Portable Solar Powered 3D Printers

Michigan Tech researchers have come up with two different portable 3D Printer systems. The first system is larger and can run for up to 35 hours on a single charge because of its large batteries. The second setup is much smaller, and fits into a suitcase. This setup can easily be carried on longer expeditions, but has less battery storage. You will find more information on both 3D printer setups here: http://3dprint.com/18836/solar-3d-printers

Below is a picture of the more portable of the two setups, featuring five 20 watt solar panels:
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/sol1.jpg

Oh wow this is a bad idea... Printing out in nature with an unenclosed machine perched directly over the battery on a fiberboard table on the side of a hill with one of the least energy efficient printing methods.

Make it a paste extrusion machine with clay, wax, or photopolymer and they get 10 times the battery life compared to using a resistance heater to melt plastic.

i'm wondering what kind of situations this would be useful for?

Sure you could get more print volume with an extrusion machine - but how many useful things can you think to make with soft wax vs every day plastic - which is literally in every product in Wal-mart.

I am thinking I would just put the board on the ground and then the printer on that.

I bet this would come in handy for disaster relief.

This current setup does seem a little janky.

Expanding on Feign's idea (paste extrusion), I know a lot of companies are working on edible paste printers. Could this printer be adapted to print an edible paste for, like jeffdans says, disaster relief or maybe even areas with extreme famine?

I'm pretty sure in a disaster or famine situation, I would be perfectly comfortable just eating the emergency nutrition paste, no printer necessary.

3D printing need not be applied to every situation everywhere. Not that it's a bad thing to try applying it to every possible situation. That's kind of how evolution works after all, everything gets tried and sometimes something ends up being a genius idea which takes off like a rocket. But at the same time, the ideas that aren't so genius don't need to get the sympathy gold star.

Not that solar-powered 3D printing is a dead-in-the-water concept. That one guy with the sun-powered SLS printer that used the focused sunlight to melt sand into glass parts was really onto something... A shame I can't find that story again now.

I wouldn't call this a portable solar powered 3D printer. It's a 3D printer being powered by solar power. I could just as easily plug in a 65" TV to a deployable solar array. Should I call it a portable 65" TV? This isn't anything new or revolutionary, people have been doing this for a very long time now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Feign

I'm pretty sure in a disaster or famine situation, I would be perfectly comfortable just eating the emergency nutrition paste, no printer necessary.

3D printing need not be applied to every situation everywhere. Not that it's a bad thing to try applying it to every possible situation. That's kind of how evolution works after all, everything gets tried and sometimes something ends up being a genius idea which takes off like a rocket. But at the same time, the ideas that aren't so genius don't need to get the sympathy gold star.

Not that solar-powered 3D printing is a dead-in-the-water concept. That one guy with the sun-powered SLS printer that used the focused sunlight to melt sand into glass parts was really onto something... A shame I can't find that story again now.

---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptUj8JRAYu8

it was markus kayser.
And yep the best 3d printer potential I've seen to date.

Using the sun to melt the material - that's proper solar power !

Wow that doesnt look a great set up. Surely a couple of car batteries and a 3D printer is more portable than all those solar panels.

portable yes, but the point is the whole thing is solar powered. Set one up in a village in africa and they've got sun powered ceramic/glass factory for life (or until a hyena piddles up the wrong part).

And that was simply a prototype.

These days you could use a raspberry pi, some low powered motors and hi-efficiency soar panels and probably get the whole thing down to quite a neat package.

Installing a solar system is a really good solution. Personally, I installed a solar panel 6 years ago and quietly provide the house with energy. I highly recommend https://www.solarsamui2020.com/ to you because it is well established. In my neighborhood, the electricity is often cut off for technical reasons, so most of the neighbors have installed solar panels so that they always have electricity. It's not only convenient, but also eco-friendly, so it's an opportunity to make the planet cleaner. I remember that the installation took two weeks, which is very fast. To be honest, the money spent on installing the solar system will pay off completely over time, so don't believe people who say otherwise. The sun is an inexhaustible source of energy, so I will always have electricity.