Filament Splicer

• Klaudia Swigon
• Malik Blackman
• Zain Ahmed
• Mustafa Kanan

Additive manufacturing changed the way rapid prototyping was performed by engineers with the creation of affordable, effective, and easy to use 3-D printers. University makerspaces such as the one at UIC have used 3-D printers to provide engineering students with a means for prototyping their designs. Often, the UIC Makerspace will dispose of filament feedstock reels that do not contain enough filament to complete an entire print cycle. To reduce or eliminate this waste, a method was developed that would allow two reels of filament to be fused together to form a single reel. After a decision-making process and consideration of various failure modes, a final design was reached and modeled using computer aided design (CAD).  Once a satisfactory design and simulation results were achieved, the design was finalized, and components were manufactured or purchased. The final design for the hand-held splicer consists of two grooved aluminum plates which are heated by a heating cartridge powered by a 2-cell battery pack. The clamping mechanism for the plates is modeled off of channel lock pliers, allowing for the plates to stay in place during the heating up and cooling down periods. By placing the filament in the plate grooves and heating it past the glass transition temperature, one continuous piece of filament is formed post cooling. Efficiency tests were conducted on the final prototype to ensure that the device met all required criteria and consistently spliced filament in under 10 minutes.