Team 6
Introduction
ENGS 21: Intro to Engineering
Polyprint
Making use of waste
PJ Griffiths
Rahul Gupta
Christian Nyamekye
Henry Poret
Andrew Wu
TA: Avery Moorhead
Professor: Vicki May
Problem Statement
Discarded single use plastic cups from Dartmouth Greek Organizations create significant amounts of un-recycled plastic waste.
Plastic Waste at Dartmouth
$1,550-$2,000 on plastic cups per term (Anonymous Greek Organization, 2023)
50,000 cups/term/house
16 Hosting Greek Houses
3,200,000 cups/year!!!
Users/Purchasers
The purchaser of our product will be the school’s makerspace and machine shop. These spaces go through significant amounts of 3D printer filament throughout the year, supporting dozens of engineering projects. The users of the machine will thus be the staff that work at these spaces or Dartmouth students who have undergone training to operate the machine.
Greek Houses
Collect cups after events
Transport to Thayer
Thayer MShop/Makerspace
Purchase our machine
Staff will be user → may require training
State of the Art
PETamentor
Pros
Recycles Plastic Bottles into Filament
Low Cost, Low Energy
Cons
Low Throughput
Requires high degree of user interaction
Only works with specific PET bottles
Produces hollow, poor-tolerance filament
Filament Extruder
Pros
Turns plastic pellets into 3D printing filaments
Easy to use
produces high quality filament
Cons
Expensive & high power consumption
Only works with prefab “nurdles”
Does not work with recycled materials
Requires substantial user involvement
Specifications
Prototypes
Initial Design
3D Model
Initial Prototype
Second Prototype
Final Prototype
Testing and User Feedback
Shredding Plastic
shredder.movTesting the Extruder
IMG_1541.movExtruding Filament
IMG_0888.MOVExtruding with Motor and Spooler
VID_20230524_172318.mp4Testing the Filament
VID_20230524_175622.mp4 Ethics and Sustainability
Ethical issues
Users of product would need training, product is very hot and could burn users if used improperly
Promoting recycling rather than reducing
Does not address cups as being a byproduct of alcohol use on campus
Approach to Sustainability
Our Approach
Ensure process of recycling cups causes less harm to environment than manufacturing new one
Minimize power usage
Future Sustainability
Use materials that are sourced with minimal impact to environment
Use materials that can be disposed of without significant harm to environment
Business Plan and Econcomics
Profitability
$525 Fixed manufacturing cost
$225 in materials
$300 in labor
$10 Variable cost of power
Sell machine for $1000
$465 profit per machine
With industry price of $25/kg for filament
The machine pays for itself in just a few months! (40kg of plastic)
TikTok Video
filamentiktok.mov