What started as a project to create biodiesel, and was executed as plan B, went on to become a 3D low-cost printer that works on Digital Light Processing ((DLP).
Akhil MS, Adarsh M, Amar Sale and Anish SA, the 3rd year mechanical engineering students of CMRIT, Produced this low-cost printer in just 20 days. The raw materials they used were a few planks of wood, a projector, a beaker, a stepper motor, and a circuit board.
The production cost was 43,000 INR, about a fourth of the cost of printers in the market. This project was accomplished under the guidance of Professor Sagar M Baglidad. The printer is a 6 kg device and as opposed to other printers that work on fused deposition modelling (FDM) Technology, this printer uses ultraviolet rays and hence, the level of skill of this printer is higher.
The printer was an entry to the national level competition at the MVJ engineering college and won a prize. Tarun Kumar, a scholar at IISC’S centre for Product Design and Manufacturing, judges the competition, was highly impressed by the design and suggested its support by government agencies.
The model of this printer was designed using the CAD software and then each layer was projected into a liquid resin area for solidification. This layer by layer printing takes 1/3 of the time taken by conventional printers.
This effort was praised by Surendranath Reddy of Redd, who suggested taking into account operational and marketing costs before determining the price of the printer.
The team is constantly working towards improvising their model for presenting it as a final year project.

Source: Economictimes.indiatimes.com