In representation of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa), through its Technological Innovation Park (PIT, Parque de Innovación Tecnológica), Eduardo Abitia participated, the 21st and 22nd September, in the prototypes fair of the IV Sinaloa Estate Young Researchers Encounter (EJIS, Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores del Estado de Sinaloa), where his Recycler of Plastic Material for 3D Print received the first place within its category.

This year EJIS, which is support by the National Council of Science and Technology, the Institute for the Support of Research and Innovation of Sinaloa and the Sinaloa State Government, was carried out in the Conventions Centre’s facilities at Mazatlán city and was organized by the Polytechnic University of Sinaloa, in association with other higher education institutions and public research centres of Sinaloa.

The participation of PIT-UAS young collaborator consisted of explaining recycler’s functioning and making some demonstrations of the prototype. The youth emphasized that the problematic attended by the device is an ecological issue: 3D print is one of the industries of the future, is starting to experience a boom and it is expected to grow even more during the next decade, unfortunately this technology’s waste (resin, polyamides, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) is too much and highly contaminant.

Eduardo spoke about the advantages of reusing plastic materials, economic and material resources maximization, recycling process and environmental impact generated by implementing this system (grinder and extruder). He also shared with the attendees how the interest in taking to practice what is learnt in the classroom, took him and his two schoolmates to the development of these two machines, which were preceded by a low cost and high performance 3D printer.

This group of entrepreneurs students that made the three prototypes is conformed by two students of Industrial Processes Engineering belonging to the UAS’s Engineering Faculty, Javier Eduardo Abitia Camacho (9th semester) and Jesús Alberto Vega López (7th semester), as well as Juan Francisco Verdugo Arredondo (7th semester), student of Electronics at UAS’s Physics-Mathematics Sciences Faculty.

Since April 2015, these three youths have developed their prototypes within PIT-UAS facilities, where they have fund tools, spaces and specialised counselling required in order to perfect their machines. Nowadays, they work in the design of a computer numeric control machine that allows to user assemble and disassemble different tools carriages, so the same structure can work the same for a laser cutting-machine, a 3D printer or a milling machine.

Written and translated by Belem Ruiz (Edition and Communication, PIT-UAS).