Preparing the Plastic Strips
The printing material comes from ordinary PET bottles. The process is as follows:
- Inflate the bottle using a small air compressor to restore its shape.
- Heat the bottle with a heat gun to soften and smooth the surface, making it easier to cut.
- Cut the bottle into strips using a bottle cutter.
- For thin bottles (< 0.3 mm): cut strips 6–7 mm wide.
- For thick bottles (> 0.3 mm): cut strips 4–5 mm wide.
The cutting width is adjusted using the cutter’s control wheel.
- Join the strips end-to-end using a simple interlocking connection.
- Wind the strip onto an empty spool, ready for printing.
Printing Process
Once inserted into the heated head, the plastic strip melts and is transformed into filament in real time, using the 3D printer’s own extruder. As the printer moves and extrudes material, it continuously converts the plastic strip into usable filament — printing and recycling simultaneously.
When the print is finished, the G-code is programmed to move the print head to the far end of the printer and press the stop button, automatically turning off the heating system to save energy.
