14 DAY TRIAL // 3D printers mostly use the standard DC/AC power plugs in order to get electricity, but what happens when you don't have electrical power at all? The answer is obvious, but a certain engineer didn't want to let 3D printing stay out of reach just because of that.
Of course, lack of electricity is no small matter. It's one of the prime issues of developing countries, one that isn't likely to be overcome in the near future.
Joshua Pearce still wanted to bring 3D printing to people in such regions though, so he teamed up with some of his fellows at Michigan Tec. Together, they were able to create two portable 3D printers that get their energy from the sun.
Although calling one of them “portable” is a bit of a stretch, since you can't really carry it on your own anywhere, not easily anyway. It's still mobile though, which is all that matters.
The large mobile and the portable solar 3D printer systems
The large mobile 3D printer system is pretty big and is installed on top of a wheeled cart. However, it doesn't need any power sockets to operate.
Instead, it has four 120 Ah batteries (the lower shelf of the cart) whose energy is replenished thanks to the pair of 220 W PV solar panels propped against it, as you can see in the first attached photo. All in all, the 3D printing system can keep the printer running for 35 hours at a time.
The other 3D printing system (in the photo below) needs to be carried on the back, like a backpack. A Foldarap RepRap 3D printer is paired with an Efika MX Smartbook notebook, the latter being the control interface basically.
Five 20W solar panels provide the pair with energy, and since they only weigh 10 pounds / 4.5 kilos, they are easy enough to lug around. Four 14.8 V, 6600 mAh laptop batteries power everything by the way.
Medical personnel traveling to foreign regions should find this especially useful, as should military medics and other personnel that expect to be cut off from running power for a long time.
The drawbacks
The solar-powered 3D printing systems will be pretty useless in any climate colder than temperate, since sunlight is scarce when you get close enough to the North or South of the planet. It will also be useless during winter and fall, unless you're lucky and experience a particularly sunny day, and usually not even then.
However, the systems should work very well in African and Middle Eastern nations, and essentially any place between the tropics.
