3D-Printing TUNGSTEN Radiation Shields!

[@kylehill]

*Thanks for watching!* And thanks again to Prusa for sending me their wonderful Mk4! www.prusa3d.com/product/prusament-petg-tungsten-75-1kg/ Remove your personal information from the web at joindeleteme.com/KYLE20OFF and use code KYLE20OFF for 20% off DeleteMe international plans: international.joindeleteme.com

[@fullsenderman8291]

Although I completely understand the joke you are far from dense among all your greatest unknown accomplishments you got both of my sons into science lol I appreciate it more then you know keep up the amazing work sir

[@Natepwnsu]

Cool use case for medical imaging and stuff and storage of nuclear material

[@3707_here]

Yeah you’re lucky U got a free MK4. Prusa printers are just incredible, I own a MK4 too and it just prints. Almost no need for user interaction and no repairs yet. It’s sad people prefer the ‘cheaper’ Chinese competition over this masterpiece of engineering.

[@stevenwhoward87]

I'd love to see what NASA could do with this for spacecraft shielding whether for humans or computers. The weight I imagine is an issue, but in certain circumstances it might be something to consider

[@hegyimutymuty]

Don't these shielding mediums, like water or the tungsten become irradiated themselves over time? Is it like a buy-once solution to contain these artifacts for good, or you have to replace them from time to time, as they will eventually emit the same radioactivity as their contents?

[@elixir_ninja]

For anyone at Prusa watching, I'm a PhD student who works with radiation and 3d prints objects for use with robot arms and drones, I can think of many applications for this. I would love to get my hands on some.

[@elixir_ninja]

Main first thought is collimating (or at least insulating) detectors, for more accurate position measurements.

[@elixir_ninja]

Insulating specific robot parts to protect their encoders from bit swaps

[@elixir_ninja]

Very curious about the weight and thickness comparison with lead

[@elixir_ninja]

This could vastly increase the lifetime of computer systems in high activity environments

[@flynn3649]

I'm not affiliated with Prusa, but you should really send them an email too. From what I've heard, they like hearing there's more than a single niche interest in these sorts of things.

[@dany_fg]

"DIY nuclear powerplant guide" finally, it's here!

[@mattymacdonald2828]

there was actually a kit for that, which was a kids toy, in the 1950's LOL

[@iamhugry]

It's actually easier, just get a pool and the right materials

[@xliquidflames]

Well, that was dense. :) Also, in your experiment, it would be cool to know what regular 3D printing filament does in comparison to the tungsten infused filament.

[@kylehill]

Good point. I should have shown a control

[@ianmcewan8851]

@@kylehill how about a short with 4 panels: the open core, with ordinary filament, the new filament, and some simple aluminum foil; and the radiacode on a stand :)

[@sheilaolfieway1885]

ontop of that how does tugsten infusion of 3d filament effect the melting temprature of the filament?

[@watchm4ker]

@@sheilaolfieway1885 According to the spec sheet, it runs a little hotter - 260 C. The bigger problem is the nozzle itself. The powder will eat right through brass, so you'll need a hardened nozzle.

[@toobin8r]

Yeah, because, just based on my understanding of most 3D-printed stuff: they’re not super dense. There’s a reason why lead shielding is thicc, and while 3D printing might make producing unique shapes easier, it might be trading effectiveness for it (though that might also just be what changing the shape of a shield does)

[@ashleighkeeler7857]

I’m a biomarker specialist for a radiopharmaceutical company who makes, and helps the pharmacists dispense, quality-control test and package PET scan pharmaceuticals on a daily basis. There are so many things in our pharmacy that we could make to help protect ourselves from radiation and improve shielding of our doses as well. We already 3-D print things such as syringe shield holders (not with tungsten filament, with normal filament) that would be greatly improved if made from this material instead (it would negate the need for a giant lead block in the middle 😂). Super cool!!

[@VincentGroenewold]

It's infused plastic, so not just printing tungsten of course. Given the readings in this video, without a control, I wonder if it's really that effective to be used in practical applications.

[@ashleighkeeler7857]

@@VincentGroenewold I know, I wonder how much shielding is improved compared with regular filament. We use tungsten “pigs” to transport syringes. When we take those out of the hot cell (where the pharmacist draws the dose and then places it into the tungsten pig), we place it in a 3-D printed “pig holder” before capping it with a tungsten top. I’d be curious to see if this holder could be printed with a tungsten laced filament and if it would further improve the shielding during that process.

[@spvillano]

@@ashleighkeeler7857 shielding is a double edged sword. Indispensable for safety, but due to its mass, also can increase the risk of spill accidents. Anything reducing mass briefly during handling is always going to tend to be a big plus column entry.

[@ashleighkeeler7857]

@@spvillano I agree! That’s actually what the pig holder I described is for. To stabilize the pig while we cap it, since they are very heavy and can easily tip over while capping. It avoids us having to hold it while doing so.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

Learn how to cast lead. That will be far better and cheaper than this gimmick. Lead shields are also 100% recyclable. Good luck finding were to recycle such kind of filament.

[@Some_lad0]

this is the most metal thing i have heard in my life

[@LLeemmoonnss]

Agreed

[@HazelSilvian]

I mean tungsten IS a metal

[@dr.vikyll7466]

This joke went *hard*

[@Imurai]

@@dr.vikyll7466 it went crystalline

[@justsomeguy6336]

Ok Pickles

[@idrunn8764]

My father died of cancer. One of the treatments years earlier had been pellets of radioactive material inserted into his body. I wonder if 3D printed custom shaped shields could be made today with this tech to shield surrounding tissues and reduce the chances of new cancers down the road. Not only might it reduce collateral damage and subsequent cancers but it might also enable more aggressive treatment. You could even make tiny shaped sleeves for the pellets that could shape and orient their effect, something akin to a modern shaped explosive vs a stick of TNT. I miss my dad. I didn't understand at the time how much he meant to me or all the ways in which I would miss his existence in my world, but today, a decade and a half later, I really wish he were still around to learn from and share with.

[@DKNguyen3.1415]

My understanding is those pellets already have directional shielding. You wouldn't want that 3D printed anyways due to biocompability issues with the plastic and reduced shielding for the same thickness when 3D printed.

[@spvillano]

@@DKNguyen3.1415 I was going to say much the same thing, biocompability would be a major issue. Shielding with maybe some tungsten coated with titanium would give good biocompability and high efficiency, but that'd basically be reinventing the wheel. Now, for interim containers during handling and augmenting transportation to treatment room containers, it might be of utility. The lower the mass during handling, the less chance of an accident with the sample.

[@DKNguyen3.1415]

@@spvillano I would think that kind of thing would be coated in gold rather than titanium because gold is much more malleable and they are going to come in later to remove the pelley so the gold is recoverable. And the main reason to coat tungsten in gold rather than just using all gold is gold is expensive! But tungsten is a major pain to work with. You can't hold it in a crucible unless it is actively cooled since it's molten temperature exceeds that of every other metal. They might also straight up use tungsten. Apparently it's mostly but not entirely biocompatible so you don't want to leave it in the body for too long. But this is a temporary implant.

[@LuisCastillo-tg6xw]

Sorry for your loss

[@sunscreen7205]

Which kind of brachytherapy was it?

[@sandrahiltz]

As an mechanical engineer who designs x-ray security equipment and shielding, I've looked into it and talked with our physicists and the biggest concern is the carrier material the tungsten powder is suspended in isn't rad hard and will degrade over time becoming brittle and will start crumbling, for any 3D printed shielding our choice is always SLS based tungsten printing as that doesn't have the drawback with a plastic carrier material.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

Exactly! specially due the very high loading which will make it release particles and crumble quite easy!

[@Dont_Poke_The_Bear]

1) We need a control demo. Reprint the cask in PLA pro, abs and CF with a. Controlled infill pattern/rate. 2) While tungsten infused polymers in this application is new, it is used in other applications. What I would be curious to know is if you could take advantage of the infill gaps and fill it with other materials with shielding properties, such as water or concrete? 3) How does this material stack up to shields used in medicine currently? Could the current shielding vests worn during procedures be replaced by subbing in this material for a lighter weight option? Current shields for operative procedures are heavy and hot. I would have loved to have had a light weight printed option back in the day.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

I think its far better to just cast the part with lead. Cheaper, far better shielding, its melting point is just about a hundred degrees higher than the filament, any shape can be cast.

[@MegaSpartan007]

Yes, we exactly need this video.

[@petrolhead0387]

My first thought was using it as a protective vest. I work in highly radioactive areas and some tasks require me to wear full PVC suit (300 micron), N10/Kemira respirator, and Lead vest. Wearing the vests is the most uncomfortable experience when in PVC, your body sweats extreme amounts to a point where your suit fills up and becomes a water bag. Having a lead vest increases your sweat output and causes your suit to fill quicker. We also wear ice vests under the lead vests to try and keep us cool, but it usually just makes it heavier and more cumbersome, which is why most workers opt out of wearing Ice vests.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

@@petrolhead0387 But how would this be any different? this is not a magical material that stops radiation at a fraction for the weight of lead. This material is in fact heavier than lead 14.27g/cm3 If I remember correctly at a cost of about $0.230 per gram, BTW that means one gram of material equals to a volume of 0.07 cm3. Imagine the cost of basically anything larger than a few cm in size!

[@petrolhead0387]

@@teresashinkansen9402 tungsten has higher density than lead, meaning less would be needed to provide as much shielding. Due to the tungsten being thinner it could offer more dexterity to the wearer, making it a more comfortable vest to wear. Also Tungsten is non toxic, unlike lead.

[@mikemcmullen5006]

"Alpha-males have the least penetrating power" is a fantastic line. Did you come up with that yourself Kyle?

[@SamiSami-v1d]

Scrolled down for this comment. I'm adding this to my list alongside "Alpha males are prototypes that aren't suitable for public release" on Ways to Shut Down a Macho Idiot.

[@ShaggyDustbin]

Nah it’s a meme that’s been floating around (like particles) 🤪

[@RyanMercer]

I was going to have pcbway print me a tool steel demon core earlier today, now I need to get this Prusa and some of that filament to go with my other 6 printers if just to make a container for my spicy rocks...

[@teresashinkansen9402]

At a price of $229 per kg you wont be able to make many shields. 1kg of that filament equals to only 70cm3 😂

[@kallekangasmaki311]

My first thought for a use in a nuclear powerplant would be custom made "covers" or "plugs" to use on valves/pipelines/components when not working directly inside it, but it has to be opened. Often contaminated systems might not radiate that much through the metal, but once opened the doserate might spike a lot if distance is short. A custom made cover/plug could be useful in lowering the dose to worker fingers when working with/near the component. These could double as FME protections, stopping any debris getting in the system.

[@jmurray886]

Perhaps the plugs could be named Bilaterally Uniform Tensile Tungsten PLUGS?

[@teresashinkansen9402]

No way they use this material for that or basically anything. This is borderline gimmick, At most this will be used for complex non conductive shield prototypes in extremely niche applications, masks, collimators. Casting lead involves temperatures only about 70C° higher than melting this filament, a cast lead shield offers about the same radiation shielding if not a bit more, by not having porosity it can be easily decontaminated and is far far cheaper. I mean at $229 per kilogram of this filament with a density of 75% W (14.25g/cm3) gives you about 70cm3 of material. With lead that would cost you about 2 dollars, add casting and all that probably you are looking at one quarter the price.

[@JediSentinal]

​​@@teresashinkansen9402I'll take a B.U.T.T plug over that any day 😂

[@teresashinkansen9402]

@@JediSentinal For real! Imagine printing a shield that uses about 500cm3 of that filament. That would cost $1635 in filament alone. 🤣

[@weonconpatasbreadcake6494]

now print a cube to return the tungsten to it's perfect form

[@elishmuel1976]

You truly are dense, Kyle: I've never seen so much passion, imagination, intelligence and talent all crammed into one guy!

[@Gabriel_Ultrakill]

And his looks! Every single cell of his could win a beauty contest, that's what I call con-densed beauty

[@Emogeta]

He's dense because he can't pick up our hints that we love him.

[@BirnieMac1]

Unironically this could be huge for my thesis research (my supervisor is gonna love me but I may have to pretend I didn't learn of it on youtube) We're looking at using a fancy hydrogel and fancier lithography to produce artificial cancer cells for radiation therapy research Being able to produce small scale shielding like this could be huge for better controlling where our radiation target goes later

[@cboy-ou2hr]

Good luck 😉

[@teresashinkansen9402]

Isn't better to use a cast shield? there are bismuth alloys that are non toxic yet offer the same if not slightly higher shielding capabilities, yet they can be remelted and used many many times making it very versatile. I mean the kg of bismuth is about $10-27 that's 20 to 10 times cheaper than this filament. But sure you will have to lean some skills to cast.

[@stevebloke5455]

Just a small engines mechanic here who believes done correctly nuclear is the future. Great videos thanks for posting.

[@ChampionScorpio]

I am a simple Czech, I see Prusa printer, I like it

[@dany_fg]

Use the uranium to protect from uranium!

[@whoshotashleybabbitt4924]

Fight fire with fire, baby!

[@GIRGHGH]

I'm pretty sure they didn't use uranium to make the filament because it's really hard to get to sell that stuff

[@CraftyF0X]

You can use DU for shielding in some circumtenses as it has lower alpha than NU and the high density is great stopping x-ray and gamma. You don't want to use it in very high neutron flux though especially not where the neutrons avg kinetic energy is around 2 MeV xD

[@ParoXyzmm]

There is a good chance I am grossly misinterpreting what the original comment means by 'Use the uranium to protect from uranium!' but this is my take on what I think they might be saying. (I have also yet to watch the video, as some might be able to tell. There's probably some part of the video that makes mention of this.) It could actually be a good idea in the case of space travel or space bases. Radiation shielding is heavy, but in all likelihood, a future base-let's say a moon base, for simplicity-could probably be sent up with a nuclear reactor and robots or drones for construction (to prepare for humans in whatever way). Then, after the reactor has spent its fuel by powering those construction robots, you could use the depleted fuel as radiation shielding for potential human habitation, assuming you process it properly and or deplete the fuel to the point of non-radioactivity. Nuclear fuel bundles would need to be suspiciously brick- or panel-shaped, though. Whatever reactor coolant was used (probably water or a liquid metal) could also be recycled into shielding, assuming it wasn't made radioactive.

[@OlegMilitaryHistory]

Even depleted uranium is actually not a good material to use - it does have quite a bit of stopping power against radiation, but it also radiates HEAVILY itself - as far as long-term exposure is concerned. Also - U-238 has much higher-energy emissions than U-235 - with 235, you dominant peak is gamma rays at 186 keV, while 238 peaks at 760 and 1000 keV - so each individual gamma ray has much deeper punch through other, non-emitting shielding (Source - I was the radiation guy for a robot designed for crawling through uranium gas diffusion pipes to map out radioactive deposits before dismantling)

[@kotori87gaming89]

I know you barely touched on how different materials are good at shielding against different types of radiation. The shape of the shield also matters, and you can mix different shielding materials to get different effects. I can imagine a 3d-printed tungsten shield with foam-like hollows, that you can fill with water to improve protection against neutrons.

[@waifuprotectionagency]

ouch, bot took your comment.

[@kotori87gaming89]

@@waifuprotectionagency thanks for the heads up.

[@kolbyking2315]

Most filament materials(PLA, ABS, PETG) have lots of hydrogen, like water.

[@bragapedro]

7:47 radiation nerds running to explain that the Radiacode actually uses a scintillation counter, not a GM tube:

[@Aurorajunior7321]

🤓👆 lol

[@beemerwt4185]

Practically the same thing, but he did call it a "Radiacode Geiger counter" lol

[@Repkord]

Please make sure to share your Tungsten chainmail codpiece to Printables when you're done field testing. 👍

[@MrGuhlu]

OMG I can already picture the face of our head of radiation safety when I'm pitching the tungsten plat Armor to him. I mean Tungsten is also more resistant to corrosion than lead so extra protection 😎

[@TeutonicEmperor1198]

I don't know man, that's sounds kinda heavy!

[@MrGuhlu]

Hi a Kevin and radiochemist here ✌️ looking not to die any time soon 😂 I'm actually working for a big manufacturer of radioisotopes for medical applications. From the top of my hat there are also a lot of devices used in radio labs/ radiohadmacys which you would like to shield. But using the lead brick wall and foil method is always somewhat cumbersome. In addition also radionuclide generators come in a big variety of shapes, sizes and activities. They are usually self shielded but the outlet for the radionuclide solutions (eluate) is not. There also other applications or contraptions I can think of to make manual radio labeling safer but I guess that is too much to all note down. But feel free to get in touch, super down for it! Greetings from an Alpha Kevin (yes I primarily work with Ac-225 😅) Also, keep up the good work Kyle 💪

[@spazkid1]

Wow Kyle. I’m a 3D print enthusiast and I never come and comment on here. But I’m amazed by this aspect of tungsten printing! It was a eureka moment. This is a victory for science

[@xscaliersolid1194]

To quote Marty McFly, "That's heavy, Doc."

[@DaChickenKing1]

I wonder if you could switch out the tungsten and apply this same process to make better emissions control for factories and power plants

[@Bbonno]

Filament for 3D printers only needs so many % soft extrudable content. You can get it with all kinds of fun stuff mixed in: wood, iron bamboo, brass, clay... They come with specific limitations but lots of things work with a little tweaking. The hard part is finding good uses😜

[@DaChickenKing1]

@@Bbonno that's why I was thinking stuff like catalytic converters, you could use a program to figure out the best surface area:airflow ratio and 3D print the internal structure better than any machine filter style or packing process ever could

[@Bbonno]

@@DaChickenKing1 surface area stuff like catalytic converters sounds like something for sintered metal products. There you want max% 'business material' at the surface and not hidden behind the polymer binder. Still, printing space filling curves sounds fun 😊

[@SpencerHHO]

​@Bbonno catalytic converters have the catalyst impregnated into a ceramic matrix. The major limitation is the cost of the catalyst metals, especially platinum group metals. I don't think this technology is particularly transferable to such applications where the catalyst gets really hot. Maybe a derivative of this technology could work for things like molecular sievs or selectively permeable membrane filters but that's getting beyond the scope of the technology demonstrated here. Impregnating polymer filament with different compounds isn't new, the advancement here appears to be specifically the Impregnating of Tungsten into a durable 3d printing filament. It's very interesting and exciting but the scope seems pretty specific to radiation shielding. I could see this material having interesting thermal properties like higher thermal mass and better thermal conductivity than regular plastics which may have other niche applications but I can't see it being particularly useful in emissions controls.

[@DaChickenKing1]

@@SpencerHHO fair points. I'm not specifically meaning catylatic converters, just air quality devices in general where they might bottleneck or have difficult packaging constraints

[@gustymaat7011]

1:59 thought so get wrecked 😅

[@Ryan-rq6dx]

Considering how difficult it is to work tungsten, this is actually really neat. For small applications at least.

[@MissMoffet19]

is sponsored by a company called Deleteme and talks about gigachad radiation. This guy is a legend. Love these

[@JaquesBobè]

I'd love to see a more controlled demonstration. With the dosimeter secured in place, and isotopes being placed inside containers made out of different materials to have a fair comparison.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

That would be real science and we don't do that here. Its all about the "whooa!" and "ohhh" and "so creepy and scary but kool cos Im a g33k" "elephant's foot!" "not great not terrible"

[@urjika9001]

10:10 ".8?!... Man I dont want that near my internal organs for... 30 years.."

[@Z3DT]

Honestly, I think the invention of 3d printing in a way that's not only affordable but also very reliable even on a consumer level will prove to be what kickstarts a new age of progress, in the same way the steam engine and movable printing press did. Steam engines vastly reduced labor required to operate machinery, the movable printing press made copying and printing, something that required expensive permanent presses or manual labor to do before, trivial, and now 3d printing means you can prototype engineering and manufacturing in a matter of days rather than months or years.

[@The-One-and-Only100]

You could've built a holder out of legos for your radiacode when measuring the uranium ore in the tungsten demon core

[@BainesMkII]

I was wondering why he didn't 3D print a stand for it, particularly when he showed off other prints.

[@The-One-and-Only100]

@@BainesMkII a tungsten stand would be overkill

[@BainesMkII]

@@The-One-and-Only100 He also showed seemingly regular prints of the fractal pyramid and Majora's mask. And he did do a tungsten Mjolnir.

[@sgtdogsworth348]

For prusa, I'm a PhD student in a lab that works with tungsten and tungsten carbide sintering. By the fact its fdm id imagine its melting point is like 400-500c. Maybe higher depending on what that add on he was talking about is. But nowhere near its actual melting point. I'm wondering if theres someway to remove the plastic thermally or chemically after a print to get the thermal capabilites of tungsten back. That would be very interesting.

[@32BitJunkie]

This isn't the first plastic filament with metal embedded in it, and yeah you usually can cook out the plastic and fuse the metal afterwards. It involves sticking the print in sand to help it warp less, but it does still shrink, warp and melt a bit

[@logicalfundy]

The Mk4 maxes out at about 300C.

[@whoshotashleybabbitt4924]

Mmm tasty sigma-GigaChad radiation. A true man of culture.

[@WumbologyPHD]

Now all we need is a 3d printer that can hit 3,422°C to melt pure tungsten. The Prusa mk4 is pretty close at 290°C

[@filanfyretracker]

we already do. Direct Metal Laser Sintering, It SLS printing with a lot more power to the laser and one available material from more specialized operations is tungsten.

[@biancagarcia4096]

As a nuclear medicine technologist in training, this is super cool. How thick would the 3D printed shield have to be if you were to shield PET radiopharmaceuticals with energies of 511 keV?

[@Biga101011]

That's a hard one to shield. If the printer were pure tungsten, about 4mm for a half value layer and 3 and 1/2cm for a tenth value layer. It looks like it is about 80-90% metal, so in reality probably at least 5mm HVL and 4cm TVL pretty similar to lead. And lead is cheap and easy to cast/mold. It looks like some of these products include some sort of boron in the filament. That would help to absorb neutrons for things like reactors and high energy applications where otherwise they would need to be stacking layers of lead and boronated material.

[@warnabrotha95YT]

Anyone else noticed Kyle's graying beard?

[@Shwalamazula]

A good use for that can be making markers for X-Ray imaging. If you are taking an X-Ray of an animal, for something like a bone fracture, you could print up a bunch of shapes in precise controlled shapes/sizes to put on the plate next to the area being imaged. The print will block the radiation and you will have a defined shape on the image that can be used as a reference to know the size of the anamoly you are investigating.

[@nekomakhea9440]

5:56 makes me wonder if nanofabrication tech will ever get good enough to make photonic crystals and metamaterials for ionizing radiation or neutrons

[@teresashinkansen9402]

LEDs are the closest to that.

[@BabySagan]

This is awesome Kyle. 3D printers are changing everything.

[@EvenFive]

I'm curious as to what the radiation measurements would be if say, you also print ABS, PETG, PLA, etc with the same cyl model you used to print with the tungsten filament.

[@lancecarson4996]

i work in the industrial side of radiography for petroleum lines etc and i can think of so many game changing things this could be used for ...such as source recovery just to list one.

[@astropixel8225]

The Tungsten-Thors Hammer XD Nice!!!!

[@thomasboys7216]

Kyle has become a man of tungsten.

[@koori-wl8ls]

This is not a new innovation; while it may be new to Prusa, we were using tungsten-embedded printer filament to shield our cameras from radiation during inspections in the reactor pool as far back as eight years ago at the decommissioned reactor where I work.

[@PendragonDaGreat]

It's not even new for Prusa. It's been around for at least 18 months in it's current form and I swear I saw an older version before that too.

[@gawayne1374]

There are masks they make to protect cancer patients with brain tumors while they take radiation. Here's the workflow: 1 scan head, 2 make a 3D model shell, with holes where you need the radiation beam, 3 print the mask in two parts to fit it like a cast around the patient's head, 4 radiotherapy.

[@ThisNameMakesNoSense]

How much does producing these cost? I'm interested in the itemized price of both materials and processing

[@kiwihuman]

processing would be next to nothing, maybe you would need to remove support material, the material would be expensive though according to the blog post from prusa 1KG would cost 229 USD, or a 100g, 10 meter long sample would be 23.99 USD.

[@MrSnotrock3t]

These videos are absolute gold. Keep up the good work

[@smitv5]

11:16 Fingers Crossed DNA 🧬

[@briangooch4561]

Prusa: An idea for something to 3D print You could make a pice of NASA chain mail fabric, and have a solid shield when the fabric is stretched taught, and a semi permeable layer when it's loose. IDK what practical application that would have now, but it's cool! Maybe some cloths for out in the sun, or for astronaut EVA suits.

[@TheGiggleMasterP]

"Can we 3D print radiation?" - Defense Contractors

[@Nempopo029]

"But Kyle!" You hear me say, "did you test the difference between a non-tungsten infused fillament container, and the tungsten infused? I feel the experiement is half complete!"

[@soy_leche]

I will be printing myself a tungsten tinfoil hat.

[@jasongarland3165]

It makes sense that PRUSA would think to embed filament with tungsten, considering other industries have been 3D printing with copper, stainless steel, and titanium filaments for a couple years now. The applications for 3D printing technology never ceases to amaze me

[@VankoGN]

11:23 second best joke

[@CornBred89]

The nuclear Navy still uses florescent bulbs in the reactor compartment. I used to be an EM, and part of my job when the compartment was open was to make sure ALL of the lights were on. Florescent bulbs have a tiny bit of mercury in them. We were also not allowed to bring in a ladder... So it was pretty easy to break a bulb while climbing around to change all the bulbs and starters. The Navy tended to get a little upset when that would happen. Anyway, a sleeve to place the bulbs in so if you dropped/bumped the bulb on anything while you're climbing around would have been awesome.

[@FSK1138]

3:07 the deadliest 420 🤓

[@carterbagnell]

I work as a research engineer at a particle accelerator, we currently have some of this filament and are using it to make stainless steel aperture replacements for use in x-ray experiments. So far looks promising for our application.

[@rolfbjorn9937]

Brehmstrahlung : A problem with protection from high energy radiation using a heavy dense shielding made from metals such as lead ... The enclosure becomes a Super Microwave Oven 99 000 and Bob gets cooked with an intense X-ray burst.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

Only with strong beta emitters like Sr-90 But by then is better to use real shielding materials that wont break down with radiation like carbon, or aluminium and then lead. Unlike plastic bonded tungsten particles, practically you get the worst of both worlds with that. Low resistance to damage to intense radiation and not enough low density material to slow down the particles to avoid producing x-rays.

[@allensmithphotography]

I could definitely see this filament being useful for protective cases and sleeves for analogue photographers while traveling in areas don't allow hand checks of film

[@VankoGN]

3:49 best joke ever

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

I'd be curious to see how this might someday soon by used in spacecraft, both to protect astronauts and sensitive equipment. It could be especially useful once perfected for probes sent to the Jovian system since its radiation belts are notoriously difficult to engineer protection against. I also wonder if as a somewhat cheaper and much lighter alternative they could use titanium, especially for aforementioned spacecraft. On a launch, every gram matters, so if they can get the weight down while still maintaining close to the same level of protection that could be a game-changer.

[@joelb8653]

Following the worst pun I'll hear today with Delete Me was unintended (?) Genius.

[@shannonolivas9524]

So it's just tungsten suspended in thermoplastic resin? Can the tungsten be recovered effectively? I know that the tungsten melt temp is probably way higher than the plastic component but I'm curious how messy/wasteful the process might be.

[@iamthebatsy]

I can barely print ABS without warping…

[@Verbosal]

Try using glue stick on your print surface, or switch to a textured PEI plate! ABS isn't really a material worth making an enclosure for your printer for, so you could easily substitute it anyway. Take hard TPU for example.

[@iamthebatsy]

@@Verbosal I’ll give that a try, thanks!

[@Verbosal]

Happy to assist ya!

[@calebb5106]

a small layer of glue stick on the print bed, 110-115 bed temp initial layer and 110 bed temp through full print, 255c nozzle temp, and 35-45mm/s, and even a basic makeshift enclouser is what gets me really good abs prints without warping at all, i also use Atomic Filament for all my filaments and they've been amazing to print with

[@riba2233]

@@iamthebatsy don't listen to him. just make a diy enclosure, or print something that doesn't warp like new azurefilm abs prime for eg.

[@Nicole73737]

I'm just a really big fan of tungsten as an element, and I wanna print stuff with this

[@CynicallySarcasticReserves]

Oh Kyle, you're not dense. You're just... of higher atomic mass, that's all.

[@sethherrin45]

Depending on how well it works with shielding higher dosages, it could be a great way to make rapid shielding for possible leaks of radiation and buy time for a far more permanent solution and make the worksite safer

[@PeterBuffon]

The strongest radiation = gigachad radiation hehehehehe 2:06

[@RaVen99991]

No, neutron radiation is if you say you are a alpha male you say that u have really low penetration power that's why I'm a neutron male I have a huge di*k

[@FlukeyM]

And the weakest, sigma male 😂

[@heatflash360]

a co workers relative has been working on 3d printing in space and the idea that a filament like this exists could be an interesting step once they perfect 3d printing in 0 grav (I'm hearing info via 3rd person but apparently 0 grav printing has unique challenges even for filament)

[@isabelle5089]

[@TheRealPerkins]

My uncle is a metallurgist at Los Alamos. He described 3D metal printing as laying down fine layers of metal dust and then heating it with lasers to exact temperatures and patterns.

[@Becvar80]

That sounds like a very simplified explanation of Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3d printing

[@armorhide406]

I think it's an extremely nice touch that the little central mechanism on the door has tracks that follow its motion. Quality

[@isaacthedestroyerofstuped7676]

"Wow, I don't want that near my internal organs for...30 years" 🤣 That pause

[@csdn4483]

Prusa needs to create a parafin wax filament for neutron protection. And as to Kyle's comment about a meter of earth being good, 2 meters of earth will cut down radiation intensity to almost nil except from only the most highly energetic radiation.

[@jjohansen86]

As someone who only in the last several months learned about Titanium and Inconel (a nickel superalloy useful in large part because it retains its material properties at high temperatures) 3D printing, this is extremely interesting to me. Moreover, one of the best materials for a different kind of radiation shield (that's a thermal radiation shield, very useful for making high temperature devices such as furnaces more efficient) is also a refractory metal, difficult to machine and work with: Molybdenum. Now, Molybdenum is a fantastic thermal radiation shield because it's very shiny and continues to be shiny at high temperatures, so it's not much of a black body radiator, and it reflects thermal radiation from inside the furnace, giving that radiation a chance to be reabsorbed by the furnace rather than being lost as waste heat to the environment. Clearly the same sort of filament they're using, producing a black part, wouldn't do the job, but if their filament is 75% Tungsten? Well, I know that melting points can go down a lot when you alloy things, so maybe that's a big part of the way that it works, and maybe you can't do the job with this same technology, but my point is that I know of a lot of applications where, if you could get the engineering to have a shiny 3D printed Molybdenum part, you could get some crazy shapes for heat shields that could make for much more compact and efficient furnaces and similar things that like to get hot (my favorite application, as someone with a PhD in atomic physics, is atomic ovens, where we evaporate alkali metals and alkaline earth metals to generate vapor of the atoms that we like to do our experiments with). If anyone from Prusa has ideas or is anywhere close to being able to make a shiny heat shield from Molybdenum (or maybe nickel, almost as good for furnaces that don't get quite as hot but not as high a melting point), there's a market there, because that's a way to make anything that likes to get really hot a lot more efficient without having to take up as much space as a traditionally manufactured heat shield.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

This is just plastic with a high loading of tungsten particles, its not an alloy but a composite so its melting point is dictated by the melting point of the plastic matrix. I think this is a gimmick, at most a marketing stunt with real uses in extremely niche situations.

[@ghosttheoremproductions5469]

Combine with a low melting point metal and fire it. Burns out the plastic and sinters the materials together. Decreasing weight by lowering the nearly useless filler but increases thermal and electrical conductivity. This is already done with some ceramic based printing filaments.

[@xcission8304]

Question, how does the melting point of this filament compare to both other filaments and other materials that may be used for shielding such as lead or just straight tungsten? Most of the cases mentioned in this video aren't causing particularly high temps but its obviously an issue that can come up with radiation. Also it would be really neat to see how fine of a bead you can print with this material. Given some of the advancements made in the last 5-10 years in replicating fabrics or printing directly onto fabric to create wearable prints could have great use in creating more wearable and flexible shielding in space suits or even high altitude pressure suits for pilots who are exposed to more radiation than the average Joe. Especially if rather than bulky panels or fully built suits, we could launch a fairly compact block of printable tungsten, run it through an extruder and create emergency shielding in situ aboard space stations.

[@zackchapman8701]

A couple of ideas came to mind, I know you can print fabric on a 3d printer and as a former CBRN marine. The gloves work great for alpha, beta but anything else not so much. Panels for air/space craft or casing for satellites.tex Textured wall paper or panels for xray/MRI

[@ALonesomeStreet]

“What if radiation shielding wasn’t just big rectangle?” But Science Daddy, I like big rectangles!

[@WKfpv]

Kyle and Prusa, I wasn't expecting this collaboration.

[@Thunder.mp4]

love that your videos are better greenscreened than the minecraft movie XD

[@jadenkaramanos7030]

as someone who machines tungsten on the regular, the thought of 3D printing it is so crazy and I wish I had access to it

[@jdrakehoffman]

You should have also had a non-tungsten filament to control for how much the plastic blocked. I'm guessing it's low but would be interesting to see

[@TheKrimsonking1999]

That was a nice short introduction to Attix and NCRP 151. I recognize the .ppt file you got the energy vs hvl table from. I might actually use this for shielding brachy applicators. We currently print personalized nose applicators and are attaching lead sheets to keep the lens and lip doses down, but being able to print the shields in place would be neat. There are lots of compatibility constraints, but could be a fun project.

[@SpiritOfTheHeretic]

I'm very interested in the longevity of the PETG plastic for exposure to high amounts of beta. Either way it's a good idea. There's already a nuclear plant (I forget where) using a 3D scanner on small valve and pipe joints to get dimensions for printing exact-shape shielding with tungsten filament.

[@justinbanks2380]

5:08 'emptiness machine' best description of a cell phone ever

[@arphos8328]

I hope sometime in the future I can print a pure tungsten cube. I must print the intensity of the density.

[@CaptJackStiles]

at our plant (CANDU reactor) we use the 3d printer to shield pipes with plated out fission products (hot spots) it helps keep the general dose rates in rooms with workers down, the stuff works great. Keep up the great work Kyle bringing information about the nuclear field helps demystify it for people.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

How thick are those shields?

[@CaptJackStiles]

@@teresashinkansen9402 it depends on where we want to put them, if we're putting them on quarter inch instrument lines they have to be fairly thin, an inch at most; but because they are 3D printed we can print them any size we want, they're usually about two and a half to three inches thick.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

@@CaptJackStiles Thanks for your reply! But Im very curious Why aren't lead castings used?

[@CaptJackStiles]

@@teresashinkansen9402we do use them, we also use water filled containers that are custom fit to areas, it really just depends on where it's going; sometimes the place we're putting it can't handle the weight of lead, or if we're just using it for quick shielding, we can mock it up quick put it in place protect the people that are working and then remove it just as quickly,

[@JKKnudsen]

One possible use is for X-ray diffraction optics . Or more general beam control of a radiation source, through absorption, diffraction and refraction. A simple example could be a stack of "filters" that will allow you to test for the energy of a source with a GM-TUbe. A more complicated example would be a mask with a shape, such that it flattens the gaussian beam, of a radiography unit, delivering a uniform dose across the delivered beam.

[@WinterSoldier7207]

3D-printed ballistic body armor! That also doubles as armor against radiation! Not sure what would serve as the 3D-printed ballistic armor portion of this idea, I have doubts that the tungsten-infused material could serve both purposes by itself, but man that would be WILD to be able to print more types of wearable shielding. I was at a festival in the spring, where one vendor was showing off 3D-printed goods, one of which was a material that resembled dragon scales, and flowed/moved like a cloth. Perhaps something assembled on a fine-enough scale (paired with other adequate protective measures against contamination and harmful exposure) could serve as a new standard for protective clothing.

[@TheColorsInGreyLife]

I'm not in the nuclear industry, but my first thought was for a 3d printed exoskeleton on an engine that chemically strips the filament them bonds it to aluminum engines! Reducing friction, increasing power, reducing total aluminum mass, increasing efficiency, making engines more carbon efficient. Engine refurbishment would be much easier and so older engines could gain new life and be used with upgraded tech to allow for lower weight reduction and less energy cost overall to produce them while significantly cutting carbon emissions for most vehicles while we transition to electric vehicles. Same for electric motors that gain to much heat and can't survive, of we were to coat this with the correct catalytic compounds we gain electrocatalytic, photo catalytic, and regular catalytic seperation of air particles that gain electron hole, redox flow, and positive to negative ionic charge values that can handle extreme, but very small sizes and moments, heats and pressures that help cool the motor and gain energy potential back from our atmosphere. While remaining incredibly small weight! Just like I said on my xenonreality KZbin channel videos about those rotary electric motors that use air filtration and vacuums to increase electrical energy efficiency. I have to cool it anyways, might as well make it do some basic work we've used for decades already on a smaller scale 🤷 but also for small scale testing of nuclear reactor decay atom/ particle accelerator injectors to smash them in high luminosity events too create high heat pressure oscillating "combustion" zones that then have deuterium and tritium fired in at the highest heat and pressure zones with light reflection coating on the inside diameter to capture light pressure convinced with the high heat tolerance electromagnetic field toroidal designs to introduce fast moving directional fusion events (even 10% outstrips all of our best rocket engine designs) that's now ultra small and compact with very low radiation because of reusing it in an recirculating manner through the combustion chamber shape design for reflection acoustic resonance frequencies to improve this effect through the use of printers to make previously impossible to manufacture designs. Same for copper aluminum alloys that can now handle the extreme hearts and pressure of a reactor like this, combined with piezoelectrics and lower pressure metals to create multiple cascade cooling thermosiphon systems to return the metals to increase potential gravitational potential energy capture in a closed loop system that doesn't produce radiation and can be very small and safe, even able to be moved, in case of a natural disaster occurring, making a hybrid fissile fusion reactor actually possible. Soon, I mean that's how we make the bombs work. But now less mass and more control. Then, multiple dimples with holes that are spherical with offset hyperbola and parabola behind them/underneath them that can now be used in a "demon core" reflective manner to reduce total thickness and increase cooling potential and electromagnetic/ionic charge state potential for them same things to do with lead radioactivity, but using the radiation to introduce much higher values of "stuff" (many many dense things reflecting particles and light while deflecting neutrons as well until they "bounce" back) to improve the thickness needed for reflectivity of all radiation (slight change to plastic martial and other metals included) to improve the existing designs currently as they stand. This means a "chain mail" shirt could be produced that weights very little that practically completely protects you. Also my require design works better and is smaller than you think while being able to create channels to focus neutrons together and break them apart to create works to fuse, provided you have it shaped for it, add enough extra energy, and are going fast enough to capture enough to be able to have the neutrons themselves start doing it to themselves. Then it's easy to fuse quarks together for far more energy output. In space this increases the efficiency of the design even more. But hey, lol 🤷, who needs a spinning flywheel battery in atmosphere that produces fusion energy from neutrons coming from our Sun/the universe? /s we could never use this, hahahaha heh. But your know, it would never work so why even bother to try there no incentive of large corporations and energy producers to not fully fund things like this /s not at all! Heheheheheh *like ace Ventura* nope. Why not in-between the lhc, or the old Texas collider, or whatever we know it will never go anywhere they're invested in a multi trillion dollar fusion toroidal design right now anyways. Whatever. It's impossible to figure out how to do this! /s or can never be done, just like gravity doesn't have relativity all things experience the same time everywhere all at once, Einstein, you're crazy go be a patent clerk. Just disregard we prevented you from ever getting anywhere and never helping you treat this until after you brute forced money and time enough to prove use wrong Einstein, there was never any reason us big shots that controlled you and your endeavors for any influential, financial, or other gains that helped us get units of measurements named after our amazingly garbage asses who mostly style from our undergraduate students 🤷 /s obviously, obviously it can be. Shut up. Trapped into the same stupid mindset that caused the lack of progress and growth with safety that made wealth inequality, power inequality, invalidation, violence through non acceptance of others and their sexuality, ethnicity, and more occur time and time again making us believe those at the "top" should never be questioned, are allowed to break rules, but we should never question the rules and or even change them, it certainly doesn't influence our views and or bias our behavior towards a social peer pressure thought process, belief, the results off or very science and who's event allowed in to talk, and so much more. Let's just 💩 on each other and their cringe, their defensive nature to being called out and it's known it hardens them to not change their stance on the subject even in the face of overwhelming evidence, let's have huge KZbin channels dedicated to doing this and having multiple generations all mob mentality group up together to do it to have a false belief of being correct bastard many people all agree with me and us doing it, creating a huge self fulfilling echo chamber of validation fire or "totally good enough" studies that don't even try to look at influencing values to the noise in their data! Making stereotype anecdotal days points that are "replicated" as being correct observations and "perspective analysis" of many many different fields of study even though most don't even have access to try to study it! Let alone even know what they are saying or trying to imply the observations mean. While we all fall for it hook, line, and sinker IV the never ending feed recommendation chaos theory mathematics influence values of rotating interests and momentum to continue the fight for their groups theories and views, scientifically! There's nothing but a bunch of "know it all" jerks that troll to put down any idea who know full well how difficult it is to even try, let alone brute force through experiments until a success. Capitalist greedy competition to mere curiosity and joy of our everyday lives, abuse of knowledge to jack up "issues" for money ("issues" because they are non openly discussed features to make more money from you) all while I can't even get on SSI for my disability with my no income having ass! While my abusive parents are my only lifeline for toiletries and basic life stuff, go f yourself and stop streaming my stuff after saying it can't be done then calling it something else after I clearly came up with it! I hope your all due soon, somehow some way! 😡 whatever, I doubt anyone will ever decide to actually look into that. Why should they, their own lives, it's time consuming, requires effort and actually knowing about non counted views, how shadow banning works, how large creators are people who can put more effort in than others, how KZbin knows drama cancels a percentage off to players and they "scout" for the next money bag to bring up for money towards their company, hope people can 100% be hacked and have no way to stop that regardless of authorities, and more. Just boils down to laziness, why should I help, learn, or try. I'm barely surviving my stuff, capitalism isn't what's causing that (somehow) and who cares we can't do anything to make it fair or fight back. It's scary to care or get involved, so nope on that, someone else will, they have to help themselves I am sure they weren't doing it right or even trying so I can excuse not doing it, raining it add just mental health issues, etc etc. You get the picture. There's no reason to feel the way I do, none! /s clearly. Anyways, there's my ideas, whatever I guess 😮‍💨

[@almicc]

going from that penetration power joke to "delete me" is a whole extra layer to that joke, a layer of dense matter, if you will

[@Brighton24601]

I appreciate that you gave the demon core a flared end. That should help during… experiments.

[@Nucleite]

I'm glad to see that our radionuclide hyperfixation is syncing up.

[@awzup57]

late to the party on this one, but hopefully it gets seen. I have a Prusa Mk4 at home that I play with as a hobbyist, but I am also involved in the nuclear field for work with people who put them on boats in the ocean if you get what I mean. In my job I do laser powder bed fusion 3d printing which is capable of printing mostly dense metals with properties similar to billet. Currently mostly working in 316 and nickel but there are applications for aluminum, titanium and copper at the moment, with a lot of future development for many other types of metals. Highly recommend looking into it.

[@NokandFen]

As someone who has poured molten lead by hand with ladles for radiation shielding for cyclotrons and cancer screening machines, this sounds amazing! I don't have to stand 3 feet from a pool of molten lead?! Amazing!!

[@armorhide406]

Prusa should absolutely make some. I'm convinced half the 3D printing community will want to get their hands on some for no reason other than its cool

[@trollpatrol1177]

Radiation proof underwear is no joke, protect your holy globulars.

[@DigitalJedi]

I'm in the semiconductor industry and as part of testing we sometimes xray our chips. We have ways of making xray-opaque fixtures, but they cost a good bit more in machining time and materials than this would.