Recently, on the Norwegian 3D printing website justpressprint.no, a creator named Even Erichsen showed us how to build the 3D printed hand-cranked generator The Beest. This machine is not only cool, but also really capable of generating electricity! Although it can only produce 30 watts of energy, not enough to make a cup of coffee, it is still very impressive.
Even Erichsen is a 36-year-old designer from Oslo, Norway. His official job is as a 3D designer at an architectural firm. But in private, he is also an avid 3D printing enthusiast, always happy to complete one after another 3D printing project. According to him, this is actually the second version of his 3D printed hand crank engine. “My initial goal was to use it to generate water to heat food or disinfect... but I quickly realized that it needed a lot of power! Even if you want to boil a small amount of water, you need to work on the engine. Long time," he explained.
Even so, this The Beest is still quite remarkable. It is powered by hand and has designed a fairly cool set of gears: "1:2+1:4+1:3, which means that the handle turns one turn and the rotor of the engine has to Turn 24 turns. It's set a bit like a 3-phase axial flow engine with three stators and six rotor plates with a total of 96 neodymium magnets," Even explained. The power output of each magnet is connected in series before being delivered to the PCB. Even also installed an Arduino to read the incoming voltage and display it on the display.
As you can imagine, this is not a very simple 3D printing project. The entire engine included 60 3D printing components, and Even used two 3D printers to complete the project: “I used one Ultimaker 1 to print the largest parts, and another Makerbot Replicator (double head). Print the smaller parts left," he told us. All parts used PLA materials and took about 250 hours of printing time.
But as a professional 3D designer, the design process is much less difficult for him. Even explained that in his design, old and new technologies are combined, so he has a lot of inspiration from the old machines of the cast iron era. The design software used by Even is 3D Studio Max, and he is very careful in designing to ensure that all rotor components can be printed at once, which means that the size of the entire engine is determined by his largest print bed. “The other parts are split into smaller pieces (in 3D) and then fixed together with nuts and bolts,†he added.
But the story is not over yet. The engine requires quite a few electronics and other components: "I used 96 neodymium magnets, about 1.5 kilograms of copper enameled wire, six steel plates, a lot of nuts and bolts, etc. In the electronic circuit section. These include the Arduino Mini, monitors, LEDs, connectors, switches, capacitors, resistors and bridge rectifiers, etc." he told us. Assembly is also quite complicated, especially for the wiring of copper coils, and this step is particularly challenging. “I used the copper enameled wire of AWG 15, which is a bit thick and difficult to handle.â€
“I recommend using a thinner copper wire (AWG 20 +). The more turns, the higher the voltage generated. Another troublesome part of this project is to make the shaft and put the gears in the right position. “I use It is a 12 mm threaded rod and the locknut is glued where I need to place the gear. "Even added.
If you are interested in this project and want to play 3D printing a generator, you can click here to enter Even's website, and he also shares the upcoming 3D design files.
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