Extrusion screw v4

Precious Plastic Machine Development
#1

hey @davehakkens, @xxxolivierxxx

any news on machine developments in regard of v4 ?

i have around 6 sets to make and so i started building a machine to turn the screw with a 4th axis since it’s 6 hours alone to do it manually on a metal lathe. currently my set goes out for 380 euro whereby the most of it goes for materials, 70 euro for the chromoly, 100 for heatbands, another 50 euro for pid controllers and the controller terminal (complete! with breakers, proper grounding,…), another 40 euro for the nozzle section, filter and mounts, and the rest for extreme underpaid labour 🙂

anyways, if you have better idea let me know please!!

ps: i have no experience with the extrusion itself, just the machining and testing.

bazar reference (outdated)

#2

@anne-barbier

1 – No news for V4 yet, its still a work in progress

2 – HOLY SHIT, is that a Nema motor on the floor?

#3

Funny, I’ve been asking around too lately… 😉 Today I got some replies from suppliers on Alibaba and MadeInChina.

– The company that made the drawing of the extrusion screw in the PP master kit (Zhoushan Five-star Machinery Manufacturing) charges 260USD (200USD for the item, 60USD for freight).
– Zhejiang Zhongyang Screw Manufacturing Company charges 580USD for the screw AND accompanying barrel.

FYI, Zhoushan Five-star sells a general plastic extrusion screw for recycled plastic that takes PP, PE, ABS, AS,… according to the product details. Makes me believe that a general type of screw can be used for a subgroup of plastic types. Don’t know if the results would be good or bad.

#4

just as follow up, after speaking to some professionals

– extrusion screw and/or entire component is the most requested item in the bazar for us
– i contacted various suppliers in china: starting price is 500 Euro, per screw but the more realistic price for a good screw is around 2000 Euro !!
– i spoke with some of them: there is always one specific screw for one type of plastic, you will get bad results otherwise
– PET needs always a twin screw system !!!
– creating standard/good filament requires really precise machinery, we are talking here about machines with 3-5 meter length.
– entry extrusion systems begin at 15.000 Euro, and it’s really ‘entry’ only, missing many other important things: hopper auto – feed, extra pre-heat section

conclusion as with CNC machines, there is little to no room for DIY here, you are better off with a second hand machine; and huge space and electricity bills to actually recycle plastic into new products properly.

let’s keep fighting 🙂
g

#5

@xxxolivierxxx: thanks, Dave told me he’s working in direction of doing filament (good choice 🙂 and so same goes for us. Most requests (10+) are about the extrusion section and so i decided also to make some invest in building a good product for (full automatic extrusion system, with water baths, coolers, hell of sensors,…) but first i have to develop the machines to build such thing.

1. contacting 3D – print startups/hubs: done = interest in the machine is high and i’m currently compiling a final list of requirements for such machine.
2. development of a special 4th axis, for machining the extrusion screw, status: 3th prototype, the next will use a 1200W Servo (nema-34 below is not good enough)
3. development of a lathe steady-rest tool which follows the spindel = crazy, and an adjustable lathe tail stock
4. development of a water bath system, and extra cooling sections along the extrusion section : done by the end of the year
5. development of all the feed systems (in and out): hopefully done this year too. this part needs lots of attention, it’s about feeding the plastic correctly but also pulling the filament correctly through the extra cutting section and waterbaths
6. development of a special hopper, enabling mixing, full automatic

i hope the  final system will be won’t exceed 3000,- Euro net price, it’s quite big : 1.70 – 2.50 m long because of the water baths.

i can post updates here if somebody likes, it’s a hard and long process. producing good filament isn’t documented anywhere properly 🙂