Approaches to open source 3-D printable probe positioners and micromanipulators for probe stations

Hietanen, I.; Heikkinen, Ismo T. S.; Savin, Hele; Pearce, Joshua M.

doi:10.1016/j.ohx.2018.e00042

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…For example, in an industrial or quasi-industrial granulator [70] used to make flakes or chips, the produced material can be converted to low-quality filament, which can then be subsequently chopped by the invention discussed here and then converted to high-quality 3-D printing filament. This filament can be tuned for specific properties such as those needed for scientific hardware [71][72][73][74]. This becomes important as manufacturers begin to disclose the materials from which they are made [75] in order to facilitate recycling and/or market opportunities from consumers understanding the material ingredients that make up their products.…”

Section: Fractional Control Of Color and Composite Mixingmentioning

confidence: 99%

3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper for Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing

Woern

Pearce

2018

Inventions

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Although distributed additive manufacturing can provide high returns on investment, the current markup on commercial filament over base polymers limits deployment. These cost barriers can be surmounted by eliminating the entire process of fusing filament by three-dimensional (3-D) printing products directly from polymer granules. Fused granular fabrication (FGF) (or fused particle fabrication (FPF)) is being held back in part by the accessibility of low-cost pelletizers and choppers. An open-source 3-D printable invention disclosed here allows for precisely controlled pelletizing of both single thermopolymers as well as composites for 3-D printing. The system is designed, built, and tested for its ability to provide high-tolerance thermopolymer pellets with a number of sizes capable of being used in an FGF printer. In addition, the chopping pelletizer is tested for its ability to chop multi-materials simultaneously for color mixing and composite fabrication as well as precise fractional measuring back to filament. The US$185 open-source 3-D printable pelletizer chopper system was successfully fabricated and has a 0.5 kg/h throughput with one motor, and 1.0 kg/h throughput with two motors using only 0.24 kWh/kg during the chopping process. Pellets were successfully printed directly via FGF as well as indirectly after being converted into high-tolerance filament in a recyclebot.

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Section: Fractional Control Of Color and Composite Mixingmentioning

confidence: 99%

3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper for Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing

Woern

Pearce

2018

Inventions

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“…An existing micrometer controlled manual XY stage was utilized in building the motorized stage, which can be purchased for $100 from various vendors. Others also reported on DIY approaches to building micromanipulators [16]. Fig 2 shows a close-up image of the custom-built motorized XY stage.…”

Section: Motorized Stagementioning

confidence: 99%

A low-cost and high-precision scanning electrochemical microscope built with open source tools

Guver

Fifita

Milas

et al. 2019

Preprint

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12A low-cost Scanning Electrochemical Microscope (SECM) was built with a 0.6 pA current 13 measurement capability potentiostat and submicron resolution motorized stage, using open source 14 software and hardware tools. The high performance potentiostat with a Python graphical user 15 interface was built based on an open source project. Arduino boards, stepper motors, a manual XY 16 micromanipulator stage, 3D printed couplers and gears were used in building the motorized stage.17An open source motor control software was used for moving the motorized stage with high 18 precision. An inverted microscope was utilized for viewing a standard microelectrode while 19 scanning. The setup was tested in the formation of a map of electrochemical signals from an array 20 of pores on a parafilm membrane. As the setup will be used in future biosensing experiments, DNA 21 hybridization detection experiments were also performed with the setup. 22 23 2 24 104 3D printed parts and gears, where the difference in size and teeth numbers between gears enabled 105 reduction of motor speed and hence the step size of the stage motion. The gear ratio was N Large-106 50 /N Small-13 = 3.84, providing about 4 times reduction on the angular speed of each axis according 107 to w L N L =w s N s . The stepper motors were controlled with the Arduino board in conjunction with 108 Easy Driver v4.4 shields, which resulted in further reduction of motor speeds by enabling 109 adjustments to the supplied currents to the stepper motors. The reduction of the stepper motor 6 110 speed through gears and current control enabled stepwise motion of an axis by 500 nm in each 111step. This was demonstrated in the S1_Video as a supplementary information, where the tip of a 112 tapered tungsten wire, that is attached to the motorized stage, covers the 10 micron distance 113 between two lines on a calibration slide in 20 steps. 114The stepper motor controller electronics including the Arduino board was housed in a 115 custom 3D printed box. A custom Arduino shield was built using a perfboard to hold the two Easy 116 Driver shields, the output power jacks for stepper motors and the DC power input jack, where a 117 9.75V DC adapter was utilized to power stepper drivers. A 5V fan was also installed in the box to 118 cool down the Easy Driver shields during operation. The open source GRBL software with a 119 graphical user interface was utilized in sending commands to the stage for stepwise motorized scan 120 of a preferred area [17]. This software is also capable of automatically moving the XY stage 121 according to a user uploaded image pattern and an example is presented as a supplementary 122 information movie (S2_Video). GRBL software's website provides detailed instructions for 123 establishing communication between the software and the Arduino board [17]. A detailed parts 124 list, 3D printable part files, GRBL software operation instructions, and a summary cost break down 125for the motorized stage are provided as supplementary information. We have also demo...

show abstract

“…So for example in an industrial or quasi-industrial granulator [69] is used to make flakes or chips it can be converted to low-quality filament, which can then be subsequently chopped by the invention discussed here and then converted to high-quality 3-D printing filament. This filament can be tuned for specific properties like those needed for scientific hardware [70][71][72][73]. This becomes important as manufacturers begin to disclose the materials they are made from [74] in order to facilitate recycling and/or market opportunities from consumers understanding the material ingredients that make up their products.…”

Section: Fractional Control Of Color and Composite Mixingmentioning

confidence: 99%

3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper for Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing

Woern¹,

Pearce²

2018

Preprint

Self Cite

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Although distributed additive manufacturing can provide high returns on investment the current markup on commercial filament over base polymers limits deployment. These cost barriers can be surmounted by eliminating the entire process of fusing filament by 3-D printing products directly from polymer granules. Fused granular fabrication (FGF) (or fused particle fabrication (FPF)) is being held back in part by the accessibility of low-cost pelletizers and choppers. An open-source 3-D printable invention disclosed here provides for precise controlled pelletizing of both single thermopolymers as well as composites for 3-D printing. The system is designed, built and tested for its ability to provide high tolerance thermopolymer pellets from a number of sizes capable of being used in a FGF printer. In addition, the chopping pelletizer is tested for its ability to chop multi-materials simultaneously for color mixing and composite fabrication as well as precise fractional measuring back to filament. The US$185 open-source 3-D printable pelletizer chopper system was successfully fabricated and has a 0.5 kg/hr throughput with one motor, and 1.0 kg/hr throughput with two motors using only 0.24 kWh/kg during the chopping process. Pellets were successfully printed directly via FGF and indirectly after being converted into high-tolerance filament in a recyclebot.

show abstract

Approaches to open source 3-D printable probe positioners and micromanipulators for probe stations

Cited by 26 publications

References 25 publications

3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper for Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing

3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper for Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing

A low-cost and high-precision scanning electrochemical microscope built with open source tools

3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper for Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing

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