Ani Melikyan, Anahit Sahakyan | TelPull PET Bottles to Filament

[music] >> Hello everyone. My name is Ani Melikyan and today me and my partner Anna is again are going to present our capsule project that is Tel Pool device. This device converts PET bottles that we use every single day to usable 3D printing filament. Uh first I want to start with numbers. Based on reports from OECD, only 9% of the waste PET is successfully recycled. Everything else ends up in the landfills. On the other side, one spool of filament costs around 20 to 30 US dollars in that is used in our university. Tel Pool device solves both of these problems simultaneously. Anna it will continue from here. >> Uh this is for our agenda for today. And at first we're going to begin with the problem which motivate motivated us to choose this project. In As we know and notice the polymer which exists in the PET bottles and also the filament produced is the same and there is an advantage that people can make filament from plastic bottles. So we decided to take this advantage and use it in our capstone project. And we can see a several problems which it solves and one of which is PET under utilization. In this case it's for our university and in campus we can decrease by this a lot of PET waste. Another one is supply dependency which comes if for example we need an extra filament and we have no time for receiving the filament from other suppliers. We can create it by our own resources and it's really helpful. Another advantage is prototype cost because sometimes for prototype just testing our 3D models it can cost a lot with PLAs but this is another way to reduce our cost and to make it efficient. And also CO2 emission CO2 emissions uh which is for um our PET recycled PET filament it exceeds three times less CO2 which does for usual PLA and which is again an environmental good thing for us. And now about project background and objectives. >> So at first our team was supposed to create this device from scratch ourselves. That means mechanical and electronical design. Um we have submitted our conops in December about this and then in mid-February we came became aware that device like this already exists and it's made by a student named Ashot Vardanyan. Um so after talking with our program chair Ms. Satanik Mkrtchyan we came to understand that instead of making the same device twice um we should concentrate on testing the existing prototype, analyze the engineering specifications of it, um try to get filaments, print with it, understand how it's working. And this is our collaboration and lastly create documentation for how to assemble and use this device. As we know this is the first time that such a collaboration is done between AUA Armat Laboratories and Real School and we hope that this will be a precedent and later on such projects will be more and even be better than ours. Um so this is the project transition and the new goals that we have defined for our project. >> Um as [clears throat] our supply chain chain completely differs from traditional ones as our raw materials is inside in our university. At first we need to find our material sourcing which for which we have two direct ways. First one is our collector collecting center which is our engineering lab. People would just take their plastic bottles and bring it to our lab. And the second one, uh is the direct collection from uh recycling bins, uh which are all over all over all over in AUE. So, um this again is a way if there is no um PET um bottles in our uh lab, we can also take uh account to this option, too. Uh We also did a survey to understand how uh people use in AUE plastic bottles, and it turned out that the majority of them tr- throw their PET bottles uh in AUE. And uh after um we analyzed and saw that uh per week they throw uh up to one and two, the majority of them bottles, uh which is complete uh completely feasible number for our project. Uh and if when we asked them if they uh bring their bottles to our engineering lab, if they know such pro- uh project exists, the majority and most of them answered that uh they would voluntarily bring them, which is again a good result for us. And we can see that it can become part of our workflow. Uh now, let's talk about the preparation. We have the bottles. How we should prepare them to become to make them a filament. Uh there are three staging, uh cleaning, label removal, and heating. Uh label removal can be done in three ways. Uh one uh is an apply by applying heat. The other one is using a hot water or using an acetone. >> So, system description, if we are talking about the workflow, the temple device has uh five sequential stages. Uh the first one is cutting. After removing the bottom of the bottle uh manually, uh user insert it into cutting mechanism that you can see here. It uh is consist- uh consisting of two bearings. Uh after the first cut is done, the user pulls the strip through these bearings and creates a uniform uh strip. The next one is painting. This is um just ordinary India ink is used. Uh the strip goes through it and then enters the protrusion uh stage where it retains the color. Uh the extrusion stage is one of the main stages where the strip enters 3D printer nozzle uh where it forms into a cylindrical filaments. The nozzle is maintained at 235 Celsius degrees and plus minus 2 degrees of Celsius fluctuations. Uh the next stage is cooling. >> [laughter and clears throat] >> Uh cooling is again an important part because in nozzle the temperature is really high and if we do not cool during after the cooling, we will have deformations which will worsen the quality of filament and of course after that we have the spooling part which basically at first we attach it to the gears manually and then after stepper motor start working and the gears starts rotating, the whole process becomes automatic. >> And electronics part is pretty simple. We have 12 volt power supply um that is connected to from wall outlet. The main control unit is RAMPS 1.6 that is used for control of uh 3D printers and it's attached to Arduino Mega 2560. Uh we have the 3D printer E3D nozzle and NTC 100K thermistor that is measuring the temperature and for the motor that is rotating the gears, we use NEMA 17 and user interface is provided by an LCD um and by an LCD. Uh here you can see the temperature. It is controlled by it is controlled by PID uh and is maintained at 235 degrees. Here you can see that it's pretty steady and we have changed the PID coefficients to achieve this result. Otherwise it was fluctuating quite a lot and worsening the situation with the filaments quality. >> Uh so even though we know all the we knew all the steps how we should do this, we recreated the product to fully understand how it work and if there are some challenges, we can face them directly and understand the most efficient solutions. And the first challenge we faced was from the bottle prepa- preparation side because of the suggested way how we should prepare the bottle and heat the bottle. In the screen you can see how after the heating, the bottle decreased in its volume. Which which can result in dramatic filament diameter change which is which is unacceptable. That's why we have created such a You can see here bottle caps which use shredder valves and make air injection. By this we pump air, you can see here. We pump with a PSI after which we had a full pressurized bottle. When we get the full pressurized bottle, we mount it on a screwdriver and start to heat it like simultaneously with the whole surface. And after we do this a step, we get a full smooth bottle which do not which has the full uh the same wall thickness and is uniform which is the best practice for filament diameter which is the most crucial part here. And here you can see the results. Here we have also the strip width which is another crucial part for filament diameter and because of different sizes of the bottles, we have the problem of proper positioning. And during the automatic pulling, we have a problem when the diameter the width decreases. And as a result, that's why we suggest to have a spooling mechanism which will just we can at first take and take out the strip manually and collect it to the spooling system and then use it directly cuz in this way we will have more longer and more consistent uh um uh strip size. And again here in the video you can see how difficult is spooling part when we remove the filament because in this case we don't have a place where we can take out the filament directly. So here every time we should take out every spool which is really time consuming and in some sense dangerous and because we don't want to take someone's eye if someone is around. That's why we suggest another option which have a part where we can take out it and take out the spool spool filament directly from it. Um I want to uh make sure that all these suggestions are done based on a research. We included their results also in our conops where we uh analyze different models of such projects and understand understood the best practices which which can be implemented in our project. Um >> Next after a short period of usage we have noticed that the gears have been worn out and broke completely. So we decided to use different approaches. First one is printing them with 100% infill and the second one is printing them by carbon fiber filament and both of these work pretty fine and this is what we suggest doing in the future for people who are going to use it. Uh and last problem I think is the filament length that most people use only 0.5 L bottles and the length of it the filament that is produced is pretty inadequate for most of the 3D printers. So we have talked with the creator of this device and came to a conclusion that we need a splicer that's going to join the different parts of the filaments. We have two ways. The first one is manual where you apply heat by a for instance a lighter and join the filaments. That is working but is not far from ideal and the next one is again improved and developed with the creator of the device together. We are still looking for some parts that we are missing to create it finally. These are volcano nozzles used and wire is once on the metallic part and after 5 volt via Arduino is applied we get 300 Celsius degrees where the welding is happening. After which you can take out the filaments after the cooling again it's going to work pretty fine in the print printer and not cause any problems. And testing. >> Yeah, after we get our filament we started our testings. You can see here the testings we can even give it to you to see them. Of course everything at the beginning was not fine because we tried several ways. At first we tested the temperatures when they work perfectly. And sometimes we noticed that in several temperatures or speeds our prints were failed. And here you can see our failed prints. Sometimes we even the printer started to clog and it was very difficult to solve that problem of print printer clogging. So the testings were done a lot to understand the full profile of quality which we should use for later usage and that students can also use them later. And now even after our testings you can see that one of the students of mechatronics course used our PET to create his project of mechatronics which was introduced well enough and satisfied all the needs it should have to. So we can see that it's already in the workflow of our engineering students. >> These are some simple specifications of the device that you can see. It's working from the wall outlet as I have said. Rated power is 30 watts. Filamentary diameter that we get as a result of testings and fail and test results is 1.75 mm plus minus 0.15. Operating temperature 235 for the nozzle. And expectancy of the product. This is data for 0.5 L bottles. How much filament we get? We need around 200 bottles to get one spool of a filament. Around 7 working days. That means 8 hours in a day to get one spool. And as we have found out the cafeteria sells around 1,000 bottles per week. That is a pretty feasible number and we understand that we can get the needed results in the university if we continue to operate in the future. We think we can SCS presented his concepts. We kept some. We have done tensile tests and as you can see from the graph, although the PET filament is not as strong as the others, it is pretty flexible compared to others. In case in this case, the most flexible one out of them. The compared ones are PLA, PETG, recycled PET bottle and carbon fiber filament. And when comparing the cost, this is a really impressive because even though we're accounting for the electricity that we're using, it's still much much cheaper than any kind of filament that is used in our university. End documentation. >> After putting it into workflow, we understood that of course we need to documentation for this product because we need to understand we need to make sure that people who are going to use the product will have the full understanding of how to use this device. So that's why we created three different manuals. First manual is assembly manual for the people who have the 3D printed parts and electronic parts. And with this manual, they can use and understand how to create it. We have a user manual for people who are just simply are going to purchase and use this product. And with this they can all the they can have all the details they need. And of course, a service manual which will guide them how to maintain the product. And if there are some um situations, they will find the answers in that document, of course. Um and after all this, of course, we should have to put this into workflow. And for that, we organized the meeting with ES students with whom we demonstrated the full process of how this device is working. We made it starting from bottle preparations and some of the prints you saw are printing after that ES workshop. So, it was again part of it and students learned how later, after we graduate, they can use the device and the device becomes non viable. >> And hackathon. >> And yes, in our future plans, we have a hackathon with our math students. Um We cannot open the brackets yet cuz it's yet is in development of progress, but it is going to be a competition related to 3D printing and the winner will is going to get one of these devices. And simply, this is another collaboration which is a fully social work and uh as we understood, like this is the whole systems engineering process we get through. Um and there was each. We want to tell a special thanks to our supervisor who was always near and helped us during difficult times. And thank you everyone who participated and had their own impact for our project. It was really fun and interesting to go through these steps. And if you have any questions, we are ready to answer them. >> [applause] >> Before starting the questions and answers session, I want to mention that there in a way, it is not only engineering sciences project uh program. It's Arsen Avetyan who believed in the collaboration and the first device was funded by their project. We bought this project and we knew that by disassembling and reverse engineering we might not get any of the results. So, this was a collaboration among Armat, the real school, and AUAs multiple units. And everything is open source. And we are going to run multiple sessions. And hopefully we will replace all of if Armond agrees and confirms, we will replace our uh filament usage with this device with the improved one. And hopefully we will get more uh capstones and the capstones and and I really promised Ariston that we will uh publish the social impact of the of the device. And um from our our budget, engineering sciences budget, we produced the second version of the device, which will be the gift to the winner of the Yeah. To the of the hackathon. >> Great work and kudos for the user's guide. >> [laughter] >> Everything impressive, yeah. Uh impressive after work because a lot of times the engineering is good, but the documentation is very weak. No documentation matches the high quality of the work. Very well done. Uh I have couple of questions about the economic feasibility because the environmental impact we all understand the waste is done share of waste to society, you all understand. Have you done any uh calculations about what would be the uh cost of running of the device uh and compared to uh commercial prices for the the if you like >> Yes, so taking into account the rates of electricity that is used in Armenia. For from one bottle we get for one spool we get around 120 drums AMD. Yeah, for electricity use and the bottles are basically free if they are bring to us and if they are not like the money compared to other filament costs is really much cheaper. Um, and for one bottle we I mean need only $2 maximum. But it's not even $2. It depends on the bottle people >> How many drums per bottle? >> Yes, no first spool and spool for the spool we use around 40 bottles um for one spool. >> Uh, the numbers don't match. Sorry. >> One spool. >> Uh, because you are saying >> 200 uh, 200 bottles. >> Every spool will go for 7 days, 800 8 hour of working that would be in your device will be consuming less than uh what 10 watts uh of powers. Is it true or not? >> Hm? Uh We did the testing. >> It is consuming 30 watts. >> Uh, it is consuming 30 watts, yeah. And we did the calculation by that what uh Uh, the the the number of how much does it cost the what in Armenia. >> heating, cooling, cutting cooling spooling, everything all together 60 watts. >> Yes, yeah. In average it's average number here. Yes. >> Uh, what will be the sustainable price for one spool to to to provide for the market? >> Um, so we have made these uh calculations and everything based on the assumption that it's going to be used by students in the AUA or our market. So it's not going to be uh commercial product for sale. >> our side. But it was commercial from uh the our side as we know and we know that he brought it if it uh 30 and 20,000 drams. >> No, the whole device. >> The whole device, yeah. >> I don't know if you you should you guys should convert this into a vending machine. >> [laughter] >> It's an idea we can >> Yeah, we had that idea at first. Uh how to connect collect the bottles. Yes. >> Okay, I have a question and a comment. First congratulations, really really impressive after work as you mentioned. Uh my question is what future work would you recommend for uh you other uh students and then uh one comment on the cost. >> Mhm. >> Uh of course I mean the if in the commercial setting you would apply the lot of labor cost. >> Yes. >> And this is why it is so incomparable to market prices for the filament. >> Mhm. >> But I think it's a good idea to think of this commercialized and your volumes for your reference we have or everyone reference uh everyone's reference we produce only from beverage bottles meaning plastic bottles. We produce 12,000 tons of PET waste yearly, 12,000 tons. >> Yes. >> Which converts into 400 million bottles. Okay? >> Uh yeah, that's it. >> [laughter] >> So just think about that number and the scale is not your project. >> Mhm. >> And we by the way we export this bottles this material to Russia. because we cannot recycle it domestically. So, if that's a marketable if your filament is really marketable, we have a solution. We have a serious like real solution for waste. >> Okay. Yes. >> the future work for the engineer? >> Of the future work, we're still in contact with Sorry. With the developer of the device and we're working on a version two that is going to be much better and much more efficient. It will be much easier for students to use, etc. And after it when we have the hackathon and when we have workshops for engineering students and when we distribute the manuals for them, I think it's going to be easier to continue manipulating these devices later on. >> Do you have generally any ideas from your experience, from your lessons from this device, any ideas of automation like going completely automated like you put bottle just just as mentioned that vending machine meaning you just put the bottle and it goes in the pet bottle. >> Yeah. >> Any like feasible automation options? >> When we can Yes. When we compare the cost and benefits with each other, we came to a conclusion that in this scale at least for now it's better to have the manual than No, I I mean in the university. Yeah. But when it's industrialized, I guess and that's the case when we can think about fully automating everything. >> For for industrialization for being it into industrialized, we have to have a big factories and it's like completely different thing. >> I think it will be very strong addition to your you know research and work but if maybe for a future work even. uh It just would demand I would be very interested to hear the market demand for filament in Armenia. How much filament is really demanded right now? So, it's a potential for your commercial application, but great job. >> Thank you. >> [applause] [music]