Printing in PEI, PEEK, and more?

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grabredemeyer
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Printing in PEI, PEEK, and more?

Post by grabredemeyer »

So....they claim this is a thing...http://arevolabs.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; What does everyone think of this? I contacted them to learn more, but I've heard nothing yet.
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Tinyhead
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Re: Printing in PEI, PEEK, and more?

Post by Tinyhead »

Interesting. It'd be nice if there was more info. Very basic right now. Even that video was extremely lacking. They could have been printing anything.
grabredemeyer
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Re: Printing in PEI, PEEK, and more?

Post by grabredemeyer »

I'm trying to figure out how they're overcoming PEEK being harmful to people while melting it down. Weird. I learned about them from one of the larger 3d blogs. They didn't offer much more information either.
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Generic Default
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Re: Printing in PEI, PEEK, and more?

Post by Generic Default »

I saw that yesterday too. I hope their patents don't claim fiber reinforced plastics as their intellectual property (or any thermoplastic for 3d printing) because patent examiners have a tendency to allow excessively broad non-novel patents to be passed. There were a few other people who mentioned or kickstarted' fiber reinforced polymers last year, including me in one of my posts on this forum.

From the video we can see that they are squirting hot plastic out of a reprap type printer, which is exactly what we're doing. I'm guessing they used a *slightly modified nozzle. They get the plastic resins from Solvay, then extrude them into filament, then patent them?

I'm expecting an attempt to monopolize pre-existing materials for use in filament type printers. There is plenty of prior art but I don't trust patent examiners.



However, this thread should be a reminder of how basic and limited our material choices are right now with 3d printing. We can print any thermoplastic or elastomer, and we're still stuck with overpriced ABS, PLA, and nylon. I partially blame everyone who has a filament extruder and yet sticks with ABS and PLA. I'm going to be experimenting with extruding glass filled PPA this summer, as well as anything else I can get my hands on. There are dozens of suitable plastics and ALL of them are better than ABS and PLA.

Check these out;
http://www.matweb.com/reference/tensilestrength.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://catalog.ides.com/datasheet.aspx? ... DF&E=73108" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just as a quick reference, ABS, PLA, and HIPS have yield strengths of less than 5,000 PSI and modulus' less than 4 GPA.
The glass filled PPA I linked to above has a strength of about 55,000 PSI and modulus of almost 20 GPA.
That's about 10 times stronger than ABS, and 5-6 times stiffer. The strength of glass filled PPA is in the range of mild steel.

Keep in mind that layer based FFF printing keeps the fibers parallel, so warping will be greatly reduced and stiffness will be off the charts compared to what we're all used to printing. These polymers are the only thing that will make filament printing competitive with other types of 3d printing in the near future.
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