Team Extrusionaire wins final round of Baker Business Bowl VII

An annual tradition with the Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business has a new home on campus - Bastin Hall, the new headquarters for The Citadel's business school.

Now, from inside the new building, a new student-founded business is $10,000 closer to reality.

Extrusionaire - device that melts down 3D printed parts and scrap, and then reforms it back into filament to be reused by a 3D printer - won first place in the Baker Business Bowl VII.

3D printing creates a large amount of waste during production, and Extrusionaire provides a fully automated way to for waste or failed prints to be melted down and reformed into a spool of filament, which can be reused. The entire process takes about five hours to melt down, reform and spool plastic products into useable 3D-printing filament.

"This event allowed me a chance to better understand how important business planning and organization is beyond the pure arithmetic and designing process," said Team Extrusionaire's Tiernan VanDyke, an evening undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student. "More than anything, our winning is the result of an effective and compelling product. Additionally, the Extrusionaire would not be nearly as functional if not for the effort and expertise of my team, and for that I'm grateful."

Team Extrusionaire worked with 3D-printing hobbyists in mind, though they also see possible partnerships with The Citadel Makerspace, College of Charleston's Mace Brown Museum of Natural History and more.

The final round of the competition was held on Tuesday, April 13.

Each of the five final teams had 30 minutes to present their business ideas, and to answer questions from the judges.

To view these students click here: https://citadel.meritpages.com/achievements/Team-Extrusionaire-wins-final-round-of-Baker-Business-Bowl-VII/134440