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Gigabot Engineering Updates – February 2021

2021 is going to be an exciting year for re:3D, and we have multiple product releases in the works for you. First, however, we want to update you on upgrades to our current offerings as well as highlight some new products now available from re:3D. As of January 1, 2021, re:3D 3D printers will ship with some great new enhancements. Current Gigabot^®, Gigabot^®X, and Terabot^®, owners can order these as replacement parts that are upgradable from previous versions.

New Products

Exabot^®, with an enormous build volume of 30in x 30in x 72in is now available for purchase.

Support Removal Tool Kit - Get the Tools the Pros Use

New Parts

Gigabot^® X

Extruder Cover – covers and protects extruder area of GBX
Hopper Gantry – puts the hopper on a mobile gantry system which improves pellet flow
For additional details on GBX Updates, see our Forum Post

Fit and Strength Part Adjustments

The below parts have had geometry changes or other additions to make them stronger or fit more precisely.

Gigabot^® X

[11384] Thrust Bearing Plate – Improved fit with extruder body
Extruder Body – Improved material feeding
Feed Throat – Improved material feeding
Feed Tube – Revised for compatibility with new gantry
Hopper – Revised for compatibility with new gantry
Motor Spacer – Revised for compatibility with new extruder cover

Terabot^®

Viki Enclosure – Improved wire routing to electrical box

Firmware

Gigabot^® X

Adjusted Change Pellet Routine extrusion speed and resolved bug
Fixed build chamber dimensions for XL and XLT sizes
Updated preheat temperature options
Added capability for ditto printing with a motorized auger as a second extruder
Firmware installation instructions are available in our Knowledge Base

Check out additional update on our Forum. Want to chat with an engineer to share feedback on your Gigabot & re:3D design priorities? Email info@re3d.org.

Happy Printing!

~Your Gigabot Engineering Team

Meet Terabot

Since the release of Gigabot in 2013, we’ve continued to push the build envelope: first Gigabot XL, then the XLT. Now there’s a new machine to add to the portfolio, one that dwarfs its predecessors: Terabot.

Terabot is the latest addition to our fleet of large-format, industrial, fused filament fabrication printers.

Terabot was conceived out of a customer’s desire to go bigger than what we offered at the time – much bigger. As more and more customers asked about build volumes up to 1m cubed, we decided it might be time to make this solution a regular offering in the re:3D lineup.

With a build platform of 915x915x1000mm, Terabot boasts 8,372,250 cubic centimeters of volume – over 20 times more than its closest relative (the Gigabot XLT, which stands at 590x760x900mm).

The size jump was done with those customers who had outgrown Gigabot’s build volume in mind: the people who found themselves needing to break extra large prints into multiple sections and attach them post-printing. As Head of Engineering Matthew Fiedler puts it, “Face it, we don’t want to gluing or bonding together all of our small 3D prints. We really need a machine that can print the full piece at one time.” Terabot allows for the printing of massive parts without the need for any messy post-processing with glue or bondo.

As Terabot was modeled off the existing Gigabot platform, all the functionality our current customers already enjoy is built into this machine. With such a jump in size, however, our engineers made some critical design changes to allow it to run smoothly and reliably on massive prints.

The main new features on Terabot are as follows:

Linear guides on the X, Y, and Z axes
NEMA 23 X and Y stepper motors with closed loop control
Cast aluminum build plate with rigid nine point bed leveling

The reasons for these changes are several fold. The linear rails – compared with the v-groove wheels of the standard Gigabot – provide high rigidity, accurate and smooth motion on this extra large machine, coupled with a minimal need for maintenance. We sized up the NEMA 17 motors of the Gigabot 3+ to NEMA 23 on Terabot, to take advantage of their higher current and added power for the size of this build platform. They are also a closed loop system, meaning that the printer always knows the position of the print head. Lastly, the thick ½” blanchard ground cast aluminum build plate features a nine point bed leveling system for more precise leveling control on the increased surface area.

There are other slight changes to the machine to add to its performance, including new leveling casters and a beefier, 20-inch, 14 gauge solid steel electrical box which houses a higher 500 watt power supply as well as new closed-loop drivers for the motors. Situated above the electrical box on the rear of the machine are the main power disconnect, and the same Viki control panel as is used on Gigabot. There are also all the same features you may recognize from Gigabot, like dual extrusion and ditto printing, out-of-filament detection, and a heated bed. As with Gigabot, the aluminum frame of the machine is machined in-house to tolerances of less than .005 inches, and the ½ inch-thick aluminum bed plate is precision blanchard ground to within .003-.005 inches. All the moving cables of the machine are routed through the same cable carriers seen on Gigabot and are rated for over one million cycles of flexing.

Every Terabot comes standard with a passively heated build chamber – equipped with removable, polycarbonate panels with magnetic closures and large access doors in the front – which can reach an internal temperature of 60ºC to enable the printing of high-temperature thermoplastics. The machine prints with the same 2.85mm filament as Gigabot, with an extrusion temperature up to 320ºC. Terabot is equipped with a high flow Mondo hot end with a 0.4mm nozzle, but also has the ability to print with 0.25mm and 0.8mm, all at a full speed of 60mm/s.

At $34,400, Terabot is an industrial machine that sits comfortably below the average industrial 3D printer price point. From our inception, we have strived for an intersection of cost and scale that opens the door to industries that have a need for the technology but maybe not the budget. Terabot enables huge printing at a cost that is affordable enough to add several machines to the factory floor. The Terabot community includes customers in manufacturing, art, aerospace, and design who have multiple Terabots in their production workflow, and we work to keep our prices at a level that enables just this.

We built this machine for the people like you whose eyes have been opened to the power of large-scale 3D printing and are ready for more. As we have done since 2013, we will continue to push the envelope so that you can continue to dream big and print huge.

You can purchase your Terabot on the re:3D store here, or email our sales team at sales@re3d.org to get more information.

Morgan Hamel

Blog Post Author

Gigabot Engineering Updates – October 2020

re:3D’s Research and Development team never stands still, and while we’re developing the next generation of your Gigabot^® and Gigabot^® X 3D Printers, we’re continually looking for ways to refine the current iteration’s user experience, precision, and quality. As of October 1, 2020, all new Gigabot^® 3+, Terabot and Gigabot^® X 3D printers ship with the below enhancements. Current Gigabot^® owners can order these as replacement parts that are fully compatible with previous versions.

New 3D Printed Parts

All Models

[12007] Fan Filter Base, [12008] Fan Filter Attachment, [12074] Filter – Prevents buildup of dust in electrical box

Fan Filter Installed on Electrical Box — Installed Fan Filter

Gigabot^® X

[12077] GBX Feed Tube Mount – Reduces slack in feed tube for better feedstock flow

Fit and Strength Part Adjustments

The below parts have had geometry changes or other additions to make them stronger or fit more precisely.

Gigabot^® X and Gigabot^® 3+

[11158] Gigabox Magnet Bracket 4 – Revised for better fit with linear rails
[11352] GBX Motor Driver Enclosure & [11354] GBX Motor Driver Enclosure Lid – Revised fit for easier assembly
[11336] GBX Feed Throat & [11986] GBX feed Throat Stopper – Improved pellet flow
[11484] GBX Hopper & [11529] GBX Hopper Lid – Improved seal and durability

Check out additional update on our Forum. Want to chat with an engineer to share feedback on your Gigabot & re:3D design priorities? Email info@re3d.org.

Happy Printing!

~Your Gigabot Engineering Team

engineering gigabot Gigabot X Gigabox Enclosure R&D

Gigabot X Supported by the National Science Foundation

You may already be familiar with Gigabot X, our 3D pellet printer. A ton of work hours, research, and testing have gone into this machine, and we wanted to call out one of the reasons this has been possible: the National Science Foundation.

Our Gigabot X work is supported by America’s Seed Fund, a $200 million per year NSF program that awards research and development grants to small businesses and startups, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact.

The NSF awarded us an SBIR Phase II to fund our research into 3D printing with reclaimed plastic using direct drive pellet extrusion on Gigabot X. This work quite literally wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Additional information about real-world applications of this project can be seen on our website here: https://re3d.org/gbx-puerto-rico/

Morgan Hamel

Blog Post Author

re:3D, Inc. honored by U.S. Chamber of Commerce as Community Support and Leadership Award Finalist 

Finalists To Be Recognized During Annual Small Business Awards Program

HOUSTON, TX — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced re:3D Inc. from Houston, Texas as one of the finalists for its annual Dream Big Awards. The Awards, presented by Chase for Business with support from MetLife, celebrate the achievements of small businesses and honor their contributions to America’s economic growth. 

“Over the last several months, small business owners have faced challenge after challenge.  Yet, despite these challenges small business owners never stop innovating, pivoting, taking risks, working hard, and dreaming big,” said Tom Sullivan, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President of Small Business Policy.  “Small businesses are a critical and vibrant sector of the U.S. economy. The U.S. Chamber is proud to celebrate the very best in American small business through our Dream Big Awards.” 

The Dream Big Awards program includes Business Achievement Awards to recognize excellence in eight categories and reflect the leading businesses in each of the following areas: community support and leadership, emerging, green/sustainable, minority-owned, veteran-owned, woman-owned, young entrepreneur, and small business of the year. This year’s finalists were selected from a record of over 700 applicants.  

The Community Support and Leadership Award recognizes the success of one small business and honors its contributions to the growth and diversity of the American economy. This award recognizes a small business that has demonstrated an exemplary level of leadership and community engagement to assist the needs of its community, and to service the needs of its customers, employees, and neighbors during the coronavirus pandemic. re:3D has provided free prototyping of life saving devices, produced PPE for their community and supported their customer’s and partners similar efforts in response to the pandemic. The company manufactures large scale, affordable 3D printers that can 3D print from plastic waste as well as traditional feedstock and gives away one 3D printer for every one-hundred that they sell to someone making a difference in their community.

“The dire needs created by the pandemic have illustrated that local, small scale manufacturing, whether in your home or in small factories around the world, can be a means to serve your communities. We are grateful to the open source 3D printing community for banding together to create solutions for PPE shortages, and were honored to work alongside our fellow makers, customers and first responders to solve this challenge,” shared re:3D Community Ambassador, Charlotte Craff.

Award winners will be announced at the virtual Dream Big Awards program on Thursday, October 15 at 2:00pm ET.

About re:3D
re:3D consists of a group of explorers committed to decimating the cost & scale barriers to industrial 3D printing. Having pioneered the world’s first and most affordable, human-scale industrial 3D printer, re:3D likewise is creating large scale, affordable 3D printers printing from pellets, regrind, and flake plastic waste. Beyond creating 3D printers for customers in over 50 countries, re:3D offers 3D printing contract services, consulting, design and education services. For more information on re:3D, visit www.re3d.org.

Charlotte craff

Blog Post Author

chase Community covid-19 covid19 PPE ppeforthepeople us chamber us chamber of commerce

Inside NASA’s Pandemic Response Campaigns

The following is a repost of an article written by Mike DiCicco which can originally be seen on NASA’s site here.

In mid-March, as much of the country shut down in response to the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus (COVID-19), a team of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California got to work.

Doctors nearby needed ventilators, so the team set out to design an inexpensive version that wouldn’t use any of the same parts as traditional ventilators, so as not to compete for supplies.

Unsure where to begin and knowing that whatever they came up with would need rapid approval, they reached out to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Leon Alkalai, head of strategic partnerships for JPL, connected with the regulator’s assistant director in charge of respiratory devices. “I said, ‘We have no idea what we’re doing, but we have a great team and we’re enthusiastic and we need help,’” Alkalai recalled, “and he said, ‘We’re in.’”

The FDA official noted that ventilator design is essentially “a physics and fluidic problem,” Alkalai said. That was when he knew the team would succeed. “When the problem is translated to physics, we know what to do.”

Across NASA, other centers also found ways to refocus their skills and technologies to address the pandemic. As rates of infection and hospitalization again tick upward in many states, several of the solutions NASA field centers came up with in the spring now teeter on the verge of widespread application.

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, home of the Human Health and Performance Center, the Technology Transfer Office combed through more than 2,000 technologies and software programs created in the last decade, looking for anything that might be useful in confronting the health crisis. The center submitted a portfolio of 34 open source technologies to the United Nations and is also helping a handful of groups update and manufacture a simple, human-powered ventilator originally designed for the space program.

Meanwhile, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, joined a local public-private task force with a hospital and college, a neighboring city, and two spaceflight companies and ended up patenting an improvement to an oxygen helmet for COVID-19 patients.

And when NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland heard that a familiar company was working to update a device for sterilizing medical equipment and spaces, the center jumped in to help.

In all these cases, NASA and its partners found that, with a little guidance, aerospace engineers also make pretty good medical engineers.

If It Helps Save One Life

For JPL, quick turnaround of a viable emergency ventilator meant reaching out to many partners, said Alkalai, who initiated and managed all these relationships. These included two local hospitals, several federal agencies, the University of California Los Angeles, and medical device giant Medtronic.

After just 37 days of working around the clock, they had a prototype, called Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally, or VITAL for short. “There were issues of exhaustion, but we were on a mission,” Alkalai said.

Almost as quickly, the FDA granted the device a ventilator emergency use authorization. The next trick was to get it out into the world. This required a new approach to licensing.

“Normally, we’re happy if just one company comes to us saying they’re interested in a license,” said Daniel Broderick, manager of JPL’s Technology Transfer Office. In this case, the response was much bigger. Over 300 companies registered on the JPL website to learn more about the ventilator, and more than 100 applied for a license. Now the challenge was to determine who was capable of producing the machine. “We’ve never seen this much licensing demand for a technology,” Broderick said.

One of those applicants was Pro-Dex Inc., a design and manufacturing company in Irvine, California. Working with NASA on the ventilator was an opportunity to learn new things, grow the company, and “be part of the solution,” said Pro-Dex CEO Rick Van Kirk.

In late June, the company was working on sourcing parts, determining distribution channels, and laying out the assembly line. And NASA is still supporting the effort, having put together documentation, 3D renderings, and videos to assist licensees, including a video about the assembly process. “They did a great job of teeing it up for everybody,” said Van Kirk.

Pro-Dex was one of 29 companies granted licenses, including seven other U.S. businesses.

“If half of them end up delivering the devices, that would be amazing,” said Alkalai. “We would be just thrilled if at least one unit makes it into a hospital and helps save a life.”

Other teams at JPL have designed protective respirator masks and a necklace that vibrates when wearers start to touch their faces. The masks and necklace can be 3D printed, and the design files and instructions are available for open source licensing on GitHub.

Human-Powered Solutions

Engineers at Johnson are offering a simpler ventilator solution, primarily for use in developing countries. As the pandemic unfolded, engineers who had developed a ventilator for use on the Orion spacecraft started updating it. The device is similar to human-powered ventilator bags used in ambulances, but those are squeezed by hand, which becomes tiring quickly. Johnson’s ventilator is powered by larger muscle groups in the arms or even legs. It can be used to keep a patient alive for hours, perhaps while waiting for a bed to open up, said Kris Romig, technology transfer officer at Johnson.

“The technical team came to us and said, ‘We think this could help, and we don’t know how to get it out into the world,” he said. The center is now offering the ventilator as an open source technology.

It didn’t take long for Matthew Fiedler and the other founders of 3D printing company re:3D, all former Johnson employees, to hear about the ventilator, which the company is helping to refine.

The Johnson team had computer-aided design files for the ventilator parts but had never manufactured them. “They sent us the file, and we printed it,” Fiedler said. “We’re helping them bring the product to life and figure out how to make it better.”

Once the design is finalized, re:3D, whose manufacturing facility is close by Johnson in Houston, could start producing ventilators, working with federal and international organizations to get them into the hands of those who need them, he said.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI), whose global technical headquarters is in St. Louis, is also working to get Johnson’s manual ventilator out into developing countries. “We deliver beer to places you wouldn’t believe all over the world,” said Lucas Steinle, global director of industrial digital transformation at ABI, noting the company could use that infrastructure to help deliver the ventilators almost anywhere.

The engineering group of ABI’s subsidiary in South America, known as Ambev, is working with Johnson engineers to finalize a prototype, which it plans to bring to the United Nations to see how the company can partner with other groups to get it into manufacturing and distribution. Steinle added that ABI has the facilities to manufacture it through 3D printing if need be.

Meanwhile, Leviathan Space Industries is building partnerships to introduce the human-powered ventilator in Ecuador. The company has been working to build a private spaceport in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, which was ravaged by one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the virus.

“Due to its ease of use and how cheap it is, this can definitely help provide emergency relief when hospitals have overflow capacity,” said Robert Aillon, founder of Leviathan.

The Pompano Beach, Florida-based company has partnered with the University of Kentucky for help with testing and FDA approval and is working with Ecuadorian company Pica Plasticos Industriales on manufacturing. And Leviathan is working with the Ecuadorian school Universidad Espiritu Santo to help with that country’s regulatory approval process, Aillon said.

Back at Johnson, the center’s simultaneous effort to dig up any technology that might help – whether or not it’s patented – has led the Technology Transfer Office to consider making it possible for the public to search broad categories of unpatented technology. “These can be useful without a license, just open source,” Romig said.

A Second-Generation Sterilizer

While others work on ways to mitigate the effects of the virus, the company Emergency Products and Research (EP+R) is working with Glenn engineers to destroy it.

The Kent, Ohio-based company’s AMBUstat fogger system creates an aerosol of water, peracetic acid, and hydrogen peroxide to eliminate all pathogens in the air or on surfaces. It was originally developed after consultation with a Glenn research engineer in 2015 and was intended for use in ambulances.

“We were working on a new design that would let us deal with the limitations of the original,” said Jason Thompson, who handles business development for EP+R and drove the original device’s creation. The company wanted it to better address airborne contaminants, treat different-sized spaces more efficiently, and be more cost-effective.

When Glenn heard about the new work, the center wanted to help again, so it put an aerosol science and instrumentation specialist on the case, and JPL was tapped for additional consulting. The resulting device, known as the AMBUstat G2, creates smaller aerosol droplets to better attack airborne viruses. Improved flow control and the ability to control the process from outside of the targeted space allow it to treat spaces faster and more effectively. In a pilot project with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the company found it could disinfect 10 to 12 police cars in the time the original fogger treated just one.

Following about a month and a half of cooperation, Glenn is testing the new device, after which it will go to a proving ground for testing against the novel coronavirus.

With the sterilant already approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, Thompson said, the company is ready to move into production of the AMBUstat G2 as soon as testing is complete.

Meanwhile, the Glenn researcher who helped refine the original AMBUstat teamed up with researchers from University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland to develop another device that uses atomic oxygen to decontaminate N95 facemasks for reuse. Initial results indicate effectiveness; however, more testing is needed to confirm the effect of multiple decontamination cycles on the integrity of the masks.

Over at Armstrong, the Technology Transfer Office was hard at work pursuing FDA approval and a company to build an improved oxygen-supplying device the center’s engineers came up with.

The positive-pressure oxygen helmet resulted from a task force that included Armstrong, spaceflight company Virgin Galactic and its sister The Spaceship Company, the city of Lancaster, Antelope Valley Hospital, and Antelope Valley College, bringing together resources, medical professionals, and engineers.

“Completely Outside of Our Comfort Zone”

Oxygen helmet manufacturers have been unable to meet the surge in demand in response to COVID-19, which often deprives patients of oxygen. A team led by Armstrong engineer Mike Buttigieg was charged with developing a low-cost, easily made assisted breathing helmet that could withstand pressures that off-the-shelf units weren’t designed for, without impacting the supply chain. Through conversations with the team’s lead doctor, Buttigieg had the idea to install a magnetic port, allowing access to the wearer’s face. “Having a helmet on without face access makes it hard to check vitals or take a drink of water,” said Samantha Hull, licensing manager and outreach coordinator at Armstrong.

The task force produced hundreds of the modified helmets for use at local hospitals, but Armstrong wanted to get them produced at greater scale. Final FDA approval also required a commercial manufacturer, meaning NASA had to find a company to license the technology without regulatory approval, said Benjamin Tomlinson, technology transfer officer at Armstrong.

In early July, the brand-new company Medify Products LLC signed a nonexclusive license to use the magnetic access port in oxygen helmets.

Tom Ryder, president and CEO of Genesis Plastics Welding, started Medify Products after he saw video of oxygen helmets being used in Italian hospitals early in the crisis. Genesis, his original company, had been producing similar helmets for more than 25 years.

“This is a product that utilizes all of our expertise,” he said. “We want to put that talent to use in fighting the virus.”

Ryder said Medify, located in Fortville, Indiana, will likely incorporate Armstrong’s magnetic port into more than one helmet design. A major advantage of working with NASA, he said, is that Armstrong is working with its contacts to get prototypes into formal testing and working with the FDA to secure emergency authorization for the helmets.

Much of this is new territory for Armstrong, which specializes in aeronautical research. “Medical applications are completely outside of our comfort zone,” said Tomlinson, noting that his team is figuring out how to navigate the approval process.

“This is something you can produce without a lot of expense, and it can save lives,” said Tomlinson. “Its elegance and simplicity is the beauty of it.”

Ryder said he wouldn’t previously have associated NASA with projects like this. “How they’re working with businesses like mine, a small business, gives me hope for the country.”

To learn more about NASA’s response to coronavirus, visit: https://medeng.jpl.nasa.gov/covid-19/

Mike DiCicco

Article Author

Barclays and Unreasonable Group select re:3D to receive $100,000 Grant in support of COVID-19 related work

Barclays and Unreasonable Group launch second $1,000,000 fund for entrepreneurial solutions addressing challenges resulting from the global pandemic

September 22, 2020 – LONDON – re:3D has been awarded a $100,000 grant in recognition of the exceptional work being undertaken in addressing the immediate and long term challenges resulting from the effects of the global pandemic.
The grant is designed to support and amplify the impact of the work re:3D is doing.

The Unreasonable Impact COVID-19 Response initiative was launched by Barclays and Unreasonable Group earlier this year and has already supported ten Unreasonable ventures that have pivoted their businesses to combat challenges related to COVID-19.

The initiative was launched as a direct response to the outbreak of COVID19 and is an extension of Unreasonable Impact, the unique multi-year partnership between the two companies supporting growth stage entrepreneurs across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific regions solving many of the world’s most pressing issues.

re:3D was chosen by a selection committee for the meaningful work they are doing to provide PPE to workers in minority and underserved areas who are at greater risk for critical illness from COVID-19. The program, PPE for the People, is fiscally sponsored by Impact Hub Houston, and has donated 3D printed face shields, ear savers and other PPE to help protect restaurant and food pantry workers, as well as organizations and small businesses that seek to reopen safely, like barbershops, nail salons, and veterinary clinics. PPE for the People partners include: Baker Ripley, Creatorspace, West Houston Institute IDEAStudio, Leidos, McDermott, Stand Behind and 3DPPE. “We are actively seeking businesses and organizations looking for this protective equipment. Please share this opportunity with those in need,” said re:3D Community Ambassador, Charlotte Craff.

re:3D Co-Founder and Catalyst, Samantha Snabes and Charlotte Craff will join the 12 other grantees at a virtual event, The Unreasonable Impact COVID19 Response Exclusive Summit, created with Barclays on September 29th, where they will have a chance to share re:3D’s exceptional work with a global audience.

Joe McGrath, Barclays’ Global Head of Banking, commented, “Through Unreasonable Impact we set out to offer advice, expertise, and support to entrepreneurs so that they can more quickly increase the scale and impact of their businesses. These entrepreneurs have been recognized for their ingenious approaches to tackling almost impossible-sounding challenges, especially in some of the most challenged communities across the globe. When COVID-19 took hold this year we knew that Unreasonable Impact entrepreneurs would be among the first to pivot their talent and drive towards responding to the impacts of the pandemic – and we’re in awe of the speed with which they did just that, and of the scale of the positive impact that they have already had. We’re honored to be able to extend our support through the Unreasonable Impact COVID-19 Response Initiative, which provided grants that will help these entrepreneurs to accelerate their work in response to the ongoing pandemic.”

Daniel Epstein, Founder and CEO of Unreasonable Group, added, “Unreasonable Impact was co-created with Barclays with a shared intention to support and scale up entrepreneurial solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. The global impact of COVID-19 is unlike any challenge any of us has seen in our lifetimes. Setting up the second COVID-Response to support and amplify even more Unreasonable ventures leveraging business to combat challenges related to the pandemic, is a natural extension of our mission. We are humbled to be supporting the exceptional work of re:3D.”

For more information and to be invited to attend the Exclusive Summit, visit https://bit.ly/3hJsIks
Full list of ventures selected:

75F: Utilizing the Internet of Things and the latest in cloud computing to create systems that predict, monitor and manage the needs of buildings
Aerofarms: Responsibly and sustainably feeding humanity by growing flavorful, safe, and healthy food in the world’s largest indoor vertical farm.
Air Protein: Using microbes to convert elements of air into a sustainable protein product
Cell-Ed: Delivering essential skills training in three-minute lessons on any mobile phone — learners simply call, text, or click to access a world of learning
Green Fuels: The world’s leading supplier of biodiesel processors, producing over 400 million liters of sustainable fuel every year in over 50 countries
LEAF: Bringing safe and hygienic fresh fruits and vegetables to the marketplace by empowering all shareholders in the agricultural value chain.
Livox: The first intelligent alternative communication software for people living with disabilities, helping 20,000 people more easily interact with others
Purpose Works: Enabling sustainability, agility and operational efficiency in global supply chains.
re:3D, Inc.: 3D-printing objects 30 times larger than competing desktop models, at a more affordable cost.
Richcore: Eliminating contamination risks and creating safer medicines with animal origin free (AOF) proteins.
Sure Chill: Disrupting the entire cooling industry with new technology that doesn’t require a constant power source, enabling refrigeration of food products, life-saving vaccines, and more.
WizeNoze: Facilitating access to an easier-to-understand internet for children, teenagers, people with a low level of literacy, immigrants, and the elderly.
Árvore Educação: Improving students’ literacy skills and understanding of local and world events through a digital reading platform

About Unreasonable Impact, created with Barclays

Unreasonable Impact is an innovative multi-year multi-geographic partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group to launch the world’s first global network focused on scaling up entrepreneurial solutions that will help employ thousands worldwide in the emerging green economy. To date, the more than 100 ventures that comprise the global cohort operate in more than 180 countries, have raised over $2.1bn USD in funding, have generated over $2bn USD in revenue, and have created more than 30,000 net new jobs since joining Unreasonable Impact. For more information, please visit www.unreasonableimpact.com

About Barclays

Barclays is a British universal bank. The company is diversified by business, by different types of customers and clients, and by geography. Barclays’ businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top-tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank, all of which are supported by their service company which provides technology, operations and functional services across the Group.
For further information about Barclays, please visit www.home.barclays.

About Unreasonable Group

Bringing together a global network of entrepreneurs, investors, creatives and business leaders, Unreasonable acts as a catalytic platform for entrepreneurs tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges facing us today. From designing highly curated immersive programs, facilitating access to a global network of mentors to operating a private equity fund and providing advanced storytelling and media activities, Unreasonable operates at the highest intersection of business and impact. It is uniquely positioned to support growth stage entrepreneurs solving key global environment and social challenges to scale up through the deployment of knowledge, networks and capital.
For more information about Unreasonable, please visit www.unreasonablegroup.com

About re:3D

re:3D consists of a group of explorers committed to decimating the cost & scale barriers to industrial 3D printing. Having pioneered the world’s first and most affordable, human-scale industrial 3D printer, re:3D likewise is creating large scale, affordable 3D printers printing from pellets, regrind, and flake plastic waste. Beyond creating 3D printers for customers in over 50 countries, re:3D offers 3D printing contract services, consulting, design and education services. For more information on re:3D, visit www.re3d.org.

Media Contact:

Charlotte craff

charlotte@re3D.org
+1.512.730.0033 ext 2
Social: @re3Dprinting

award barclays Community covid-19 covid19 grant unreasonable unreasonable impact

GBX Case Study: Coffee Picking Baskets in Puerto Rico

With the development of our Gigabot X pellet printer came our engineers’ need to trial it in different applications and settings. We settled on Sandra Farms – the coffee farm at the center of our latest story about chocolate cigar molds – as a case study to determine the practicality of using recycled plastic to create real-world, functional objects.

“Good coffee is picked by hand.” Israel Gonzalez is a second-generation coffee farmer who started Sandra Farms in the early 90’s. He explains that coffee pickers around the world are historically underpaid, typically placed at the bottom of the coffee farming ladder.

Sandra Farms is trying to break this mold.

“The main focus here is trying to use Sandra Farms as a model. We want to support an agricultural, agrarian way of life in Puerto Rico.” Domenico Celli came to the farm as part of a graduate school project with a focus on implementing sustainability practices, and several years later finds himself still working with them and more attached to their mission of specialty agriculture. “The people that we have in mind are the farm workers and families and communities here in some of the most rural and remote areas of Puerto Rico that have traditionally been dependent on agriculture as their main source of income, and culturally, their way of life.”

Sandra Farms is trying to set an example for other farms, paying their pickers two to three times the average in Puerto Rico. Says Celli, “That is because above all, we are committed to making this a viable way of life for these people and their families.”

The basket opportunity

In working with Gonzalez and Celli on their chocolate cigar mold concept, a potential case study opportunity for Gigabot X presented itself.

“Most agricultural workers in Puerto Rico traditionally are the forgotten people here, and that’s reinforced through what they use to pick coffee with,” explains Celli, “which is mostly just fertilizer bags, or really uncomfortable, five-gallon buckets that are not at all made for coffee picking.”

“The five-gallon plastic bucket…” Gonzalez shows one off that has been strung with a simple rope handle. “It’s functional, it works, cheap – but not ideal, not ergonomic.”

Our local team in Puerto Rico took the opportunity to investigate 3D printed solutions that could provide a superior substitute for the farm’s pickers, with the ultimate goal of using Gigabot X to print a design using recycled plastic.

The choice of an application in Puerto Rico was no accident. Gigabot X has the ability to print from pelletized plastic as well as recycled plastic regrind; our team saw immense potential for a machine that could create a closed-loop system on an island, using waste as input material to create functional objects that may be expensive to import.

“Unfortunately, our recycling systems here in Puerto Rico are very outdated, not very efficient, and in reality, not much – if anything at all – is recycled,” says Celli. “A much better alternative would be able to actually have a way to repurpose and use that waste, and know that it’s going to some sort of practical application.”

The design process

Our San Juan-based designer Alessandra Montaño began the process with a CAD sketch. “The design process was very interactive,” she recounts.

Over the course of the project, she visited the farm four times, working with Gonzalez in person and talking directly with workers trialing the design in the fields. “I did one prototype, sent it to them, they made some changes like widening the design, changing the height of the basket…”

re:3D Mechanical Engineer Helen Little describes the trial and error process of testing, and the balance of modifying the basket design for the specific application while understanding the unique nature of a pellet printer. “We wanted to focus on quick production and cheaper cost-per-unit, so we chose to use a larger nozzle,” Little explains. “But there are many issues that come with that: a lot of oozing, lower quality prints…So we had to do a lot of optimization of print settings to get a higher-quality print.”

Little decided to experiment with printing in vase mode, which involves extruding in a continuous stream rather than a lot of stopping points where the nozzle has the opportunity to ooze plastic. “For that, we had to actually redesign the part itself so that the perimeter was only one layer thick,” she says.

Together, Little and Montaño incorporated user feedback from Sandra Farms into incremental tweaks to the design and new prototypes. They increased the basket depth to allow for a larger haul to be carried at one time, refined the shape to better hug the wearer’s waist, and added a brim to which a picker could attach shoulder straps.

“The way that a part is designed and printed has a huge effect on how long it takes to print, how much material it is, and at the end of the day, the bottom line for the cost,” explains Little. “I think it’s really important to get these real-world case studies and get that user feedback so that we can assess how viable of a solution this is for them and how much we can help improve over the current solution they’re using, using Gigabot X, 3D printing, and recycled materials.”

By the culmination of the testing process there had been twelve iterations of the basket, with the final design clocking in at around three and a half hours of print time.

Putting it to the test in the field

The crescent moon design on which they settled curves around the front of the waist, with a wide profile so a picker’s hands don’t have to travel far to drop in coffee cherries. It’s manageable enough to strap over one’s shoulders and carry through the field, yet sturdy enough to haul over fifteen pounds of coffee.

“We had wondered whether they could take the beating on the job, at the farm. ‘Can the bottom hold?’” Gonzalez initially pondered. “Yeah, they do,” he smiles. “Very well.”

Explains Celli, “The way that we designed them with re:3D was so that the opening would be wide so that a picker going through the field on uneven terrain is able to quickly pick coffee and kind of dump it into the bucket without it falling.”

He recounts the difficulties that came with the old-school fertilizer sack picking method. “It’s hard to keep it open with one hand, put coffee into it in the other, and then be efficient in a day where you’re trying to optimize how quickly you can get through the fields.” Seasonal coffee pickers, Celli explains, are paid by the pound. A vessel that allows for faster picking and movement through a field – not to mention fewer coffee cherries dropped – equals more money in a picker’s pocket.

The comfort of having the basket contour to the hip is an obvious added bonus, Celli continues, allowing workers to pick more comfortably and later into the day.

There were more unforeseen positives of the custom basket design which Gonzalez and Celli didn’t fully comprehend before embarking on the project with re:3D.

“The reaction of such joy and excitement from the coffee pickers seeing these baskets that were actually made for them and thoughtfully designed to be comfortable for them was amazing to see,” recounts Celli.

The impact on the pickers’ morale was an unexpected and uplifting side effect of the project for both Celli and Gonzalez. They seemed unaccustomed and touched to be the focus of a project with a specific goal of creating a product to make their job easier and more comfortable.

The joy in the fields was visibly apparent, with pickers jockeying to get a chance with the new baskets: a promising sign for both the basket project and Sandra Farms’ own internal case study of running a sustainable, ethical farm prioritizing workers’ livelihoods.

In the meantime, both Gigabot X research and Sandra Farms’ exploration into sustainability continues.

This project was made possible thanks to the support of the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust and the National Science Foundation, who helped fund our research into Gigabot X.

Morgan Hamel

Blog Post Author

Gigabot Engineering Updates – July 2020

re:3D’s Research and Development team never stands still, and while we’re developing the next generation of your Gigabot^® and Gigabot^® X 3D Printers, we’re continually looking for ways to refine the current iteration’s user experience, precision, and quality. As of July 1, 2020, all new Gigabot^® 3+, Terabot and Gigabot^® X 3D printers ship with the below enhancements. Current Gigabot^® owners can order these as replacement parts that are fully compatible with previous versions.

New 3D Printed Parts (Polycarbonate unless otherwise indicated)

Gigabot^® X

[11925] GBX Hopper Hose Clip: To make changing out feedstock less messy.
[11948] GBX Motor Coupler Insert (Taulman Nylon 910): more durable than the previous iteration.

Terabot

[11914], [11915] Terabot Light Rail End Cap: angled cap for positioning the LED light correctly.
Viki Enclosure: Terabot specific VIKI enclosure which takes its size into account.

New Metal Parts

Gigabot^® X

[11955] GBX Radial Bearing (updated): more durable than previous version

Gigabot^® 3+

[11953], [11954] GB3+ Hot End 0.25mm nozzle (Optional Part): for those who want finer details while printing big.

Fit and Strength Part Adjustments:

The below parts have had geometry changes or other additions to make them stronger or fit more precisely.

Gigabot^® X

[11339] GBX Y Slide Bracket
[11344], [11342] GBX Belt Mounts
[11338] GBX Motor Spacer
[11952] GBX Enclosure Bottom Panel

Gigabot^® 3+

[10880] Viki Mount
[Various] Z-axis Threaded Rods now coated for improved corrosion resistance
[10257] X Motor Mount
[11081], [11136] Left and Right GB3+ Extruder Tensioner
[11518] GB3+ Unibody Extruder
[10113] GB3+ Dual Extruder Cover

Terabot

[11662] Terabot Y Axis Belt Mount
[11658] Terabot Y Slide Bracket
[11697], [11690] X and Y Motor Mounts
[11664] Y Limit Switch Mount
[11736] 40×40 Rail End Cap
Bed Leveling Knobs Removed and Replaced With Bolts
[11504] Full Enclosure

Electrical Updates

Improved Viki grounding for all units
Electrical Box layout redesigned for Gigabot^® 3+

engineering gigabot Gigabot X Gigabox Enclosure R&D

Trash to Treasure: from Reverse Pitch to ReStore

The dream has been the same, since the beginning of re:3D, to create a 3D printer that could print from trash. There was a problem though, first we had to create a printer (the Gigabot), and then we had to figure out a way to print directly from plastic waste (Gigabot X).

So the first part of the dream was to create a large-scale, industrial 3D printer that was open-source and affordable, which is just what we did. The creation and sales of Gigabot has allowed re:3D to become a viable, profitable company. However, as a boot-strapped startup, finding more money, especially for R&D hardware projects was always difficult. But we never stopped believing that we could do it.

Two years ago we had the perfect opportunity to finally fund the creation of our Gigabot X 3D printer. The first was the WeWork Creator Awards, which awarded us the ability to expand our team, our facilities, and our R&D budget. The second was a Phase I SBIR (small business innovation research) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF grant was specifically for the creation of a 3D printer that could print from plastic waste. Subsequently we have received a Phase II award for this project to continue to develop an entire ecosystem to grind, dry, and feed plastic waste into the Gigabot X (GBX) printer that was developed as part of the Phase I grant. The dream was alive! The GBX was real!

Reverse Pitch:

Each year, the City of Austin, and specifically the Austin Resource Recovery department hosts an event called Reverse Pitch. Reverse Pitch is unique because it looks for companies within the Austin community who are creating waste that could be put to use in other areas or other businesses. The event starts with the Reverse Pitch, where the companies who are creating waste, pitch their product (trash) to businesses, entrepreneurs, or anyone interested. They talk about the quantities, the types of waste being produced, and any other pertinent information that might be useful.

Next, those who are interested in using one or more of the pitched waste-streams, put together a presentation and create a business model/use case around either creating or augmenting their business using the waste.

This past year one of the companies, HID Global, was pitching plastic polycarbonate (PC) sheets. They were the result of creating ID cards in their factory, and they were producing it in staggering amounts. The challenge was to figure out what we could do with it. I had the opportunity to go up to North Austin and tour the HID Global facility (which is amazing!) and see the process, meet the people, and get to know the waste-stream and company a little bit better. It is really amazing that this billion dollar company would be so warm and welcoming.

PC is a very common 3D printing feedstock. Our filament printing Gigabot prints with PC on a regular basis, in fact we use PC printed parts in all of our Gigabot printers. So I knew that it would be possible to print with this waste stream. Next, the entire process for HID to create their ID cards is done in a ‘clean-room’ environment, so we knew that the waste was extremely clean – another advantage because dirt can cause clogs and other issues in the printing process.

I made the pitch for a line of furniture, home goods, and art pieces to be printed on GBX directly from the HID PC waste. It was an idea that I called, Design: by re:3D. And, we WON! It was extremely exciting to win the pitch competition, and we received $10,000 to jump-start the idea (You can see the video here).

But then the joy turned into nervousness – we needed to divert 2,000 lbs of HID PC from the landfill, and quickly! What were we going to do with all of this stuff?

Serendipitously enough, one of the judges for the Reverse Pitch just so happened to work at the Austin Habitat for Humanity ReStore. We struck up a conversation after the competition, and set up a meeting with their team to discuss the idea of turning trash into treasure, and then selling it at the ReStore.

Talk about a dream scenario!

It has been a lot of work to get to this point, almost a year later! The ReStore allowed us to install a small industrial grinder in their back room, and allowed us to send interns over to spend HOURS grinding away at the 2,000lbs of PC that we had picked-up from HID.

We are so excited to announce that the first pieces of furniture are being displayed and put up for silent auction at the ReStore today! These pieces have been printed from waste plastic, this first batch is from plastic water bottles specifically. As we progress with our technology, and hone in our printer settings we are confident that we will be able to print objects from the diverted PC. We have successfully printed small vases and other objects, and we are going to be moving up to furniture shortly.

We are really looking forward to growing our relationship with the Habitat ReStore. And we are so thankful for the continued support from the City of Austin, the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), and all of the many many more people who have believed in our story and helped us along the way. We look forward to continuing this work, diverting more trash from the landfill, and growing our business and team here in Texas.

On designing this collection:

By Mike Battaglia

When looking around reStore, I was looking for something that would usually be in stock and was an easy shape to design around. For my first piece I settled to design around 2x2s after seeing a bench outside made entirely of them.

The first design relied on glue to keep it together and I ultimately decided that this wasn’t sustainable. To complete the loop, I wanted the chair to be able to be disassembled, ground up, and turned into new feedstock for GBX. The second design had screw holes so that the 2x2s could be fastened and removed/disassembled. I definitely prefer this design but have already moved on to other ideas that will be even easier to assemble.

Designing for GBX requires adding a little bit more tolerance than you would for a regular print. The layers are larger and slightly less consistent. I learned the hard way when realizing that the tolerance I had designed in was not enough, and had to plane down each piece of wood to fit.

Currently I am experimenting with 3D printed molds for pouring reclaimed cement+polycarbonate scrap into to create side tables.

Check out a quick video about the furniture:

What do you think we should make next? Email: info@re3d.org and let us know!

Mike Strong

Blog Post Author

New Products

New Parts

Gigabot® X

Fit and Strength Part Adjustments

Gigabot® X

Terabot®

Firmware

Gigabot® X

New 3D Printed Parts

All Models

Gigabot® X

Fit and Strength Part Adjustments

Gigabot® X and Gigabot® 3+

re:3D, Inc. honored by U.S. Chamber of Commerce as Community Support and Leadership Award Finalist

Finalists To Be Recognized During Annual Small Business Awards Program

If It Helps Save One Life

About 30 entities have licensed the low-cost Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally, or VITAL, that NASA engineers designed and patented. Licenses are free of charge. Credits: NASA

Human-Powered Solutions

A Second-Generation Sterilizer

“Completely Outside of Our Comfort Zone”

Barclays and Unreasonable Group select re:3D to receive $100,000 Grant in support of COVID-19 related work

Barclays and Unreasonable Group launch second $1,000,000 fund for entrepreneurial solutions addressing challenges resulting from the global pandemic

The basket opportunity

The design process

Putting it to the test in the field

New 3D Printed Parts (Polycarbonate unless otherwise indicated)

Gigabot® X

Terabot

New Metal Parts

Gigabot® X

Gigabot® 3+

Fit and Strength Part Adjustments:

Gigabot® X

Gigabot® 3+

Terabot

Electrical Updates

Reverse Pitch:

On designing this collection:

By Mike Battaglia

Gigabot^® X

Gigabot^® X

Terabot^®

Gigabot^® X

Gigabot^® X

Gigabot^® X and Gigabot^® 3+

re:3D, Inc. honored by U.S. Chamber of Commerce as Community Support and Leadership Award Finalist 

Finalists To Be Recognized During Annual Small Business Awards Program

Gigabot^® X

Gigabot^® X

Gigabot^® 3+

Gigabot^® X

Gigabot^® 3+