8. Open Source Hardware - From Fibres to Fabric

OpenSource Hardware - from Fibres to fabric Global Class with Mar Canet & Varvara Guljajeva - Varnara & Mar, Estonia

Assignment

  • Research and document existing fabrication methods, machines and industries , add references and sketches of the machine and the chosen process
  • Design and document the files of the machine, machine hack or tool and fabrication - assembly process
  • Document the schematic and the programming code (if any)
  • List the materials: electronics, materials amount other (references of the components)
  • Design, create and document a final outcome, a sample project of your process
  • Make a small video of the machine
  • Create an interface for controlling your machine

Tools

  • Software: CAD / CAM
  • Arduino

Machines

  • 3D printing
  • laser cutter
  • CNC milling machine
  • electronics setup

Design for a new Economy

the third industrial revolution 6th mass extinction

Where do we go from here? There is somethings really dysfunction about the way the human family is organising is economic relationships on this Earth.

2nd Industrial Revolution take us to Environmental Crisis. Climate change changes the water cycles of the Earth. We need a quick new economic response.

Youtube


The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy, VICE-Documentary Films

Brainstorming

Inspirations

(Additive Manufacturing for Design in a Circular Economy)[https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:1ffe3bd6-9592-40be-9a2a-7830778db093]
Balkenende, A.R.; Bakker, C.A.; Doubrovski, E.L.
Delft University of Technology, 2020-10-14

Extruder

Material Research

In order to compare and test, it’s better to test the same base with different fillers.

  • PLASTICIZER: Glycerin
  • POLIMER: Alginate as the common ingredient
  • STIFFENING and Fibre: Eggshells, Coffee, Acorn paste (from Dying), Seaweed powder
  • CURING: For curing, the vinegar it’s used in some recipes, however, in our experiences we used
  • Calcium Chloride Hydrated 10%. Because it can be tested after, if will be only used when/if necessary.
  • VEHICLE: Tap water

Material Inspirations

Alginate BioComposite

Carolina and Rebecca worked on researching the alginate recipes for the extruder. We would like to have something that resembles ceramics and Carolina had researched a basic recipe that could help us test the alginate, glycerine, water and eggshells mixtures. Rebecca remembered the shell-sand people use in birdcages, and they went out to get some since it also contains mainly calcium and is a (mostly) natural material. Since it is not for consumption purposes, we don’t know what exactly is in the mix, but apart from shell sand and oyster snippets, the text on the bottle says anis seed is added to the mix. Carolina mentioned that if it is shell sand from the beach, one will find plastic snippets in it as well. Such a sad idea. A brief online search, however, teaches us that the mixture is actually relatively pure, and has been dried under extreme heat, making the sand disinfectant. [Link (in Dutch): https://www.intratuin.nl/q-bodembedekker-schelpenzand-anijs-20-kg.html] We decided to use a basic recipe and try some variations with finely grounded eggshells as well as the shell-sand. We sieved the latter to divide the oyster snippets from the fine, white sand and thus started with three initial recipes, each consisting of the same amount of base ingredients, yet with different fillers [also see photos xx-xx in 201113 Alginating and Recipes].

Basic Alginate Recipe

  • 2 gr alginate
  • 5 ml glycerine
  • 50 ml water

Preparing the EggShells

Recipe from © Midushi Kochhar, at https://materiom.org/recipe/122
Step one: Preparation of eggshells: Collect as many eggshells as you need from your home, neighbours, cafes, etc.
Step two: Wash the eggshells thoroughly and boil them for about 15 mins to kill all bacteria.
Step three: To dry the eggshell, you can use one of these two methods:

  1. Place the eggshells in the oven at 100 degrees for 15 minutes.
  2. Place the eggshells in the microwave for 1 minute at high temperature, then 3 minutes at med-high.

Both methods work, but the eggshells need to be dried out; brittle but not burnt. Subtle crackling sound means that the eggshells are ready.

Preparing the Shell Sand

Step one: Filter the Shell Sand to remove the darker and bigger parts (mostly oyster). Step two: 1. White Powder - Use the filtered sand 2. Dark Powder - Use a morte to powder the remains

Our three versions:

  1. 15 gr eggshells
  2. 15 gr shell sand (sieved)
  3. 15 gr grounded oyster snippets (from sieved shell sand)

We though the result of recipe two was most aesthetically pleasing and decided to continue with the white (sieved) shell sand. We decided we would try four different ones, of which the first one was a repetition of the former batch, just to be sure. We, furthermore, decided to double the alginate for recipe 5 and 6 and the glycerine for 6 as well. For the last one we decided to add vinegar. [See photos xx-xx 201113 Alginating and Recipes]

Recipe 4

  • 5 ml glycerine
  • 2 gr alginate
  • 15 gr white shell sand
  • 50 ml water

Recipe 5

  • 5 ml glycerine
  • 4 gr alginate
  • 15/30 gr. white shell sand
  • 50 ml water

Recipe 6

  • 5 ml glycerine
  • 2 gr alginate
  • 15 gr white shell sand
  • 5 ml vinegar
  • 50 ml water

Recipe 7

  • 10 ml glycerine
  • 2 gr alginate
  • 15 gr white shell sand
  • 50 ml water

We almost immediately discovered that 4 gr alginate is too much for the amount of water. This turned out a very jelly-like paste, not that suited for further work. We, therefore stuck to the 2 gr alginate for the recipes above, only to discover recipe 4 and 5 then were the same. We then doubled the amount of shell sand for recipe 5, which proved a good idea. The vinegar mixture (recipe 6) and the high glycerine one (recipe 7) were respectively too jelly-like and too thin. [See photos xx-xx 201113 Alginate and Recipes] Since the circles we made were not very consistent, we then decided to experiment with the amount of shell sand added, to make the mixture stiffer and sturdier. To do so, we added more shell sand to the basic recipe of 5 ml glycerine, 2 gr alginate and 50 ml water. We kept on testing whether the mixture would pass through the syringe and this was generally fine.

Recipe 8

  • 10 ml glycerine
  • 2 gr alginate
  • 60 gr white shell sand
  • 50 ml water

Recipe 9

  • 10 ml glycerine
  • 2 gr alginate
  • 60 gr white shell sand
  • 50 ml water

Recipe 10

  • 10 ml glycerine
  • 2 gr alginate
  • 90 gr white shell sand
  • 50 ml water

We concluded that the mixture was still sagging into somewhat of a blob, whereas we would like to have something almost ceramic. On Monday we’ll test extruding on a mould. Furthermore, we realised that the shell sand itself is quite heavy and may not be optimal. We’ll therefore go back to the eggshells as well because these are much lighter than the sand and may actually absorb more of the liquid in the mixture.

Materials Recipes List

Materials Inspirations

Results

The work during this assignment was developed and presented in two international conferences, with blind peer-review.

  • 5th ICNF - International Conference on Natural Fibres - Materials of the Future
    "Bio-Polymer with Natural Fillers as Bio-Composites for Handheld 3D Printing" Short paper and Poster

  • 6th CIDAG - International conference in Design and Graphic Arts - Go green for 2030
    "Organic Waste Bio-Based Materials for 3D Extrusion: Eggshells, Shells Sand and Coffee grains with Sodium Alginate" Full paper and presentation