We Create Jewelry Using A Machine That Concentrates Light To Melt Metal
At SolarMill in Richmond, Virginia, a team of quirky green-minded designers, engineers and programmers developed a machine that concentrates and focuses sunlight with enough precision to melt a crucible of metal.
The machine works by using a fresnel lens scavenged from an old rear-projection television. The lens acts like a giant magnifying glass, but instead of melting ants and burning leaves, it is powerful enough to melt metal.
The lens position is controlled by an Arduino running advanced algorithms that track and focus the sun. An IR temperature sensor allows the machine to have its own thermostat so that we can set a temperature, and the machine will focus and defocus the lens to bring the target up to temp and maintain that temperature.
The inaugural product for this process is a necklace, created finished and polished with 0% fossil fuel energy, and 100% solar energy.
SolarMill is pledged to facilitate the transition to a sustainable economy. It does this by developing solar manufacturing solutions, and products. SolarMill’s Richmond location runs a whole family of machines 100% off-grid using a rooftop solar array, and a modest golf cart battery bank.
We hope that one day consumers will be able to outfit themselves and their homes with a wide collection of fossil-fuel-free products. There is less buyer’s remorse when you’re battling carbon emissions!
More info: solarmill.com
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So let me get this straight. You charge 50 bucks, for a mass produced piece of metal from a solar furnace (technology from 3rd century BC), which you tout as a breakthrough because your solar tracker is controlled by an arduino? Call me a sceptic, but I call your pseudo-ecological mumbo jumbo BS.
Thanks for the info! This machine is a prototype mostly developed to get the computer code and algorithm. We may have an opportunity in the near future to partner with the Arconic Organization, and we are actively working on a bigger and better version that will be able to produce higher yields and lower the price point for the cast metal objects it makes. You are also 100% right about the lack of proprietary elements in the current machine, and for that reason we will actually be opensourcing this project in the next couple months so that anyone who wants to make one can download the plans and do it themselves. I also definitely understand where your skepicism comes from, there has been a lot of greenwashing happening in consumer products. It's especially frustrating for us to compete with the bs companies, who call themselves eco friendly by installing a couple solarpanels on their roof and using them to sell electricity back to the grid.
Load More Replies... So let me get this straight. You charge 50 bucks, for a mass produced piece of metal from a solar furnace (technology from 3rd century BC), which you tout as a breakthrough because your solar tracker is controlled by an arduino? Call me a sceptic, but I call your pseudo-ecological mumbo jumbo BS.
Thanks for the info! This machine is a prototype mostly developed to get the computer code and algorithm. We may have an opportunity in the near future to partner with the Arconic Organization, and we are actively working on a bigger and better version that will be able to produce higher yields and lower the price point for the cast metal objects it makes. You are also 100% right about the lack of proprietary elements in the current machine, and for that reason we will actually be opensourcing this project in the next couple months so that anyone who wants to make one can download the plans and do it themselves. I also definitely understand where your skepicism comes from, there has been a lot of greenwashing happening in consumer products. It's especially frustrating for us to compete with the bs companies, who call themselves eco friendly by installing a couple solarpanels on their roof and using them to sell electricity back to the grid.
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