Plastic Extrusion & Molding

• HABITAT: CEB Press - Sawmill - Living Machines - Modular Housing Units
  
• AGROECOLOGY: LifeTrac Multi Purpose Tractor - MicroTrac - Power Cube - Agricultural Spader - Agricultural Microcombine - Hammer Mill - Well Drilling Rig - Organoponic Raised Bed Gardening - Orchard and Nursery - Modular Greenhouse Units - Bakery - Dairy - Energy Food Bars - Freeze Dried Fruit Powders
  
• ENERGY: Pyrolysis Oil - Babington Burner - Solar Combined Heat Power System - Steam Engine Construction Set - Solar Turbine - Electric Motors/Generators - Inverters & Grid Intertie - Batteries
  
• FLEXIBLE INDUSTRY: Lathe - Torch Table - Multimachine & Flex Fab - Plastic Extrusion & Molding - Metal Casting and Extrusion
  
• TRANSPORT: Open Source Car
  
• MATERIALS: Bioplastics

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Plastic Extrusion and Molding (PEM) - extruded forms include sheets, tubes, and others. Relevant for greenhouse glazing with polycarbonate extrusion (Lexan Thermoclear), or even UV-stabilized polyethylene (Solexx). Tubing for water pipes or irrigation, plastic shapes and sheets are all doable with slight modifications of a basic extruder. The key may be a ram extruder (simple design) with inductive heating, to which various dies are adapted for profiles (extrusion), or molds for shapes (injection molding), or blowers and molds (blow molding). This is one example of a product where cheap feedstocks (ex, <15 cents/lb for virgin polyethylene resin (50 lb/cu ft)) - where each square foot of Solexx weighs on the order of a quarter pound) produce very expensive products (about $1/sq foot for Solexx) - where the feedstock price in that dollar of product is under 5 cents. If an extruder is available - combined with the knowhow - then localized production of such glazing could probably yield cost predictions of something marginally higher than material costs, under the DIY-flexible enterprise scenario. The challenge is producuring the knowhow for extruder fabrication and material extrusion - where the material costs for the device are expected t be around $5k for the machine - structure, hydraulic ram, inductive heating, and die. This is a prime example of market inefficiency - where middlemen, R&D costs, company overhead, competitive waste, and proprietary technique - make the price so much higher than the open source flex fab scenario. The flex fab innovation required here is the fabrication of a generalized device for die extrusion, injection molding, and blow molding in one, where dedicated machines serve each purpose today.

Development Work Template

1. PEM - Product Definition
   1. PEM - General
   2. PEM - General Scope
   3. PEM - Product Ecology
      1. PEM - Localization
      2. PEM - Scaleability
      3. PEM - Analysis of Scale
      4. PEM - Lifecycle Analysis
   4. PEM - Enterprise Options
   5. PEM - Development Approach
      1. PEM - Timeline
      2. PEM - Development Budget
         1. PEM - Value Spent
         2. PEM - Value available
         3. PEM - Value needed
   6. PEM - Deliverables and Product Specifications
   7. PEM - Industry Standards
   8. PEM - Market and Market Segmentation
   9. PEM - Salient Features and Keys to Success
2. PEM - Technical Design
   1. PEM - Product System Design
      1. PEM - Diagrams and Conceptual Drawings
         1. PEM - Pattern Language Icons
         2. PEM - Structural Diagram
         3. PEM - Funcional or Process Diagram
         4. PEM - Workflow
      2. PEM - Technical Issues
      3. PEM - Deployment Strategy
      4. PEM - Performance specifications
      5. PEM - Calculations
         1. PEM - Design Calculations
         2. PEM - Yields
         3. PEM - Rates
         4. PEM - Structural Calculations
         5. PEM - Power Requirements
         6. PEM - Ergonomics of Production
         7. PEM -Time Requirements
         8. PEM - Economic Breakeven Analysis
         9. PEM - Scaleability Calculations
         10. PEM - Growth Calculations
      6. PEM - Technical Drawings and CAD
      7. PEM - CAM Files
   2. PEM - Component Design
      1. PEM - Diagrams
      2. PEM - Conceptual drawings
      3. PEM - Performance specifications
      4. PEM - Performance calculations
      5. PEM - Technical drawings and CAD
      6. PEM - CAM files whenever available
   3. PEM - Subcomponents
3. PEM - Deployment and Results
   1. PEM - Production steps
   2. PEM - Flexible Fabrication or Production
   3. PEM - Bill of materials
   4. PEM - Pictures and Video
   5. PEM - Data
4. PEM - Documentation and Education
   1. PEM - Documentation
   2. PEM - Enterprise Plans
5. PEM - Resource Development
   1. PEM - Identifying Stakeholders
      1. PEM - Information Collaboration
         1. PEM - Wiki Markup
         2. PEM - Addition of Supporting References
         3. PEM - Production of diagrams, flowcharts, 3D computer models, and other qualitative information architecture
         4. PEM - Technical Calculations, Drawings, CAD, CAM, other
      2. PEM - Prototyping
      3. PEM - Funding
      4. PEM - Preordering working products
      5. PEM - Grantwriting
      6. PEM - Publicity
      7. PEM - User/Fabricator Training and Accreditation
      8. PEM - Standards and Certification Developmen
      9. PEM - Other
   2. PEM - Grantwriting
      1. PEM - Volunteer grantwriters
      2. PEM - Professional, Outcome-Based Grantwriters
   3. PEM - Collaborative Stakeholder Funding
   4. PEM - Tool and Material Donations
   5. PEM - Charitable Contributions