.png)
CSU Chico Plastics
Current Projects
These are all of the current projects that the plastic lab, SPE, and 3DP club students are working on this semester.
01
Sierra Nevada
The club is tasked with designing and manufacturing a coaster mold for Sierra Nevada Brewing company. They will CNC this on campus and use the Hop PLA in the research tab as the pellets. They will also make a smaller proof-of-concept keychain mold using SLA low-volume 3D printing on campus.
02
Thermoformer
The SPE club is designing a desktop-size sheet thermoformed. Similar products for the price range can only mold small shallow parts. Products that are of the same sheet size are in the 3000 to 6000$ range. The club is trying to create one for 400$ that can then be used to teach students about the process. This product will also be easy for fledgling plastic education programs to purchase and use.
03
Rotomolder
The club is dissatisfied with current industry options and will design and build a rotomolder for the Plastics Lab to teach students about rotorary molding. Part 1 will be a thermoset system. Part 2 will integrate heating systems.
04
3D Printing Farm
The 3D Printing club grew at such a high rate that they needed more volume. To solve this, the club advisor wrote a grant, and the plastic lab now has a 15-printer print farm with an active monitoring and submission system that allows students in the engineering program to print out parts fast and reliably.
Past Projects
These projects are all from previous years and semesters, completed by students as part of the Society of Plastic Engineers Chico or the Chicostate 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Club.
01
Clay Pigeon
The SPE students designed, machined, CNC'd and assembled a Clay pigeon mold. This mold was designed to create a bioplastic alternative to current clay pigeons to solve the issue of them not being degradable.
02
Ford
This was a previous Capstone project where student, designed, manufactured, CNC'd and assembled a mold for Ford Motor Company. The part was the inner door pannel of their 2024 F150 using the Almond PP bioplastic manufactured in the lab.
​
03
Xytogen
This was a previous Capstone project where students, designed, manufactured, CNC'd, and assembled a mold for Xytogen Biotec Company. The part was a cosmetic lotion bottle that they wanted to be made using a Bioplastic Composite instead of PETG. They also wanted to manufacture in American rather than China where they currently are molding..
04
Dogbone
This was a previous SPE project where students designed, manufactured, CNC'd, and assembled a mold for the SPE research competition. This Mold took first place at the competition.
05
Frisbee
This was a previous SPE project where students designed, manufactured, CNC'd, and assembled a mold for Frisbees that they could use as promotional items to give out during tours of the lab.
06
Liscense Plate
This was a previous Capstone project where students designed, manufactured, CNC'd, and assembled a mold for a license plate cover that they could use as a gift to the students who went through the plastics program. The cover were also meant to be sold in the campus store.
07
Filament
Students get to bring in their old FDM prints and filament and learn how recycling works in person. We take the prints, grind them down, and extrude them into filament that the students can print with. This allows them to understand the process and get to work in out lab.
08
Other Previous Projects
MTech Co-Polymer filament
Asphalt Lab garden bedliner composite
Leg Prosthetics for man in 3rd world
Butte College Filament Resizing and recycling
Easteregg recycling for a local church
Ozzy Containers
Walk to Talk charity Keychains
.png)