For the last 10 years, 40 percent of the bee population has died annually. Beekeepers are currently fighting a battle to find a better way to maintain their bee colonies while improving honey production and reducing costs.
Digitization of traditional beehives is one of the solutions that comes from the startup Habeetat , and is the result of the Accelerator program of the organization HUB387 .
The company Make 3D from Sarajevo is involved in the development of the "smart beehive", which with the help of 3D printing is helping to make this product.
The development phase of the project aimed to test the product in realistic conditions that beehives will be exposed to. The mechanical part of Habeetat is an assembly consisting of 55 individual parts. Part of them is produced by 3D printing, while the other part consists of standard parts (screws, nuts, gaskets, etc.) as well as electrical components.
The first phase of field testing has been completed successfully. In the next phase, the task set before Make 3D is to completely 3D print the product. The goal of this phase is for Habeetat as well as investors to be sure of the design before sending the product further into production.
The initial decision on the type of material was made based on the technical data on the material provided by the manufacturer. All materials were reviewed (PLA, PET, CPE, PC, ABS, TPU, PP, etc.), after which the selection was narrowed down to PET, PP and PLA materials. PET material was chosen because, unlike PLA, the technical data indicates "food contact acceptable" and because it has high temperature and chemical resistance, which guarantees a longer product life.
Habeetat "smart hive" monitors and measures the temperature and humidity inside and outside the hive, as well as the weight of the frames. This information is sent to the application and can be viewed using the web or mobile application. In this way, beekeepers can know exactly when it is necessary to visit the hives and what needs to be done in the field.
The first requirement that had to be fulfilled was the resistance when the hive was unfolded. This resistance is the result of friction between the parts being fitted. With the help of a 3D printer, 4 parts were made with different clearances from 0.3mm to 0.7mm, and then the client decided how much resistance he wanted to have when assembling and disassembling the parts.
Printing was done on Ultimaker devices, with a nozzle with a diameter of 0.6 mm, which drastically accelerated the printing time, but also affected the strength of the parts.
After a lot of testing, the first prototype was made, which immediately after assembly was taken to London for the fair. One of the prototypes was also made with PLA material, which has more options in terms of colors, which aimed to achieve a better visual impression.
One of the test prototypes was placed on real hives under a load of 100 kg to fully test the 3D printed product. After a successful test, the decision was made to produce a small batch of 5 pieces that will be placed in the field to fully test the entire system.