PrintCity Round Up – April 2021

Welcome to the PrintCity Monthly Round Up, the newsletter for keeping up to date with all aspects of PrintCity.  Each Month we will be recapping what has happened across the different areas of Manchester Metropolitan University PrintCity. Be sure to visit our round up at the end of each month to see what our team has been doing!

Key News

Four PrintCity projects featured at the Festival of Circular Economy

In April, four of our innovative research projects were showcased at the inaugural Festival of Circular Economy, a prestigious event hosted by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) in partnership with the Circular Economy Club. Presentations on ShaRepair, CIRMAP, Bio Plastics Europe and TRANSFORM-CE were delivered to attendees via the Festival of Circular Economy’s ‘Innovation Hub’.  

3D Print of the Month

Last Month, our technical team have been working on a prototype system to rapidly diagnose Sepsis on site. Dr Nina Dempsey-Hibbert, Senior Lecture at MMU developed the method, her research can be found using the link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.analchem.1c00417

Current tests can take around 48 hours, this system has the potential to cut that down to minutes, which could be a huge improvement in the treatment of the life-threatening condition.

Our technical team created a 3D model to contain the system which uses a standard android phone allowing for in-field use. The prototype was printed on the Prusa MK3S+ using rPETG and Prusament PLA with embedded magnets to hold the android phone in place.

Research Update:

April’s ShaRepair Workshop (#2) was a great success with workshop #3 planned for the beginning of June. Seventeen people from a number of UK and European Repair Café’s attended the event where representatives from MMU and TU Delft in the Netherlands presented. Edmund Keefe from MMU gave a CAD workshop in Fusion 360, demonstrating how to make the door for a battery compartment and easily change dimensions. This was followed by a presentation from Alma Van Oudheusden, PhD student at TU Delft. She spoke about the use of 3D print to not only repair but also enhance parts.

MSc ID Highlight

As part of the educational relationship we have with Autodesk, our MSc Industrial Digitalisation students have full access to the Generative Design workspace within Fusion 360. In the final taught unit of the programme, students have been investigating generative design by applying it to a range of different scenarios, including a wall bracket for a gym, a VESA TV mount, an ice-hockey blade, an airline seat, a tennis racquet throat and an electric motorcycle swing-arm to name a selection.

Staff Spotlight

Eve is a research focused technical officer at PrintCity working on the Transform-CE project. Prior to working at PrintCity, Eve studied Chemistry, with a focus on materials, at both the University of York and University of Manchester, researching force activated reactions in polymers. Following this, she worked in industry as a Polymer technologist, developing novel antioxidant blends to enhance stability for both virgin and recycled polymer.

Transform-CE is looking to take single-use plastic waste and utilise it for additive manufacturing and intrusion-extrusion moulding. At PrintCity, Eve’s work focus has been on developing and producing filament for 3D printers out of recycled plastic waste, looking to boost the environmental sustainability of 3D FDM printing as well as looking to create bespoke filaments with chemically active properties. In addition, Eve is looking at ways to utilise her chemistry background to enhance print performance with textiles.