Open Source Wet Spinning Machine
From Open Source Ecology
Basics
Existing Open Source Designs
- In a recent video, they discussed Milk Fiber, they used the name "Lanital" bit of Terminology Hell there
- Essentially it is Caesin Wet Spun into an acid (They used Sulfuric Acid ) To an extent it is similar to cheese, but without oils
- In order to make it an actual textile, and not a cheese noodle of sorts, as stated Oil isn't used, preferably pure Caesin, also a Crosslinking Agent is used, they used Formaldahyde
- The main important takeaway from the video though was at 6:33 where they showcase their Wet Spinning Machine
- "It's Largely Made of 3D Printed Parts, and everything is completely adjustable, it's designed to be modular so that it can be used to make any fiber that uses wet spinning in it's creation. This includes the Milk Fiber that we are going to be making today, but it also includes everything from Rayon and Synthetic Silk to Nylon and Carbon Nanotubes"
- "While it may look like there is a lot going on, the machine is actuyally super simple. it's basically a bunch of wheels and vats, as well as a Srynge Pump to extrude whatever goop you happen to be using it's all controlled by a custom arduino shield and stepper drivers which is in turn controlled by a raspberry pi. Each wheel is connected to it's own stepper motor so they can be tweaked independantly"
- So essentially:
- Srynge Pump (although i wonder if a Peristaltic Pump or a Gear Pump could potentially be used
- "Coagulation Bath" and "Hardening Bath" (Appear to be Somewhat Rectangular Stainless Steel Troughs/Dishes)
- ~9 Stepper Motor-Wheel Assemblies on Somethin akin to a Universal Axis without the belt+motor, just as a mounting mechanism
- Doing something akin to an IDEX FDM 3D Printer but on it's side may be a neat method of doing Closed Loop Control of fiber properties
- 3D Printed Parts+Metric Hardware
- General Textile Equipment after the Wet Spinner to make the Fiber into something usable
Internal Links
External Links