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Asking myself some questions...

A project log for Electrospinning Machine

Bring an open source electrospinning machine to the hobbyist level. Made with easily sourced and inexpensive materials.

douglas-millerDouglas Miller 05/29/2016 at 15:120 Comments

After having slept on the tests I made yesterday, and being on my customary third cup of coffee combined with just the right amount of sleep deprivation, I got to the point of asking myself a few 'what if' questions this morning.

What If we could perfect electrospinning on a hobby level what would let us lay down consistent and controlled mats of a highly flexible material in the shape of our choice? Wearable's, anyone?

What If we could lay down very thin layers of conductive material (graphene, carbon nanotubes, PVDF) in traces on that flexible mat? Wearable's with the conductive traces not woven through the fabric, but an actual PART of the fabric. Not only wearable's, but almost any object.

What if we added multiple nozzles, and could do all that in one run?

What If we mixed 3D printing with electrospinning, printing a scaffold and then covering it with tiny fibers? No more layering on your parts.

What If by doing so we eliminated delamination as any sort of problem because the fibers would span the layers?

What If we got a bunch of people to work on this at once, like what happened with 3D printing? How far could we take it?

What If you could lay down all the layers needed to make a super capacitor in one shot, then simply roll it up?

What If you used multiple nozzles, each one loaded with material dyed a different color? Could you spin your way to a full color finished part?

What If you could spin a semi-permeable membrane with very small openings, making molecular sieves? That's not something in my experience that I've ever needed, but maybe for a water filter, or fuel cell? Graphene Oxide passes water, but leaves almost every thing else behind. Even Helium is blocked. I'm thinking water filtration and desalination here. Don't believe me? Check this out: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2014/feb/17/graphene-oxide-makes-perfect-sieve

I'm sure with some doping with the right agents that the pass through size could be altered somewhat.

What If we tried many of these ideas with a combination of 'normal' electrospinning with Near Field electrospinning? How much control could we get of the 'landing spot' of the material? And all on a hobby level machine.

What if all, or even some, of the above were possible, but nobody even tried?

See. I need to work on that sleep deprivation thing. But still, good questions. Guess I better get back to work on them, eh?

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