This week, 3Delish is coming off of last week’s QRB hot and ready to get more of the prototype working. Each of the different main teams have been working diligently to further integrate all the different components of the project.

On the extrusion module side, Caylynne was able to finish assembly and began testing the gear assembly version of the extrusion module with jelly inside. The extrusion module team has also been busy ordering and will soon begin testing different non-captive motors.

Brittney has taken charge on testing some tubing insulation for the altered temperature requirement prints. Through some basic testing, she was able to show that the insulated tubing was able to keep hot water about 5 degrees C warmer than the tubing without insulation over a 20 minute time span.

Ian and Andrew have had a bit of a breakthrough with motherboard integration, and are now able to control the motors responsible for the X, Y, Z, E0, and E1 axises. Ian was also able to figure out and interpret the G-code possibilities, meaning we will be able to start multi-material testing soon after we get the extrusion module mounted and integrated.

Lucas and Liying have stepped back from Instron testing for the time being now that the maximum force values have been attained, and have turned to researching different food materials they will be selecting for the final design and recipe. One popular candidate is the idea of a no-bake carrot cake bar with base of spiced no-bake cake batter, channels of carrot puree throughout, and a topping of cream cheese icing. Lucas also plans to test some of these recipes at home for the upcoming Super Bowl Sunday, where he has a crew of test subjects to see how these recipes might taste.

The team is excited to continue testing and integrating parts, with hopes to have a multi-material product completed in the next couple weeks!

3Delish met with our Quality Review Board (QRB) – the first one of two – on Tuesday! Three IPPD coaches provided their assessments and suggestions on the current state of our project. We received plenty of helpful feedback that we’ll be incorporating into our project in the coming weeks.

One part of the project that appears to be posing a bottleneck currently is integrating the electrical component with the rest. Andrew and Ian have spent time in the lab troubleshooting with new firmware and the display screen. As the separate modules of our printer come together, ensuring that everything can be easily controlled (and with precision) will be important!

Brittney has done some calculations to determine the pressure that our motors will need to withstand, and Caylynne is working on new motors and gears to enhance the printing module. The amount of force required to extrude food differs depending on the material, and new motors will be needed to ensure extrusion happens! Lucas and Liying will continue to test different food materials to determine the best recipes for printing. No bake cakes…? We’ll be using a newly printed fixture (courtesy of Ian) on the Instron machine to improve our mechanical testing methods!

Significant progress this week on all three subsystems/subteams: mechanical, electrical, and materials.

First, on the mechanical side- Caylynne and Brittney have been focusing on the extrusion module with focus on choosing optimal Nema motors for best extrusion performance. With three new motors ordered, they will be testing these motors with different step sizes and food materials to down-select on final motors. Two designs of the module are shown below, with the non-captive assembly being the stronger candidate at this time.

Ian has been taking lead in the nozzle printhead design. A 3D printed prototype has been submitted and should be ready for testing soon! Ian is focusing on a 3tube-to-3nozzle design, while Brittney has started to explore a 3tube-to-1nozzle design.

Andrew has been working hard on the electrical side to test our PID controller with the TEC, and moving forward- he and Ian will be focusing on our new Octopus Pro board integration with motor and temperature control capabilities!

Last but certainly not least, Lucas and Liying on our Materials subteam has been working hard on Instron testing and initial food material testing. More results and updates to come!

This week the build progress is heating up as we focus on integrating our PID Controller with the heating/cooling elements for the print bed and chambers. Andrew successfully configured the circuit to work with the TEC element. However, as the sensor is designed to be inserted into a chamber and the element requires a DC input, there are still some tasks remaining before we can effectively control all the components.

From the results of our Instron testing last week, we are also revisiting the current motor specs and overall extrusion design. Caylynne is completing motor calculations to ensure the force delivered is sufficient and the components (3x motors!) still remain under project budget. We see a few pathways forward: maintaining non-captive motor design with just 1 motor to ensure the force required is met for the hardest material, or reverting back to the gear assembly design where we can order less expensive motors and gear up the force applied. Caylynne printed new parts to try out this gear assembly design and experiment with the force required for different foods.

Additionally, the team has finished submitting POs for the majority of the modules. One of the challenges we face is the integration of 3-5x new temperature elements/controllers along with the addition of 3x independently powered motors. After some further research, the team was able to source a motherboard upgrade to accommodate these new motors, and plans to use an expansion board to host the new temperature elements.

Welcome back to a new Semester! We started off strong before classes even began, working on testing materials and gathering data using an Instron machine to get some force and pressure data to inform our decision making. A few of us went into lab over the week to work on that testing as well as take stock of what we have completed and what we are looking at completing in the short to mid term as we get back into the swing of prototype development.

We met with our coach, discussed these goals and assigned individuals to take ownership of those tasks and dates to complete them by. Additionally we are exploring various project management programs and ways to more easily track the status of key project milestones. The ever present issue of scheduling once again reared its head as we try and find workable times for all of us to meet consistently and coordinate, not just within the team but with our coach and liaisons. Hopefully as schedules settle down we will be able to resume our weekly meetings with all stakeholders.

We are looking to have some more exciting build information coming in the next few weeks, so keep a lookout for those pictures and information as soon as we have it!