM, Romani A (2023) Designs for Recycled PC and PC-ABS feedstock project. OSF. Available at: https://osf.io/z9fnk/overview
- Pearce JM, Rattan R, Romani A (2022) Open source hang printer with direct screw auger FPF. OSF. DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/WPCF7
Other outputs from the project
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
- Materials from waste and 3D printing (2025) Two lectures in the MOOC "Materials design for transitions: toward regenerative ecologies", part of the POK series (Polimi Open Knowledge), Politecnico di Milano. Available at: https://www.pok.polimi.it/course/view.php?id=170#tab2