A research team at the US Department of Energy`s Argonne National Laboratory has successfully used 3D printed parts to expand the recycling of important medical isotopes. The new additive manufacturing parts make the laboratory's old process recycling process (invented in 2015) faster, more reliable and less costly, and are expected to be used on an industrial scale.
In March 2020, Peter Tkac from the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States proposed a kind of recycled molybdenum in the article “ Demonstration of the MOEX Process Using Additive-Manufacturing-Fabricated Annular Centrifugal Contactors '' published in “ Journal of Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange '' -99 effective method. Molybdenum-99 is a medical isotope that can be used to detect osteoporosis and heart disease. Molybdenum-99 isotopes are used in more than 40,000 medical diagnoses in the United States every day, but such isotopes lack a cost-effective way to recycle. Molybdenum-99 will become technetium-99 after decay, which can be used in drug development. The cost of preparing technetium-99 with molybdenum-99 is very high, and it takes about $ 1,000 for each gram of technetium-99 produced.
Peter Tkac of the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States used the FUNMAT PRO HT large-scale high-temperature 3D printer produced by the Chinese 3D printing technology solution provider HYZ 3D Printing Tech Corp., and printed a PEEK contactor, which successfully achieved rapid and large-scale recovery of molybdenum isotopes .
"The recovery process of molybdenum-99 isotope is very complicated and requires a large amount of corrosive chemical reagents for processing." Peter Tkac said. In order to achieve an automated recovery method, Peter and his research team used a 3D printed acrylic contactor for recovery. This contactor can use centrifugal force to separate and purify molybdenum isotopes.
"Using 3D printing technology to streamline the contactor reduces external links and pushes the liquid through the separation system more quickly," explained Kozak of the research team. This method improves the recovery efficiency, and the concentrated molybdenum can be better purified from pollutants containing potassium.
However, after working continuously for fifteen hours, the acrylic contactor was corroded by hydrochloric acid in the solution. To achieve mass production, the research team had to seek a new type of corrosion-resistant material. Finally, Peter and his team chose the FUNMAT PRO HT large-size high-temperature 3D printer produced by SHYZ and used it to print a PEEK contactor. Compared with acrylic acid, PEEK has more excellent stability and corrosion resistance, and can work in a chemical solvent environment for a long time. By changing the printer's fan speed and chamber temperature, Peter easily solved the problem of warpage and shrinkage during printing. Now the research team can achieve rapid and large-scale recovery of molybdenum isotopes.
FUNMAT PRO HT is a large-scale high-temperature 3D printer independently developed and produced by SHYZ in 2017. After years of accumulation, SHYZ introduced new products and FUNMAT PRO 610 HT was successfully launched on the market.
FUNMAT PRO 610 HT is a high-performance large-scale industrial production-grade 3D printer with a dual-nozzle extrusion system. The temperature of the nozzle can be up to 500 ℃, 300 ℃ high temperature chamber and heating platform can effectively avoid PEEK, ULTEM, PPSU, High-performance materials such as PEKK warp and crack during large-scale printing. The print size can reach 610mm * 508mm * 508mm. In addition, FUNMAT PRO 610 also has self-cleaning sprinkler system, wire plugging alarm, wire missing alarm, continuous breakage, liquid-cooled air cooling, over-temperature protection and other functions.
At the FORMAXEXT exhibition held in Germany in November 2019, FUNMAT PRO 610 HT made its European debut for the first time, and printed large-size ULTEM material structural parts on site.
About SHYZ 3D Printing Tech Corp.
HYZ 3D Printing Tech Corp. is a fast-growing industrial 3D printing equipment manufacturer and additive manufacturing solution provider. Yuanzhu Intelligent FUNMAT series 3D printing equipment is both intelligent and easy to use, and can provide an integrated solution for 3D printing of a variety of high-performance materials. Including PEEK, PEEK-CF, PEKK, ULTEM, PPSU and other engineering materials such as PC, PA, PA-CF, ABS, etc. It can perfectly respond to small batch continuous production, and can provide solutions for a variety of application scenarios such as aerospace, automotive industry, tooling fixtures, medical rehabilitation, research and development.
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