Investigations Archives - Page 2 of 4

April 5, 2019 — Comments are off for this post.

3D Printing Ceramic Is Back Thanks To Kwambio

It’s been a while since Shapeways, and then i.materialize eliminated ceramic materials from their material offerings. No doubt, ceramic wasn’t a big profit center at those companies. The math didn’t pencil out to offer it at prices consumers were willing to pay. The prints were expensive and the designers tasked with selling reproductions on the marketplace were not likely able to; A $90 tea light holder is a big ask to get someone to buy.

But, there is a definite interest in additive ceramic. Smaller players like Tethon 3D and Formlabs have a ceramic resin product, and designers have been able to create some amazing things using it.

Cups Made With Formlabs Ceramic Resin - Photo Formlabs

Tethon is entering the hardware market with its Bison 1000, which might be a very neat acquisition for a successful ceramicist who wants to push the boundaries of what the material can do.

For the hobbyist/prosumer, there are some FDM style printers. From the Netherlands we have LUTUM by VormVrij which has been used to produce some very beautiful work. It’s also quite expensive. CERAMBOT out of China actually looks to be getting off the ground and is about to release its entry-level machine to their Kickstarter backers and the general public sometime in Q2 2019. It has some great potential for designers willing to work within its constraints.

But, it would help if you had a lot of other resources to make a ceramic product. Ceramic is not something the average apartment dweller will be able to do at home. Besides the printer, you need a place to dry the wet print, a place to glaze it, and a kiln or some method to fire it. For the average hobbyist or designer being able to farm out an idea for a ceramic design to the likes of Shapeways or i.materialise was a convenient (albeit expensive) way to bring those ideas to life in a unique material.

I liked being able to experiment with ceramic 3D prints. It was because of one of those experiments that I came across Kwambio. A customer asked if I could provide her with several copies of a spike cup I had made using Shapeways’ discontinued porcelain material.

Cobalt Blue Porcelain Spike Cup - Photo and Design by Jeremy Burnich for J O Y C O M P L E X

I don’t like telling a customer something can’t be done without at least doing some digging - one of the good things I learned from being an attorney. I explained that no major 3D printing house does ceramic anymore, so I’d have to use a smaller place and see what it would cost and if I would have to make changes to the design.

I went over to Tethon because I knew they did some production in the past, but they seem to have discontinued that service. After some internet sleuthing, I discovered Kwambio. They are a materials/printer startup with production facilities in Ukraine and offices in London and New York. The production facilities are what intrigued me since they offered a wide variety of glazes and colors. I did some more poking around and felt they looked more or less like a legitimate 3D printing enterprise.

I reached out, and Natalia Rybachok soon wrote back. I explained what I needed and asked what they needed from me. They examined the file that I made for the old Shapeways specifications and let me know what needed to be changed for a successful print. Changes were made, and a quote was received. The price was on par with getting the cup made in SLS nylon, so I was on board, and my customer was willing to work with me as well. Natalia was quick and professional despite the time zone lag, and I was impressed with her customer service and patience with walking me through their process.

Spike Cups

left: Shapeways Porcelain; right: Kwambio Ceramic

I used my porcelain prints as a baseline for comparison. If Kwambio could approximate that standard at what seemed like a reasonable price, I’d be happy. I ordered some copies in a gloss glaze and color similar to what my customer liked. I also ordered an experimental cup. Then I sat back and waited. The cups themselves were quickly printed, I’d say in under ten days. Shipping was the bottleneck. UPS cost more than I wanted to pay, and the other option was Ukrposhta, which was less expensive but a long wait. I checked with my customer, and time wasn’t an issue for her order, so I opted for the less expensive route.

When the cups made their way through Europe, over the Atlantic, and over to Pittsburgh, I opened the box, and I was impressed. The cups in the blue glaze looked phenomenal. The Kwambio prints didn’t have the high fidelity of the old Shapeways prints - the spikes weren’t as pointy and needed a more gradual fillet where they met the surface of the cup - but they were good enough for what they needed to be.

The difference is design specs stems from the fact that Shapeways did on-demand slip casting - printing molds, pouring the slip, etc. - and was able to create a consistent porcelain copy of a design, though for a price concomitant with all the work involved.

The Kwambio prints are not created that way. Each print is done from scratch. You’ll notice, each blue cup is slightly different in height and stands somewhat different from the others. They probably sagged a bit during the drying process since they needed to support their weight sooner than the Shapeways slip cast pieces had to. A support structure could possibly be sorted for a more extensive run, but for a one-off or just a few-off, this individuality is OK. And let me repeat, I really like the glaze on these cups. They look lickable like polished candy.

One of Kwambio’s extra services that I REALLY liked, which was never offered by the big service bureaus, is the multitude of glaze colors and the ability to specify the placement of those colors on a single print. You can even explore making custom colors and get metallic glazes like silver and gold - would love to see a copper color. I took advantage of this for my experimental cup.

Thorn Cup

I had Kwambio color each protrusion blood red while leaving the cup white. And I also had them use a matte glaze. This experiment exceeded my expectations. It added an extra bit of interestingness to an older piece, and I think this aspect of their service is ripe for creative use. For an artist or designer that gets comfortable using Kwambio for production of their work, they offer tiered pricing for larger runs of a single design. If they can nail shipping or offer direct to client shipping, then Kwambio’s future looks bright.

I had a great experience using them, and if you want to experiment with ceramic 3D printing and don’t have access to a fully set up studio, they are probably your best bet.

Check out the design guidelines below and tag @joycomplex and @kwambio on Instagram with your ceramic 3D prints. I'd love to see what you come up with.

DESIGN GUIDLINES

Kwambio, Inc.

http://www.kwambio.com

Odessa, Ukraine

Published by Jeremy Burnich in Investigations, Product Reviews

Tags: Ceramic, Kwambio, Porcelain

March 24, 2019 — Comments are off for this post.

The Stone Paper Saga (or, everything you’ve ever wanted to know about stone paper)

A Report by Jeremy Burnich

I got bit by the stone paper bug.

At the bottom of this page you will find links to what I have learned so far about stone paper; how it inspired a little project; a review of three different stone paper products; and a surprising bit of information I learned about a ubiquitous form of traditional paper that will surprise you as much as it surprised me.

Traditional Paper

Paper has been around for roughly 3000 years. It’s changed a lot over three millennia but the basic formula has remained the same. Wood to pulp. Pulp + Chemicals over time and eventually you’ll get paper.

A mid-19th century paper mill, the Forest Fibre Company, in Berlin, New Hampshire

The scale of papermaking today is immense. We probably - and I'm just shooting from the hip here - create and consume more paper in one year than we created and consumed over the majority of the time we have been making paper.

Stone paper is the latest in a long line of innovative paper products. Unlike traditional paper which is made from plant fibers - mostly trees - it is made from crushed stone and a polymer binder.

Many People Aren't Aware Stone Paper Exists

Stone paper is an interesting product. At least it interests me.

It shares many of the same properties of pulp paper - you can fold it, write on it, burn it, etc - but it also has several unique additional properties. For example, it’s waterproof.

It isn’t a complete substitute for paper. It's more expensive than traditional paper and liquid ink pens - like fountain pens or gel ink - don’t adhere to it particularly well.

But once I started experimenting with stone paper I wanted to use it more.

It's one of those inventions, like pressure-sensitive adhesive before it was added to small pieces of paper and became Post-It notes. That adhesive was accidentally invented by Spencer Silver and it wasn't until six years later when Arthur Fry finally came up with a useful application for that product. Before then it was a solution in search of a problem. But the right person with the right problem had to see that adhesive before it became the product we all use over 30 years later.

Arthur Fry, inventor of the Post-it Note. Demonstrating his own personal birth of Athena.

And that got me thinking about a Steve Jobs quote:

I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, “A faster horse!”

Here’s a reenactment of what he goes on to say:

A successful product is one that people buy. People only buy something when they feel the value of that product outweighs the pricing.

But sometimes a product needs be seen by the right audience before its true value can be unlocked. Steve Jobs didn't know people would use the iPhone to learn to play guitar, or unlock their car, or make movies. But he did know that getting the best product he could make into the hands of the right people would show what could be done, what was possible, with a smart phone.

Stone paper is like that. If you give it out to enough people, you will find someone who will find a use for it.

In general, the biggest factor hindering wider adoption of stone paper is the price. Pulp paper is everywhere and inexpensive. Like an electric vehicle, stone paper needs added value to justify the higher initial price.

One way stone paper adds value is with performance.

For everyday needs, pulp paper is cheaper and will work adequately. But not in harsh environments. This is where stone paper proves its worth. Say you’re a mechanic working on an oil platform. It’s an oily and greasy gnarly marine environment, but stone paper is unaffected by all that.

If you get stone paper dirty, you can wash it.

Here is a video I made to demonstrate stone paper being washed and reused.

Water proof paper. Who knew?

Another value implicit with stone paper is environmental.

Stone paper production requires no trees, water acids, or bleaches. It can also be made from recycled materials and can itself be recycled into new materials. Pulp paper requires everything stone paper doesn't and an ordinary sheet of paper made from wood=derived cellulose can survive only four to six trips through the recycling process.

A final measure of value is its novelty.

Stone paper was only developed in the closing years of the last century. It is still new and the limits of what it can and can’t do are still up in the air.

I discovered that stone paper is great for metalpoint sketching - a technique used by Leonardo da Vinci - because no time-consuming surface prep is necessary.

Time for More Innovation

Think about it. Toilet paper wasn’t commercially available until the 1850s. For 95% of the time paper was in existence no one exploited that use. (Fun fact: Instead of toilet paper, ancient Romans used a communal xylospongium - a sponge on a stick - for TP duty. Let's just say they had their fair share of intestinal parasites.)

We are still coming up with new uses for traditional paper. Imagine what uses people will come up with for stone paper? I'm just one person who noticed its use for silverpoint. Imagine what other people will discover?

They just need to be shown what it can do.

The Report

What Is Stone Paper- a primer on stone paper and what makes it different from traditional paper
Silverpoint & Stone Paper - using a 14th-century drawing technique with a 21st century stone paper product.
Stone Paper Review - an overview of three different stone paper notebooks from three different companies.
The Dangers of Thermal Paper - an aside on a different paper product we handle every day. I only found out about the deleterious effects of receipt paper as a result of my dive into stone paper.

Back to the top

Published by Jeremy Burnich in Investigations

Tags: paper, Stone Paper

March 19, 2019 — Comments are off for this post.

What are the Dangers of BPA and Is Thermal Paper Dangerous?

Quick Tip: Avoid handling receipts.

If you’re like me then you haven’t thought much about taking a receipt, crumpling it up, and putting it in your pocket. The paper that receipt is printed on is made from thermal paper. That box from Amazon that was left at your front door? The shipping label is made from thermal paper.

I never really thought much about thermal paper until I started my silver stylus project. That project started because of an observation - I noticed that if you rubbed silver (and also, I later discovered; copper, bronze, brass, and aluminum) against either thermal paper that it would leave a mark. It's called silverpoint and I wanted to find out why this happened. What I learned about thermal paper truly surprised me.

What is Thermal Paper?

Thermal paper is a special paper that is coated with a material formulated to change color when exposed to heat. A chemical often used in that special coating is Bisphenol A (BPA) or Bisphenol S (BPS). BPA is considered an endocrine disruptor and recent research shows a strong indication that BPS is as well.

What is an Endocrine Disruptor?

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine (or hormone) systems at certain doses. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. Any system in the body controlled by hormones can be derailed by hormone disruptors. Specifically, endocrine disruptors may be associated with the development of learning disabilities, severe attention deficit disorder, cognitive and brain development problems; deformations of the body (including limbs); breast cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid, and other cancers; and sexual development problems.

Remember Baby Bottles with BPA?

In 2012 the FDA banned the use of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups. The chemical can leach into food, and a study of over 2,000 people found that more than 90 percent of them had BPA in their urine. Traces have also been found in breast milk, the blood of pregnant women and umbilical cord blood.

What about receipts?

Since BPA and BPS molecules added to receipts are not chemically bound to the paper, they can "readily transfer to anything touching the paper, including your skin, or paper money next to the receipt in a wallet." A report cited scientific studies such as one published in JAMA that demonstrated that "even briefly handling receipt papers leads to significant BPA or BPS absorbed into the body."

“There's more BPA in a single thermal paper receipt than the total amount that would leach out from a polycarbonate water bottle used for many years," said John Warner, Ph.D., president of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry.

Do toilet paper rolls, tissues, or paper towels contain BPA/BPS? They might. Cross-contamination can occur if thermal paper coated with BPA and BPS are mixed into the paper recycling stream.

How can I protect myself from BPA?

Some stores are eliminating receipts with BPA or BPS. For example, Whole Foods uses vitamin C based receipts. Trader Joe’s is in the process of eliminating the chemicals from their receipts as well.

Until phenol containing receipts are totally eliminated here are some things you can do to reduce your exposure.

• If you handle receipts frequently (like a cashier) wear nitrile gloves.

• Decline paper receipts at gas pumps, ATMs or retail cash registers, opting instead to have your receipt emailed if you’re given that choice. If you can, use your smartphone for plane and train tickets.

• Use a sealed plastic bag to store receipts you need to keep rather than carrying them loose in your wallet, purse or shopping bag. The coating can just as easily rub off on other items and when you handle those, you’ll be picking up the BPA.

• Wash your hands as soon as possible after touching receipts, especially before cooking or eating food. Use soap and water rather than alcohol-based hand sanitizers, which increase the skin’s ability to absorb BPA.

• Avoid handling thermal paper if you are pregnant and keep it out of children’s hands too. Studies suggest prenatal and early life exposure to BPA poses the greatest potential health risks.

Learn More About Receipts and BPA/BPS Below

Explainer: Store receipts and BPA

Published by Jeremy Burnich in Investigations

Tags: BPA, Education, paper, toxic design

March 15, 2019 — Comments are off for this post.

What Is Stone Paper?

I first heard about stone paper in September 2018. A targeted advertisement for the Karst hardcover notebook “with paper made from stone” popped up on my Facebook feed. I was intrigued but didn’t immediately order the product because $30 for a notebook is a lot of money no matter who you are.

But I kept on seeing those Karst ads on my feed and finally on Black Friday they took 10% off and I got a dot grid hardcover notebook for myself and a pocket journal for my son.

The Karst notebook was my first experience with stone paper. I'd compare the quality to moleskin notebooks (I’d say it’s probably better made). It is rather pricy and in looking for less expensive stone paper alternatives I found out that not all stone paper is equal (more on that later).

I got bit by the stone paper bug and was curious to learn more about this product.

What is stone paper made from?

Stone paper is made from calcium carbonate and plastic - marble debris from mining and high-density polyethylene (HDPE), either virgin or recycled. The calcium carbonate is ground into a fine powder and mixed together with the HDPE in an 80/20 mix.

This results in "paper" that is quite durable. Stone paper shows resistance to oil, tearing, and water. Furthermore ink tends to resist running if it subsequently gets wet. So it's great for outdoor environments like construction sites.

Stone paper feels grippier than traditional paper. The texture is similar to ultra-fine grit modeling sandpaper. I like writing on it with a pencil or a pen but would not recommend using a fountain pen type of liquid ink - probably depends on the quality of the ink you use - because what I said before about the ink not running, might not be completely the case with this type of ink. . It does have some very interesting potential with the use of alternative writing instruments. (again, more on that later).

Is stone paper really environmental?

This product is touted as being good (or at least better) for the environment than traditional paper. Karst says, "It's made without timber and water, without chlorine or acids, without waste, and uses only a third of the carbon footprint of traditional paper."

However stone paper is 20% HDPE plastic which has to come from somewhere. That somewhere is natural gas. This is a local issue for me. Currently under construction just outside Pittsburgh in Beaver Township is the Shell ethylene cracker plant. That plant will turn the shale gas from the Marcellus into ethylene, from where HDPE is derived. Future stone paper products could very well be made from natural gas extracted right here in Pennsylvania.

So overly boosting the environmental aspects of stone paper runs the risk of being nothing more than green marketing without actual environmentally responsible practices.

A6 Pocket Diary in Pomegranate Red by A Good Company

Thankfully, the stone paper products sold by A Good Company have considered this and have real green credentials. In addition to the above noted manufacturing benefits, their notebooks have undergone Cradle to Cradle certification and they use carbon offsets to compensate for the CO2 emitted from the production and shipping of their products. They also use in house designed stone paper shipping bags that can be reused or recycled.

Stone paper is also photodegradable after a year to a year and a half of exposure to the sun. But if there's no sun, there's no degradation so if it's in a landfill it's locked there. It's also not clear, where the HDPE goes if it is left to photodegrade. Do the HDPE microplastic particles persist in the environment? I don't know. I'd like to though.

What stone paper products do you recommend?

I have used stone paper produced by three different companies - Oxford, Karst, and A Good Company.

Stay tuned for my forthcoming review.

Published by Jeremy Burnich in Investigations

Tags: Environmental Design, Stone Paper