Printer waste project for the EDC helps the planet and preps students

Seniors are rounding the clubhouse turn on their way to the finish line for Design Day in the Craig M. Berge Engineering Design program. This year, the teams have an additional mandate to incorporate a sustainability component into their projects while vying for prize money and the prestige of winning top accolades. The college’s Engineering Design Center is sponsoring a project that aims to dramatically reduce plastic waste from 3D printers due to user errors, which a recent study estimated to be more than a quarter of all student makerspace 3D print runs. The students’ solution could enhance the sustainability of the EDC, as well as makerspaces around campus and beyond.

Arriving at efficiency and replicability

The 3D printers in the EDC are in high demand – especially for producing prototypes, which are printed from plastic filament – but those using the complex machines are often inexperienced. If the filament required for the design does not match what is loaded into the printer – which is common when a user is unfamiliar with the printer settings – the plastic filament will be wasted. 

To address this issue, Team 25009 is fashioning a tool that can automatically adjust the 3D printer settings to match the needs of the design input. If a user selects the wrong plastic filament for a 3D printout, the tool can automatically override the incorrect settings and use the proper plastic source or it can stop the print process so the user can make a correction.

Plastic waste is common at the EDC, which is why the center sponsored the project, said project adviser Matthew Briggs. Briggs is assistant professor of practice and design fellow for the College of Engineering, with a joint appointment in U of A Health Sciences. 

“This project is really interesting because they’ve made it so low-cost. We’re considering reproducing it to use in other makerspaces on campus to help mitigate more waste,” he said, adding that the team made sure the tool is easy to reproduce. 

Hannah Budinoff, assistant professor of systems and industrial engineering, and Travis Sawyer, assistant professor of biomedical engineering are also advising the team.

Team 25009’s project uses inexpensive, off-the-shelf, optical scanning technology and a machine learning algorithm to quickly evaluate the filament. A spectral scanner in the tool takes visual spectrum, infrared, and near infrared readings, which are processed by a machine learning algorithm. 

“This is important, as every different type of filament has a specific nozzle temperature, bed temperature and print speed. The printer needs to be set correctly in order to have a successful print,” explained Samantha Perry, a software engineering major and project lead. 

Lauren Froberg, an engineering management major, says the device already scans red filaments with 98% accuracy. 

“We're going to keep adding colors and seeing how that changes, but we’re obviously in a good spot right now and want to keep pushing to the end.”

Students emerge as inventors and strategists

Briggs is so impressed with the team’s progress that he is taking the design to Tech Launch Arizona to explore the possibility of a patent. 

“Hopefully, we will get all the students on that patent,” he said. “It would be great for them to have a patent under their belts when they head out on their own.”

As the team members progress toward presenting their tool at Design Day in May, Briggs said their work has prepared them for career paths.

 “I think the best thing about capstone is that these are open-ended problems that are more representative of what you would see in the workforce,” Briggs said. “There’s no clear solution. The team has come to us for advice, but they’ve been largely independent and done a great job figuring things out.”