User:Bjp5173/Blog

Blogs

Blog 1

(A) Something amazing/beautiful:

This is a boeing F-18. I think this is amazing because it is one of the aircraft I could be (I kind of want to) flying in the Navy. It is a world renown platform that is the Navy's current fighter aircraft. It is amazing that someone has come up with this design that is very well done. I am hoping that the tools in this class will help me one day build this model. There is nothing like seeing one of these planes fly right in front of you.

(B) Something funny or strange

This duck is downright creepy. personaly I don't think of ducks as being fighters, and maybe that is because I have been spoiled with the PSU docile ones, but it is a bit strange to have one structured like this. I hope it scares someone because I'd hate for it to go to waste. Its on par with the University of Delaware's Fighting Blue Hens...Makes me shiver at the thought....

(C) Something useless

Unless you are creating robots to fight a horde of ants, I think these toy figurines have no purpose and are very useless. It would be cool if you would be able to move them but unless one can print out giant robots like these, I find them to be non-essential.

(D) Something useful

I think everyone has heard the popular phrase, "When life gives you lemons, squeeze the heck out of them to make lemonade." Well this is all you need. I think this is very useful and will most likely print one out myself. Hopefully it is dishwasher safe!

(E) Something which surprised you

The surprising thing about this model is how intricate it is. After browsing this site, it is apparent that many things, no matter how intricate can be reproduced using 3D printing. I never knew so many things could be made like this. It also surprises me how no one in any of my classes talk about this technology when it could very readily change the way we do business!

Blog 2

(A)

The OSE project, in my personal opinion, is a fantastic idea. At first I was a little skeptical about the logistics of the entire operation but after further review from the OSE blog site, http://blog.opensourceecology.org/ I am officially sold. The project has built its first microhouse, which is designed to be used in third world countries and rural areas alike. They have just started showcasing a new 100W laser called, Lasersaur which will be used with the creation suite to help create a sustainable system. In the end, I feel like this is a very promising development. I feel like this is somewhat Utopian but it seems as though they are getting closer and closer each day thanks to the nature of open source.

(B)

The following link is a link http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/23/131223fa_fact_eakin. to the article written by Emily from the New Yorker. I would like to first say that this article is truly uncalled for. I don't understand why they would viciously attack this man for something that is working as well as it can in its early beginnings. Attacks on the program and Marcin do not help the program evolve and develop. They should be promoting this possibly life changing operation to help those who can't help themselves in areas that are hard to get to and that are impoverish. There is no need to diminish their morale by saying the operation is not as effective as huge supermarkets who have had time to bolster their production, not to mention their awesome networking and cheap supplies. The response, which I think was very well written, can be found with this link http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/New_Yorker_-_Article_Response The response was not threatening, explained everything that Emily Bashed them with in a calm, professional method. He was very optimistic and promoted OSE throughout the entire letter. Overall, I don't know why the New Yorker would write something like this but at the end we saw who the true professionals were.

(C)

To be honest, and maybe I just haven't had the right teachers in the EE department, there are only a couple teachers that I think would be effective for this. Dr. Schiano is the EE 200 teacher and an avid EE'er. I think he would be good because he teaches the first design class for EE. The OSE cooperation could be a project that students can take on and participate in. Professor Wheeler is the EE 300W teacher, the second design class and also a capstone coordinator. Maybe he can facilitate a capstone/ senior design project involving the OSE program. Those two are the only teachers who I think that would be genuinely interested in helping out this cause. If it were me getting a group together, I would try to get a joint cooperation between all of the major majors at PSU. Get EE, CMPEN, ME, Systems engineering, agricultural majors and possibly management and business majors in the loop to round out a super group. This way the efficiency and productivity can be maximized collaborating with a bunch of minds in different relevant fields.

Blog 3

After reading the article about Mason Wilde who built a 3D printed prosthesis for a small kid named Matthew, (the article can be found here http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/31/4790811/kansas-teen-uses-3-d-printer-to.html), its hard to believe that more people don't know about 3D printing and its benefits. The design that Mason used was designed by two men, Ivan Owen and Richard Van As. They named the prosthesis, the Robohand, and it allows those with hand deformities, mostly those without certain digits, perform daily tasks such as writing and picking items up. The original design came about when Richard Van As lost four fingers in a sawing accident in South Africa. On Richard's quest to find a prosthesis, he spoke with Ivan Owen, who developed this design and started to build it for himself. Owen was in Washington when this was going on. When they were building this, someone else got wind of their design and asked if they could build one for their kid. Shows how technology can enable us to do good even when you are continents apart. (http://inhabitat.com/two-makers-create-a-150-open-source-3d-printed-prosthetic-hand-for-a-five-year-old-boy/liams_robohand/)

If I was to make one of these prosthesis hand, I would first go to Home Depot/Walmart/Lowes to get nylon, nuts, rubber thimbles and other small off the shelf items. Other than this, there are about 16 3D printed parts you will need to create. These items can be found on Thingiverse under the MakerBot section. Multiple designs can be found here (http://www.thingiverse.com/search/page:2?q=robohand&sa=).

Finally, after a quick search on Google of "3D printed hand", I found that the first 11 choices were about this technology, including YouTube videos and Reddit posts. That is not all, there are at least 10 more pages of sites from the search. Articles from popular sites, such as the Huffington Post, Reddit and PC Magazine, have allowed this technology to get out about a cheaper alternative for those who cant afford thousands of dollars for a commercial prosthesis.

Blog 4

A lot of the responses to the OSE project are quite similar: good idea, some problems, might not work on large scale, but there were those who's response went a little deeper. For example, Kyle Casterline's post brought up the safety factor in these projects. This was a giant component that I didn't think about. With these rural and impoverished areas that we want to transform with the machines, we have to make sure they are safe and consistent due to the fact that they are usually far from medical help.

Another person's opinion, Jessica's, brings up another good point I missed, the experience factor. She stated that even with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, it would take her and some friends a good amount of time to build. I have to agree with this, these are not projects for the average person. There is a certain amount of skill and experience you need to just go out and build a DIY dozer.

Nate, having a good amount of farming experience through his family, brought to light the high cost of keeping farm equipment running. Startup costs are high to begin with, let alone the consistent cost of keeping it running as it should. The OSE project will help lower this cost. This makes it more attractive to those who want to start this program.

Zachary goes to the extremes and places this equipment in an apocalypse scenario. He shows how useful it could be to rebuild and recover...interesting thought and might be useful in the future if China ever does go to war like the story in his post mentions!

Nam , probably more economic savvy that I am, discusses the agricultural market impact that these projects will have. I didn't think about this consequence. Could their area handle the influx in crops? Would there be a market for these crops to make it worthwhile? Their are a lot of secondary factors that could end up being negatives for this technology.

Blog 5

(A) Significant events over the past couple years

The most significant events that seem to stand out in the timeline over the past couple years usually deal with big names like Makerbot or Thingiverse. Whether they are starting up (Makerbot) or becoming an open source entity they seem to always show up on the timeline. I also think that the advances in the medical field as well as the military field are significant. The medical field includes the creation of the jaw or the Robohand. the Military field with its debut in overseas operations or through aircraft printing. In addition, gun making can be seen in this category as well. There have been huge strides in gun printing.

(B) What objects get a lot of press?

Hands down, anything that involves food or guns. Food is food and any way to make it another way will get the US community all excited. Guns are a big topic because it is a controversial one. The printing of guns with a homemade printer is extremely dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. Regulation will need to be the most important feature in this endeavor as well as safety. Safety is a big concern because well not only can the bullet hurt another but if the gun explodes due to a bad printer or whatever, the user is most likely going to have a bad time as well.

(C) What projects seemed to have slowed or stopped?

It seems as though a couple of topics have slowed down. The first is the experimentation with binding agents and materials. There is only a couple articles/advances concerning this while it was pretty big in the 03-10 time-frame. Another topic is plane making and many other super large projects. I think this is due to the extreme amount of money that has to go into this stuff in addition to the safety concerns that will most definitely arise. Add this to the fact that most printers are no where near big enough to tackle this problem.

(D) Something I find to be important to 3D Printing

To be "that guy" and go for the easy answer, I would say that the 1984 and 1986 posts on Charles Hull are pretty important to the 3D printing community. Of course any post regarding say the addition of RepRap which is a convenient way to download/learn/share anything and everything about printing is important as well as any post or article pertaining to the experimentation of materials. I think the latter is very important, being an engineer (sort of) I have the mind set that something always can be made better somehow. This is just one of the many ways 3D printers can be made better.

(E)Something I find to be not important to 3D Printing

Well, easy, November 27th addition of "Get a 3-d print of your unborn child"....what? I don't think you need an explanation to see why this is not significant to 3D printing.

(F)Something which you found interesting which you would like to think or speak more about.

personally, I am fascinated with planes and the medical field mainly because my whole family (but me) is in the medical field and I am a pilot. I would love to talk about any one of these things and have even started researching about how these things can make organs and be implemented on an aircraft carrier! (link http://gizmodo.com/naval-aircraft-carriers-could-become-floating-3d-printi-510082371)

Blog 6

Where to go from here?

First off, I like to say that the things that have been created in the classroom are things that i could never believe if you told me, so good job! Secondly, I think that although our printers are doing a good job that we will definitely plateau at some point which happens. The areas that we need to look towards is bigger printers, dual extrusion and possibly some laser applications. I know these are the usual things that most people say, but its popular for a reason. Bigger printers possibly with dual extruders can open up a lot of possibilities such as plane wings for the aero guys to test or some kind of structure that architectural students have created and want to test. Dual extrusion can help in making new kinds of builds to test. It can also help with difficult prints with overhangs, multi-functional material prints or something of that nature. Lasers honestly just sound cool. I also have a inkling to bring up circuit board printers. Now the relatively small research I have done led me to believe that this could be done but in a very primitive way. It seems as though you can't make boards per say, just make simple circuits on a piece of paper or some other rigid and flat material. This could be a way for EE students to better visualize circuits, and who knows, maybe the printers could use these circuits if we run out of components? Here is a link tho that info https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cartesianco/the-ex1-rapid-3d-printing-of-circuit-boards. I also think that testing materials is another sector that would be interesting to develop. We talk about all these large scale things like planes and guns but who cares if they can't stay together or aren't strong enough for the job at hand? If we were to maintain our current type of printer, we can develop better housing for it, make it better looking, more durable and easier to build.

I don't think we need dual extrusion everywhere. it has its benefits but so does just one extruder.

Blog 7

I think that this idea is very good on paper and if it is able to be implemented correctly, will be extremely successful. The premise that third world countries will be able to make cheaper lab/research equipment requires a good amount of preparation and infrastructure. For instance, once Peru gets the printer they could use to generate useful tools, how will they be connected to the internet to access the Appropedia or Thingiverse? With what power generation source to sustain operations will they have and with what support systems to help them fix the printer if things break will be available? Obviously this is rather extreme but it seems as though there is a lot of education that needs to be incorporated into this operation in order for it to be successful. These third world countries don't always have this infrastructure, which I believe is the first thing an area needs in order to grow but it can't get this because they don't have the wealth or stability and they don't have this stability because they don't have good infrastructure. Its a viscous cycle. So if they were able to set up an area with stable infrastructure and some type of schooling to educate technicians, I definitely think that creating useful tools or gadgets using 3D printers will be awesome! More useful research type things that we have discussed was bio printing and almost every show and tell that we have done. I have also seen the plastic recycler in the back as well as the dual extruder.

The second article gives an example of what the first article was talking about. This AFM is a perfect example of making low cost research tools that can be used in poorer regions. I am sure this microscope can help in a bio or chemical field but it does more than that, it sets the standard for printing low cost reliable machines that can replace high cost materials. It is a very doaable thing for our group Between the 80 computer/electronic /hardware stores around, I am confident we can do this. This type of technology thrives in a open source envronment. It will only make it better and even more, it will allow hobbyists and others to use it at home, for cheap!

Blog 8

Copyright

The Wiki answer, "Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited time, with the intention of enabling the creator of intellectual wealth" Copyright

Basically a Copyright ensures an owner full control of their product for a limited time, then it can be set free to other enterprises

Trademark

The Wiki answer, "Trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which identifies products or services of a particular source from those of others." Trademark

A way for a company to claim the products, usually through an image, slogan, phrase or word, as theirs. It is usually something that is bought and never has to be give up, not like a copyright.

Patent

The Wiki answer, " A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention" Patent

Unlike a trade secret, a patent is a way to claim an invention/idea as yours but give full disclosure for a period of time. After that time period is up, that invention can be manipulated/modified/changed and claimed by another. But you get to have your name remembered forever, which is cool.

Trade Secrets

The Wiki answer, "A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers" Trade Secret

A trade secret is like a trademark but you don't have to disclose all the information. It's the "secret" recipe in your grandma's favorite dish.

The Five I's

Infringement- Identification- Impractical- Impossible- Irrelevant-

Blog 9

(A) So who makes the good stuff for the right price and who doesn't?

For this metric, I am going to hone down the search and choose to only compare 3mm diameter filaments. This is important because well, that's the filament we primarily use and it seems to be working fine. That being said, lets get into it. Using two sites to get a general base of suppliers, one being [6] and the other [7], we can see that there are some differences in price and quality. Normally, you expect to get what you pay for and this arena is no different. The most expensive but the highest quality products are from makerbot. They offer different colored, environmentally conscious materials that have very high tolerances. These come in at about $54 a kg which is definitely on the higher end. Another supplier, based out of ebay, seems to be doing very well for himself. He is stated the best supplier of PLA and he has the fan base and the ratings to prove it. He sells the PLA for about 36 per kg which is significantly cheaper than makerbot and he still has a variety of colors and materials to choose from. His ebay account can be found here [8]

As for the bad stuff? A major point when buying filament is shipping. Since the PLA is rather expensive itself, paying high shipping costs (i.e. from other countries) can kill your budget quick. looking on amazon, it seems that Octava has some bad reviews. Apparently they cause voids and clogs which are not ideal.

(B: All dem materials)

Far and wide, the most available support materials are PVA and HIPS but there are some others out there, like in the Polyjet process's support material [9]. Most of these materials such as PVA and HIPs and even the Polyjet gel is water or chemical soluble meaning it will dissolve when placed in water or other chemicals. This allows for easy application and less work getting it off. If you weren't able to get these materials, there are other solutions like rock, wood and even PLA. These however would require work using sanders, chisels and the like, which is not good for efficiency. That research can be found here [10].

After looking at the pros and cons for these materials, I would choose, if I had my own dual extruder, the PVA is the way to go. First off, it requires less heat to extrude, it doesn't require a heated bed which will be good for us because most don't have one and it water soluble. In addition, it is non-toxic and biodegradable, something that HIPS is not. Good PVA can be found for $33 per 1 kg of black color. (who cares the color, its going to be dissolved)

(C: Who would be my dealer...)

I like to think that I am a savvy shopper. Usually, I head to the good ole amazon to purchase my goods, but after doing some research and finding that guy on ebay, I might go with him. My needs would be multicolored, 3mm PLA filament of decent quality. Hes got it and hes got it cheap. Plus he ships same day and has a large fan base and high ratings. Someone who can be trusted.