The Department of Plant Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) uses an instrument, called the inoculator, in research of rust on cereal crops. It requested the Product Development Technology Station (PDTS) to help manufacture this instrument for research on plant fungi. The inoculator, which was originally designed in 1971 and never updated, is used to apply collected rust spores onto uninfected plants to accelerate the spreading of rust.
The original design was very complicated and required special skills and numerous manufacturing processes. The PDTS made use of Additive Manufacturing (AM) that requires no additional processes. Through this a product was designed that costs a fraction of the price of the original model and is also much less time consuming to assemble.
The station did research on the theory behind the inoculator’s systems and learned it is based on pilot tubes, much the same as a spray paint applicator. The inoculator was redesigned and based on the design of an air brush and prototypes 3D printed in nylon.
The product performed exceptionally well – to such an extent that the UFS patented the design in the United States of America and South Africa and commercialised the inoculator.