21-year-old Ramazan Mukhtar made this equipment of a wooden bedside table and DVD-drives from old computers.

Ramazan is 3rd year student of S.Toraighyrov Pavlodar State University in chemical technology. As the young man said, a year ago he watched a video on the Internet about how to print parts for cars on a 3D printer.

- I became interested in this topic. And since such a printer is an expensive thing, I decided to construct it by myself. I reviewed all the videos on YouTube and started experimenting. First small copy was assembled to check how it works and whether I really need a 3D printer. Then I constructed a large from the experimental sample. For it, I needed a small wooden bedside table and three old system units, from which I took DVD-drives. All other parts - the motherboard and other electronics - I ordered from an online store from China. In total, for a small printer I spend 30 thousand tenge, and about 100 for a large one”, Ramazan said.

According to the interlocutor, the most difficult task was not to make the printer, but to set it up, and to take a decision about the consumables, which, as it turned out, are not cheap - about $ 20 per kilogram. In addition, they are not produced in Kazakhstan, Plastic rolls need to be ordered and wait about two months. For this reason, Ramazan decided to use the recycled plastic bottles as raw materials for products. For this, the master used a shredding machine for products made of PET plastics, then connected up an extruder - a special device that processes raw materials into plastic strings. However, parts released on a 3D printer were not of the quality that the inventor would like, and he began to combine plastic granules ordered via the Internet with raw materials recycled from bottles.

The chemistry teacher,PhD Assiya Kassanova helped the student to put the chemical component of the 3D printer in order.

- Products from such plastics can be made various - everything depends on imagination. Limits only the size that my printer is capable of printing - 20 to 20 centimeters. Especially popular are personalized cookie cutters for cakes and muffins. Pavlodar citizens order them mainly for their children’s birthday. I have molds with the words “Pavlodar”, “PSU” and other names. With one bakery, we even agreed to produce cookies on an industrial scale. Also, if necessary, I can produce plastic parts and spare parts, if the size allows, - Ramazan Mukhtar said.

A young entrepreneur finds his customers through Instagram @basu3d. There are plans to announce a campaign, during which customers can pay half the cost by bottles.

“Then making molds or parts will be cheaper, and I don’t have to look for plastic bottles by myself on landfills. Printing only one mold weighing 10 grams takes 10 PET bottles”, Ramazan shared the idea.

The student’s dreams in the future is to produce parts for the car.

- Today it has become fashionable to print carbon fiber parts on a 3D printer. But for this, the other printer is needed, - the young scientist said.

Now Ramazan is writing a thesis on plastic processing.

Svetlana Voronova pavlodarnews.kz
Photo by the author