I am working on tracking down a supply of a novel plastic for use in 3d printing or rapid prototyping. Melted, it has a viscosity about 1/4 of that of olive oil. Its an oligomer in the melt, that then polymerizes; either by raising the melt temp, or using pellets that contain a catalyst. You can cast shapes out of the oligomer if you keep the temp low, then use a higher temp to extrude full strength high MW polymer as it cures.
I am hoping to convince the manufacturer to ship me samples, and hopefully make it available to the wider maker community in some fashion. This might actually be suitable for multi-jet modeling style printers. Easy pouring plastic similar to PET or other ‘engineering plastics’ when cured. No more messy two part resins. Can rotocast, pressure mold, drop/pour cast, etc.
It is not a two part resin. It has almost zero VOC. It is a true plastic that polymerizes in the mold, so it pours thin. Of course, you can remelt the molded part, like melting down ABS, but because it has polymerized, it would now be much much much thicker.
How much interest is there in something like this? I’d like to make my case as to why they should sell to Makers, and other small industries I plan on approaching. I’m hoping I can spin the “Good Will” and “mind share” aspect.
Thermosetting, AND Thermoplastic (when cured). It turns into thermoplastic when cured. So you could met down the resulting plastic, it just won’t be as thing, about as thick as PET really. So you can cast your part, then modify it later. Like cast a flat skate deck, then thermoform it to a final custom shape.
Melt temp for oligomer is 120-200 C, about as thick as hot honey (20 mPa s), doesn’t begin to polymerize unless pellets contain catalyst, or heated to about 220 C iirc. Shrinkage, I’m still looking for info. Can be used as flow improver for other plastics. Cure time is variable, from 1 min to ten minutes or more, depending on heat, catalyst, etc. Because its so thin, you can load it with extenders or binders before casting, to reduce weight or increase it, to make it more durable, etc. Resulting plastic melts around 223 C, but is much much more viscous like true bulk plastic. 17,000 psi tensile strength, 1100 ksi flex modulus. Low glass transition temp of about 68 C.
Well you can add fillers to modify a lot of its attributes. AL filled has a htd at 1.82 MPA of 214 c. Glass fibre about the same. Unmodified, pretty low, about 52 c.
@Kartish_Nair that is how the dlp printers work. Similarly the peachy printer… down side is that the plastics are typically not working prototypes. The cured resins I have used (at work in the objet printer line) really stuck. Low tg, low layer adhesion, low yield strength, low tensile strength. Beautiful prints, but the plastic sucks.
This is molten plastic. Best bet would be to spray at hot enough temp that polymerization is triggered. hopefully sets up before cooling to quickly but you’d need to see if it works.
@Camerin_hahn I have had similar problems with Objet parts. We primarily use Vero Gray. I haven’t noticed any parts split at a layer line. They should have good layer adhesion since the materials are thermosetting.
My main problem is simply that the parts are brittle, making any snap fit or screw boss likely to fail. Supposedly the “ABS-like” Connex material is better. I’m having several flex bar specimens of different materials made for testing to see how they compare to FDM flex bars.
I have been experimenting with a urethane based SLA resin on a Muve3D printer. I’m hoping I can eventually use it for functional parts. Some of the resin offerings for 3D System’s SLA machines are very nice. Especially the Accura Extreme.
This stuff Is so thin, dip application to prints might be possible. You can use it like epoxy without the mixing or stink, then pressure form/ mold the final thermoplastic part in another step.