RUG/Pennsylvania/State College/Paste extruder
Contents
Overview
The ability to print pastes, and not only plastics, opens a door to many new objects: ceramic pastes can be used to make buildings, chocolate or sugar can be used to print food. The first paste extruder we made was using a motor and a belt to push the plunger of a syringe containing the paste. Even though we were able to print basic objects with this kind of extruder, it rapidly shows its limits since retraction isn’t possible (thus creating leaking problems). We switched to pressurized gas based systems to improve the extrusion. The extruder described on this page is compatible with OHM carriages, therefore all the other components (mechanical axis, electronics) of the printer can be kept. See the OHM page for more information: (Ohm).
Components
Here is the list of the non-printable components required to build a paste extruder. Refer to the component name if the web link is broken.
Syringe holder
The syringe holder uses the same X-Carriage as the Open Hybrid Mendel (OHM X-Carriage). The .STL file can be downloaded here: Paste-extruder.zip.
Assembling
Mechanics
Assembling the syringe holder is pretty straight forward: once all the components are printed, put them together with M3 and M4 screws. Use Nyloc nuts to make sure that the screws will remain tightened.