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Free-Forming With Soybean Oil
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A soy-based polymer slurry
being tested by chemist
Sevim Erhan can be used
with or without molds to
make small toys or
manufacturing parts.
(K9505-1)
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Whoever said "the present is the
future" might have watched automobile pioneer Henry Ford, who once grew
soybeans on land owned by Ford Motor Company. His vision was to find ways to
use soybean oil and meal in parts for his automobiles.
ARS has a long and successful history of
developing technologies to increase markets for U.S. soybeans. After countless
new findings and developments from soybeans, there is still something new.
Researchers at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research
(NCAUR) in Peoria, Illinois, and from the University of Arizona in Tucson, have
developed polymer slurries containing soybean oil for use with a new technology
for making parts or other objects without using molds. The technique is called
solid free-form fabrication.
Solid free-form fabrication technology builds materials by the repetitive
addition of thin layers of slurry, which in this case contains soybean oil,
fiber, and a gelling agent. The building process is controlled by a computer
program that contains specifications for the desired object. |
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Postdoctoral research
associate Zengshe Liu
uses a tensile strength
device to test the
properties of a soy-based
composite.
(K9506-1)
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The system functions like
a three-dimensional pen plotter. A motorized syringe is filled with slurry
and then mounted on an x-y drive. The computer program tells it to "write"
out a thin stream of slurry as it moves over a support surface and traces
out the first layer of the object. The syringe then moves up one step
and writes the next layer. Successive layers form a solid part after curing.
Sevim Z. Erhan, ARS chemist and head of the Oil Chemical Research Unit, and
postdoctoral research associate Zengshe (Kevin) Liu have made this technique
environmentally attractive by substituting biodegradable soybean oil for
petroleum-derived resins.
"Soybean oil can replace the lion's share of petroleum-based resin used in
parts manufacturing," says Erhan.
They developed polymer slurries using soybean oil as a base for making
composites. Combining soybean oil with glass, carbon, or mineral fibers
produces composites just as strong as those made from petroleum-based
resins—for less cost.
USDA has applied for a patent on behalf of inventors Erhan, Liu, and Paul D.
Calvert of the University of Arizona at Tucson. The rationale behind the
research is to promote use of renewable resources like soybean oil to replace
petroleum-derived raw materials for industry. Both commercially and
environmentally, soybean oil is a good choice.
"The polymers we formulated will work with molds as well as without molds.
In working without molds, we simply fill a syringe with the slurry and begin
the computer program. If the object is intricate, like a toy soldier, and it
requires support before it's finished, we can use water-soluble polymers to
support it, then wash away the surface polymers on completion," says
Erhan.
The researchers are seeking an industrial partner to conduct feasibility
studies of the technology for making parts for automobiles or heavy equipment.
The United States has an abundance of soybeans. U.S. farmers produce over 12
billion pounds of soybean oil annually, and the surplus often exceeds 1 billion
pounds. Only 300 million pounds of soybean oil are used in industrial
applications. But that figure may greatly expand, along with an overall
increased demand for soybeans as new uses—such as solid free-form
fabrication—expand.—By
Linda
McGraw, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.
This research is part of Quality and Utilization of Agricultural Products,
an ARS National Program (#306) described on the World Wide Web at
http://www.nps.ars.usda.gov.
Sevim Z. Erhan is in the USDA-ARS
Oil Chemical Research Unit, National Center for Agricultural Utilization
Research, 1815 N. University St., Peoria, IL 61604; phone (309)
681-6532, fax (309) 681-6340.
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"Free-Forming With Soybean Oil" was
published in the August 2001
issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
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Last Modified: 02/18/2005
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