We need your help!

Our student research team here at UC Irvine is currently finishing up our design project and the final pieces of equipment we need are bikes. Before we go into detail about what kind of bikes we should tell you a little more about the project.

What is that? (up there, right above here)
Our S.P.A.M (Specialists in Plastic Additive Manufacturing) team is a dedicated research and design team that aims to make sustainability and environmental awareness a more tangible concept. We are currently working to design and build a sustainable 3D printing system that is mobile. All of the electricity used will come from power generated via bike, and augmented by a two-panel solar array. Along with sustainable power the system will include a way to recycle the plastic used to 3D print objects. This system grinds the plastic down and those grounds are then melted and re-spooled into useable plastic for more printing. We have all equipment ready to grind older plastic prints and then re-melt that plastic down into ready-to-use plastic filament (used to 3D print).

Why?
The S.P.A.M team came together in November of 2015 as part of UC Irvine’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). We set out to demonstrate a sustainable way to 3D print both in terms of materials and energy.

The Nutrient Cycle
Plastic prints are ground, then remelted, and from there spooled back into printable plastic!

The Energy Flow:
Solar power and bike-generated power is stored in an array of 12V batteries. From there the power from the batteries is passed through an inverter which allows the renewable energy to be used by the 3D printing system.

Why should you care?
Below is a list of the current events we have been invited to and their potential outreach (measured in Audience Size):

Santa Ana High School trip (50)

Beall Center for Art+Technology (200)

Cleantech OC (250 Industry Partners)

UC Irvine MDP/UROP Symposium (200 UCI student leaders)

Earth Week Boothing Event (200-500)

TedX UC Irvine (150)

The Covington Retirement Community (20)

Overall that’s an outreach potential of 1070-1370 people!

What do we need to complete this project?
We have all the equipment we need, except the bikes! We’ve been testing using a myriad of different bikes (mostly our own) and need bikes that can be dedicated to this awesome mobile printing system. We need only 3 bikes. The bikes can fixed gear, however that is not crucial to the success of the project.

Thanks so much for reading! We hope to hear from you soon.