Modular Ceramic Extrusion Prototype

Collaborators:

Sara Pezeshk
Julian Ramirez

Tori Arpad-Cotta
Ligia Filgueiras
Van Le
Immanuel Miranda-Burns
Matheus Stancati

Facilities:

Robotics & Digital Fabrication Lab

The KUKA R30 can not only hold heavy items and tools, but has enough precision to move a fraction of a millimeter at a time. With its 6 movable axis, it makes it the perfect “motor” to move our extruder for additive manufacturing. The extruder itself, provided by 3DPotter (DeltaBots.com) works as a large syringe, with a motor pushing a rod down onto a rubber disk that in turn pushes the material out of the nozzle. With this equipment, and the amazing team we were able to put together, we were able to prototype a wall system in under six weeks.

Matheus (left) and Immanuel (right) are preparing the clay to be loaded into the extrusion tubes. The clay was manufactured by SIO-2, and has specific properties that allow it to hold it’s shape although the moisture content would usually make typical clay sludge. Out of the bag, the clay only needs a little water and is ready to be shaped for the loader.

Van is pictured here preparing the tube to be mounted on the loader. The tube is made of plexi-glass with holes on both ends that serve to hold the extruder and the nozzle, but also serves to lock it onto the tight-fit loader attachment.

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The first layer of the print is crucial, so we used 3D-printed plastic “stoppers” to always zerp the first layer at the exact distance from the surface that we needed.

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