Materials make the difference in 3D printing. A good print ultimately comes down to the a harmonious coming together of materials, hardware, and software. While much of the focus today is on advanced materials including metals and bioprintable living matter, polymers remain at the heart of additive manufacturing, comprising the largest materials segment and adaptable to use in many additive technologies. For extrusion-based/FFF 3D printing, filament is the key element, and making it requires a certain finesse and focus to ensure the best quality. One Ohio-based company is increasing its focus and has seen its founders go all in on 3D printing.

At last year’s RAPID + TCT, one quick meeting during a conversation with Cleveland-based MakerGear was with Fila-Mint, headquartered nearby. It was then that I met Brian Hanzel and Amy Harper for the first time; we were recently in touch again as Hanzel invited me to the company’s new facility in Chesterland, Ohio to talk about business and check out their new line.

Hanzel, with a background in manufacturing, has broad experience throughout a variety of sectors that led him down the path toward additive manufacturing. Work in RVs, motorcycles, housing, and plastics provided ample hands-on opportunity working wth a spectrum of manufacturing equipment that afforded a familiarity with their mechanics. In 2014, he began to retrofit a line to extrude plastic into filament for 3D printing, working with Harper in their garage. The evening work, starting around April of that year, was their first foray into making filament.

“You never saw two people so excited to make a bundle of string,” he enthused as we talked about Fila-Mint’s origins.

Brian Hanzel and Amy Harper

As they kept working, they came to realize that there’s much more to materials for 3D printing than initially might seem the case; familiarity with PLA and ABS in general is a great starting point, but is truly the tip of the iceberg when taking these materials into a different sort of manufacturing technology. Soon, they accepted that they needed to devote more time and energy to their filament extrusion hobby or give up the 3D printed ghost to focus elsewhere. The demanding nature of 3D printing and precision required in materials requires attention to detail and adherence to specifications — more than can easily be achieved “making spaghetti in the garage.”

“We knew we had to do it all the way or not at all,” Hanzel explained of the start of the actual company.

Harper’s boss at the time put them in touch with a medical tubing company in Indiana, which seemed a good fit due to the precision required in the medical field.

“The equipment that we use was highly specialized to manufacture very tight-tolerance medical tubing. It has been updated to meet the specific demands of extruding thermoplastics for 3D printers,” the FIla-Mint site explains of the use for this connection.

In keeping with the all-or-nothing mindset, in 2015 Hanzel went full time with Fila-Mint. This was during the downswing of the hype surrounding 3D printing, and startups were popping up seemingly everywhere. By this time, many had already entered and exited the business, but Hanzel and Harper were determined to dedicate their time and energy to creating a viable business and a high-quality product. What started as a side project in the evenings, Hanzel explained, has become a full-time endeavor for both; Harper went full time with Fila-Mint more recently, in November 2017, having previously juggled another job with the business.

It’s not just their time commitment increasing; the attention to the business has led to growth, and Fila-Mint moved into its new facility about a month and a half ago. Going from 700 square feet of space, dominated by their extrusion line, to a significantly more spacious 3,500 square feet allows for additional room for growth.

The machinery at Fila-Mint HQ all has a personal touch on it; in addition to the updated extruding equipment, the company’s winder is a revamped metal stamping machine, which Hanzel gutted and converted into a purpose-specific machine set to precisely wind spools of finished filament. Fila-Mint has room to add on additional capabilities now, and is looking toward additional extruders, putting thought into the materials to run on them. They will be running trials soon on materials including three types of TPU, polycarbonate, and PETG; what they ultimately roll out, Hanzel noted, will depend on the feedback they get.

“Being small guys, it’s tough to know what will sell, what will work — so we’re trying them all out,” he said.

With know-how in plastics, and with the prominence of polymers in 3D printing, the team are also thinking about the potential of creating powders for SLS 3D printing, and has taken their own SLS 3D printer out of storage to look into developing additional offerings.

In addition to Hanzel and Harper, Fila-Mint has several part-time employees working to keep operations running smoothly, stocking, shipping, straightening, and assisting in day-to-day business.

As business picks up and they continue to develop additional expertise in 3D printing, Hanzel and Harper remain enthusiastic about one important part of the business: the cool factor.

“For us it’s still really exciting to see someone take our string and make something of it,” Hanzel said, discussing projects where Fila-Mint filament had been put to use.

Chesterland, where Fila-Mint is located, is no stranger to 3D printing, as local schools have been bringing the technology into STEM program offerings and MakerGear also has a production facility located nearby. Northeast Ohio is part of the growing Tech Belt region, and additive manufacturing is comfortably a part of that.

Growth continues in this area as the profile of the technology is raised — which Hanzel pointed to as a major positive for future advances.

“Had I been more exposed to this stuff, I would have headed more toward manufacturing instead of going through all those random jobs first,” he told me.

“We’re trying to do our part ot raise the profile of manufacturing.”

As 3D printing continues to take hold in the Tech Belt and elsewhere, sharing knowledge and training the next generations — as well as the active workforce — will rise in importance. Fila-Mint will be discussing 3D printing and its needs and capabilities at community events, and looks forward to attending additional larger industry events, like the upcoming RAPID + TCT.

Visiting with this young company, started from a garage and taking a leadership postiion in the community, provided a grounding perspective on the agility and democratization that 3D printing allows for in business and manufacturing. Learn more about Fila-Mint and its offerings here.

Discuss Fila-Mint, filament, and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below. 

[All photos: Sarah Goehrke]

3D printing is a wonderful tool when it comes to making elaborate costumes and props – for both professional movie studios and cosplayers alike. When Thor: Ragnarok came out last year, it owed a lot to 3D printing, in that the glorious headdress worn by the wicked Hela was created using the technology. As it turns out, that particular piece of costuming just lends itself to 3D printing, because influential designer Melissa Ng of Lumecluster was asked to recreate it by Marvel for an episode of Marvel Becoming.

Ng is not a cosplayer herself, but she has done some amazing work for cosplayers, including a stunning set of armor designed for Felicia Day. She has made other sets of armor as well, plus gorgeous masks and a lot more. She has worked with Marvel before, 3D printing Ironheart’s armor for another episode of Marvel Becoming, although usually she makes only original work.

“If I take on any kind of commission that is based on pre-existing IP, it’s because I’ve been given permission to offer my own spin on it while still honoring as much of the original design as possible,” she says. “And while the thought of sharing my own take on Hela was exciting, I was also feeling a bit nervous…There’s still pressure when coming up with original designs that both viewers and I will enjoy, but when it’s based off of a pre-existing IP, there seems to be a lot less room for you to make mistakes or alterations that fans will be happy with.”

The headdress needed to be custom fit to cosplayer Jessica Dru Johnson. It had to be lightweight and well-balanced with detachable antlers, and had to fit easily in a carry-on suitcase. It would be at a slightly smaller scale, and needed to be semi-rigid and impact-resistant. Ng also wanted to make the antlers glow, as she’s done with other pieces, but unfortunately couldn’t stray that far from the original design.

First Ng used photogrammetry to scan a bust of Johnson’s head. Then she began modeling her design, using Hela’s suit from the film trailer as inspiration to create some new details.

“Ironhead Studio’s original Hela headdress design had antlers that had a smooth surface, but I wanted the antlers to have patterns that matched the ones detailed on her suit,” Ng says. “I wanted the patterns to be visible without being overwhelming.”

The headdress had to be broken into detachable smaller pieces for travel purposes, and Ng cleverly made the detachable pieces part of the designs that she added, creating subtle inset details. Once she got the OK from Marvel, she started 3D printing. The headdress was 3D printed entirely on a Lulzbot TAZ 6, using Taulman 3D’s PCTPE material. PCTPE is flexible yet rigid, so it keeps its shape yet doesn’t break easily. The material’s strength and flexibility also enabled Ng to 3D print the antlers hollow, which made the piece lightweight and durable.

Then it was time for post-processing. Ng cleaned up the details of the antlers using a Dremel with a diamond coated rotary burr to cut through the tough material. She then filled in problem spots with flexible filler, sanded, and primed the entire headdress with a high build flexible primer – then sanded some more, and finally assembled the whole headdress. She attached the antlers to the cap (which fit perfectly on the bust of Johnson’s head) and airbrushed it in pearlescent green. She then sealed the entire piece.

“I honestly had a lot of fun sharing my own spin on Hela’s headdress,” Ng says. “It was also a great challenge to see how I could re-imagine an already gorgeous piece. Overall, I hope viewers enjoy this as much as I enjoyed creating it.”

She adds, however, that she still wants to make the antlers glow.

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[Source/Images:

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2017 cars line up for the family portrait. [Image: Shell Eco-marathon]

Typically, when 3D printing is

on the

, it’s used to

and make the cars

. But when it comes to the annual

, sponsored by Shell Oil Company and held in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, the name of the game isn’t necessarily speed, but

.

Many student teams in high school and college divisions compete to build, and race, a vehicle that uses the least amount of gas to complete a certain distance, and several have used 3D printing in the past to design their fuel-efficient race cars. Teams start with a single cylinder lawnmower engine, and develop design modifications to meet the goal of constructing a single-person vehicle with optimal fuel consumption.

Global 3D printing leader Stratasys has used its technology to ramp up race car performance before, and recently gave a helping hand to the Shell Eco-marathon team from California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) as they prepare for the 2018 competition. A recent piece from Carrie Wyman relays the collaborative project in a Stratasys blog post.

The team’s award-winning, multidisciplinary Supermileage club, made up of design and engineering students, placed fourth out of over 40 teams in the 2017 Eco-marathon competition. The vehicle they developed, the Ventus II RS, was able to achieve 1,500 miles per gallon, and the students didn’t want to lose any momentum this year. Their goal: beat Cal Poly’s all-time school record of 2,752 miles per gallon.

Supermileage Club

The Cal Poly Supermileage team’s major focus, as they enter the design and iteration mode for next month’s Shell Eco-marathon Americas in Sonoma, is to transfer end-to-end designs from previous generations of competition and performance testing to the current club and its new race car, while still keeping the future of fuel-efficient vehicles at the forefront.

Weston Andrew Cramer, a third year member of the Cal Poly Supermileage team, said, “Essentially what we do, is kind of like what Apple does with the iPhone 6 vs. the iPhone 6S, where it’s basically the same chassis of the model, but the interior of it is remodeled to make it faster and more efficient.  That’s kind of how Supermileage operates, because making a chassis is extremely expensive, there’s a lot of analysis, and material, like carbon fiber that go into it; and of course a lot of man hours.

“So, last year, we took the chassis and redesigned it to absorb more shock and duress in general. Then, we took a look at the interior and updated the look and some of the safety elements as well. Basically every part inside the car was revamped.”

The team made two major changes to the vehicle’s interior design which majorly impacted both its safety and construction. First, they changed the race car’s braking mechanism from a hand brake to a foot brake. Then, the team members, according to the blog post, “leveraged the strength to weigh benefits of FDM materials” and chose to use Stratasys’ Ultem material to 3D print the steering wheel.

Cal Poly Supermileage alumnus Eli Rogers, who has worked professionally in the 3D printing industry since he graduated, explained that, “With FDM prints being strong in plane, instead of a more detail oriented isotropic material, like the with the polyjet.”

It’s important with any race car for the steering wheel to perfectly fit the driver’s hands to reduce stress and pain, which is why several other race cars have also 3D printed this important part. In addition, 3D printing can help make components like these more lightweight, and at less cost.

Rogers says that his collegiate Supermileage racing experience was “rewarding,” and that he can see and feel the impacts from being on the team in his daily 3D printing design work.

“At the club level, we do so much work that you don’t get to experience in the classroom, work that prepares you for a job that has stresses like a situation where the customer doesn’t know the answer, and you are tasked, as the engineer on the job, to find the answer with the best possible outcome for the customer,” Rogers said.

3DPrint.com would like to wish the Cal Poly Supermileage team the best of luck at next month’s Shell Eco-marathon Americas Competition.

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below. 

[Source: Stratasys / Images:

]

3D printing has made a place for itself firmly in the center of the aerospace industry, with the technology being used to fabricate rocket engines and components, satellites and more. Even fuel itself can be 3D printed, and that’s what graduate students at Utah State University did recently with an experiment that was sent into space this week by NASA.

The experiment was designed and built by aerospace engineering graduate students Marc Bulcher, Zac Lewis and Rob Stoddard, and aerospace engineering professor Stephen Whitmore. It involved a new type of thruster, developed and patented by Whitmore, 3D printed from ABS. Thrusters do not boost rockets into space but instead orient them in zero gravity. The thrusters developed by the USU team do not burn conventional liquid rocket fuel, but are instead fueled by the