Royal Delft is the oldest manufacturer of delftware that is still producing Delft Blue using traditional techniques up to this day. At the core of their company lies the craftsmanship of producing delftware by hand, from creating the moulds to hand-painting each piece of Delft Blue. With a fast moving industry, Royal Delft needs to innovate constantly to keep their market presence. By modernising their designs and collaborating with external companies, they manage to create contemporary Delft Blue.

Apart from hand-painting and transfers, Royal Delft wanted to look for new possibilities to decorate delftware. Through a collaboration with TU Delft, a first prototype was made with a lot of potential, which let to this master thesis.

This thesis presents an improved design of a Delft Blue painting robot with a working demonstrator. This demonstrator is able to autonomously decorate tiles with different techniques, ranging from creating personalised anniversary tiles to gold lustering and painting large tableaus. The consistency of the painting robot is achieved by analysing the surface of each tile and adjusting the brush accordingly. The robot uses the traditional brush and paint as hand-painted delftware, meaning that the robot is able to change brushes and dip the paint automatically.

The benefit of this production method is the quick personalisation and cost efficiency compared to other production methods. As hand-painted products are easy to customise but very expensive, and transfer products require a large batch, robotic painting is a good alternative that is both easy to customise and affordable.


An attempt was made to expand the product range to 2.5D products, such as plates and dishes. After scanning the surface and writing the software to follow the surface, the results lacked consistency due to the accumulation of uncontrolled variables, making 2.5D painting not viable with this configuration.

Finally, a design was presented for implementing the robot into the Royal Delft production process. The concept was validated with a showcase product, a demonstration day in the museum and a discussion with the account managers of Royal Delft. The results were promising, and the robot could be a valuable addition to Royal Delft.

This graduation report presents a new mold making approach for Royal
Delft. The traditional production trajectory starts with a positive model and
pouring plaster mold parts onto it one by one, producing a negative casting
mold for one shape. This new proposal takes the plaster mold parts as a
starting point, combining them into a modular system that can be modified
continuously in order to produce many variations of a shape without starting
from scratch for every new shape. The benefit of this approach is that
shapes such as plates, vases and boxes can be quickly tailored to individual
customers, changing elements, adding personal texts and creating custom
vector reliefs.

In Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) for rapid-prototyping, the 3D printed parts usually have a short life, generating a constant stream of waste material and lost value. This issue becomes more relevant in the early stages of product development, where 3D printed prototypes become rapidly obsolete due to design iterations and advances in the project. Polylactic Acid (PLA) is one of the most popular in early prototyping. As a result, prototyping facilities generate a constant waste stream of PLA from failed prints, support material and obsolete prints. A material stream that is currently not being reused, recycled or industrially biodegraded. This project investigated the opportunity of reusing this waste stream by recycling it back to FDM filament, closing the material loop in a prototyping facility context. First, insights from industry experts, prototyping users and state of the art were collected and an opportunity was identified in low-fidelity prototyping. Then, the production and low-fidelity printability of recycled PLA from 3D printing waste was tested. The printability results demonstrated that recycled PLA filament produced with a desktop recycling setup can be 3D printed, achieving similar low-fidelity prototyping capabilities for design projects as virgin material. The findings gathered in the research phase were converged into a future vision, a roadmap and a short-term solution to explore and facilitate its implementation. Additionally, a printing guide summarized the adjustments and recommended settings for future end-users and a design case study demonstrated its feasibility and implications on the design process in practice. The solution is evaluated by a prototyping facility and the recommendations for its implementation are outlined.

The goal of the project is formulated. The process to tackle the project is visualised. The goal of this project is: Building a cost-effective, compact and simple 3D printer that can print electronics for technical integration of prototypes. This thesis is the basement of this project goal, therefore the focus was on developing the extruder that prints conductive material and how this goes together with filament. In the research phase, first research questions are formed to structure the research. The main research question is: What is needed to make a cost-effective extruder printing integrated electronics? Based on this question and on the goal of the project sub questions are made. These sub questions are answered per chapter. From the research it can be concluded that solder paste will be used as conductive material, for having a good conductivity and low price. For the extruding method, it has been chosen to continue with the Archimedes screw and plunger method. These are low cost, simple and compact solutions. There are several thermoplastic filaments possible that might be able to withstand the heat of curing. The shape of the trace has to be found out as this has influence on curing the solder paste. The way of curing solder paste has to be found. The solder paste is cured in the oven. In conceptualization phase the two main things are explored, how to cure the solder paste and how to extrude solder paste. Three big experiments are done to find the right combination of solder paste with the thermoplastic filament and the reflow settings. Next to this, an extrusion method has been chosen. The solder paste has the composition of: Sn42Bi57,6Ag0,4. The melting temperature is 138 [oC]. The chosen thermoplastic material is PLA X3, this filament can withstand the curing temperature. Curing has been done in the oven, heating the oven to 142 [oC] with the sample in the oven. Then leaving the sample at this temperature for ten minutes, when the sample has cooled down by opening the door the electric circuit is ready to be used. The prototype of the extruder head, that has been developed, has two extruders: the thermoplastic extruder and the solder paste extruder. The bracket is designed as such so the thermoplastic extruder can be lifted manually. The printing process is as follows: 1. Design the 3D CAD model 2. How to slice and adjust the g-code 3. Preparing the printer 4. Printing the solder paste in the 3D print 5. Pick and place components 6. Curing the 3D print Making sure to design the prototype according to a set of design guidelines. The most important guidelines are to design the electric circuit in 2D and to 3D print the circuit in the XY plane. To proof the designed concept and settings are working a demonstrator is developed. It is wanted to create a simple prototype that easily proofs the printers capacities. There is chosen to make a flashlight. After some iterations the final design is simple: containing a battery, an LED, a resistor and a switch. The future of the designed proof of concept is shown. The 3D printer can print prototypes with an integrated electric circuit at a low cost. After the developed proof of concept, the project is evaluated on the basis of the design rules and design drivers. The project goal is satisfied. A cost-effective, compact and simple proof of concept for a 3D printer that can print electronics for technical integration of prototypes is designed. A solid base has been created that can easily be broadened and used to develop a product out of it. The most important recommendation is to further research the possibilities to 3D print the solder paste.

This graduation project consists of the design of the needle control device for MRI-guided interventions. It is an apparatus that grabs and steers a flexible needle remotely, so it could be used in an MRI while the physician controls the needle based on the scans. In this way, the physician has a clear sight of the position of the needle and the targeted tissue. He could perform the intervention with a higher accuracy, which could result in a higher success rate. Furthermore, a great benefit of this way of performing interventions is that the targeted tissue is found directly and no extra internal tissue needs to be damaged. It results in a shorter recovery time for the patient and therefore, higher patient satisfaction and lower costs. All in all, the needle control device increases the success rate of interventions, increase the patient satisfaction and could lower costs.
The principle of controlling a needle depends on a hypothesis which reads:
“if the needle is pre-curved, the needle could be steered by translational and rotational movement towards a target.”
If the pre-curved needle moves forwards, it will make a curve in the brain since it follows the path of least resistance. If the needle is rotating, it will move forward. With these functionalities, a mapped-out path can be made. And so, the physician could steer a needle while the patient lays in the MRI and the physician is located in the control room. The needle is remote-controlled.
During the project, a focus was set on the elaboration and embodiment phase of designing. A functional prototype has been developed and a start is made with the final design. The next step would be to integrate the results of both processes.