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3D ceramic tableware printer

04.04.2014

There are printers that work with sugar and food coloring, using these components as consumables to create edible confectionery masterpieces. 3D printers have also been created that use both various types of plastic and metal powder to be sintered and layered to give the final shape. However, until recently, ceramics was not available as a material for 3D printing devices.

The process of manufacturing porcelain products is accompanied by long processing and drying in special installations under the influence of high temperatures. The creation of even simple samples of porcelain utensils or dishes requires the attention of several technologists and goes through certain basic stages.

Students from the University of Bristol decided to correct this misunderstanding and, under the guidance of Professor Stephen Hoskins, created a XNUMXD printer that works with clay. This printer is able to create a full-fledged blank for heat treatment, which will later become a familiar ceramic cup, plate or original figurine. The presented samples of products in the video look very worthy:

Some clarity needs to be made: in fact, ideas for clay printers have been around before. The same company 3D Systems demonstrated at the beginning of this year the CeraJet device, whose functions include the manufacture of ceramic dishes. There were other prototypes of 3D printers, but they all had one thing in common: due to the type and structure of the consumables used, the products did not have sufficient reliability and quality. Simply put, it was not possible to create durable cups that would not differ in any way from dishes made by the classical manufacturing method.

As for the 3D Systems CeraJet, although this printer model is capable of printing dishes, it still formally appeared later than the project of Mr. Hoskins and his wards. About a year ago, the first working sample of a 3D printer was already demonstrated, so the professor, his colleagues and students deservedly received the title of pioneers in this field.

Of course, the key stages of the technological process itself have not changed significantly. The printer takes on the main task - giving the clay product the necessary initial shape, in order to proceed to the subsequent glazing and firing of its parts. Transferring a virtual model to a full-fledged clay blank requires a lot of time, but now the production of porcelain items will become available even at home. True, with an amendment, but the fact that the buyer has a large apartment, because the overall size of a 3D printer for ceramics is comparable to a washing machine.

The composition of the base material with which the presented device "prints" was created and patented by Professor Stephen Hoskins. The main one is clay powder, which, connecting layer by layer, turns into a solid figure. The device, according to its authors, should attract the attention of designers and artists, as well as major manufacturers of various ceramic products.

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Dry ice engine 16.03.2015

Researchers have figured out how to power the first colonizers of Mars: the planet has a lot of dry ice that can be used to generate available energy.

You have probably noticed how a drop of water, hitting a hot frying pan, begins to roll on the surface. It would seem that the temperature of the pan is much higher than the boiling point of water, and the drop should immediately evaporate, but it still "lives" for some time. This effect was first described by Johann Leidenfrost in 1756. Why doesn't the drop evaporate instantly? It's all about the steam layer, which is formed at the point of contact between the drop and the hot surface. Part of the drop turns into steam, which lifts the drop above the surface, preventing the remaining liquid from evaporating instantly. As a result, the drop runs around the pan for quite a long time.

The Leidenfrost effect isn't limited to frying pans. For example, if you very quickly dip your finger into a glass of liquid nitrogen and quickly pull it back out, then, oddly enough, the finger will not freeze and fall off, although the temperature of liquid nitrogen is -196 ° C. This is due to the fact that liquid nitrogen begins to boil upon contact with warm skin, on which a protective layer of already gaseous nitrogen forms. And gases cool and heat up much more slowly than liquids, so the finger of a reckless experimenter does not have time to freeze. True, there is still a risk of getting burned, so in no case do not test the Leidenfrost effect on yourself. An even more extreme and much more dangerous trick is to lower a wet hand into a container with liquid metal - the water on the surface of the hand instantly boils and for a fraction of a second forms a protective layer between the skin and the molten metal.

Tricks tricks, but how to get real benefit from this phenomenon? Researchers at Northumbria University in the UK have made a prototype engine that can run on a piece of dry ice. The design is based on the same Leidenfrost effect. We remember that a drop of liquid runs over a hot surface. A piece of dry ice behaves exactly the same way if it is thrown into water. Dry ice is unique in that when it is heated from a solid phase it immediately turns into a gas, bypassing the liquid phase. The whole question is how to direct his energy in a useful direction. Engineers have long developed technology to convert steam energy into mechanical energy: in a gas turbine engine, a jet of steam or gas hits the surface of the turbine blades, which starts to rotate. But in our case, the researchers went the other way.

They made the heated surface in the shape of a disk, with a profile similar to the blades of a turbine. Now, if a drop of water is placed on such a heated surface, then the steam formed at the point of contact will not only support the drop in weight, but will also push it in a certain direction. The drop will run around in a circle until it evaporates. But what happens if a disk of dry ice is placed on such a heated surface? Evaporating carbon dioxide will begin to spin the disk, moreover, the surface geometry will not allow it to move off the axis, gas flows will return the disk to the center. Now, if you fix magnets on a disk of dry ice, and place the entire structure inside a conductive circuit, you will get a real electric generator, in which there are no rubbing parts, and hence friction losses. The authors of the invention posted on the site a video of how it all works.

Okay, the prototype engine works, but where do you get fuel for it? Dry ice does not occur naturally. This is where the researchers swung, no less, for generators for future colonizers of Mars or other planets. Many futurologists are sure that sooner or later humanity will have no choice but to populate the planets closest to us.

Now programs are being seriously discussed and developed to send an expedition to the red planet. The members of the expedition will have to equip their lives there, and one of the main problems will be finding sources of energy. The fact is that on Mars, carbon dioxide is often found in solid form, that is, in the form of dry ice. And it can be used as an energy resource. The uniqueness of the invented engine is in the simplicity of design - there are practically no replaceable parts in it. And when the nearest store is more than 50 million kilometers away, the issue of equipment reliability is one of the first places.

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