Protoparadigm PLA

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morgandc
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Protoparadigm PLA

Post by morgandc »

http://www.protoparadigm.com/ingeo-pla/ ... ck-PLA-1KG

I am doing some experimentation with Protoparadigm ProSpec PLA and I have been really impressed so far. The quality of print is on par with ABS, the stringing is almost as good as ABS and I have heated it to 230f in my oven for over an hour with no softness/deformation. A bonus for me is that all of the materials used to produce it are food safe and the price is cheaper than I was paying for my filament through Matterhackers. No more ABS fumes and warp issues on large items are gone as well :)

The story about how I came to be testing it is kind of fun. I was down talking to a plastic injection company and the manager mentioned that he had made spools for a local company that made 3d printer filament! Needless to say I was a bit surprised. I got the contact's cell number for one of the owners and gave them a call. Turns out they do the research here in town, and are currently making the filament about an hour away. When I mentioned that I had been waiting weeks for another PLA option that was FDA approved he brought me a partial roll of filament to test the same afternoon! While talking with him, he mentioned that they initially resold filament until they developed their own filament/production equipment.

Needless to say I am placing an order Monday, unfortunately they don't have a local storefront, but I could likely arrange to pick it up weekdays :)

-Dwight
Last edited by morgandc on Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
Eric
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Re: Protoparadigm PLA

Post by Eric »

"food safe" is not "food grade". They're different ratings. "food safe" is in inferior rating considered ok only for incidental contact with food. "food grade" is for longer term contact like storage containers. Even that "food safe" rating goes away once it's processed on non-food equipment, as I suspect this is. That "sourced from" is in the marketing verbage for a reason.

I'm glad you're happy with the plastic. Just don't assume the delivered product has an actual FDA certification. Unless they send you a copy. Of course, your printer likely isn't food certified equipment either, so perhaps that's a moot point.
morgandc
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Re: Protoparadigm PLA

Post by morgandc »

Thanks for the education on food safe vs food grade (I changed the initial post to food safe). And yes, none of my equipment is food certified either but each step the right direction helps.
morgandc
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Re: Protoparadigm PLA

Post by morgandc »

I changed colors...not quite as good on the stringing. Exterior looks good, but more significant stringing. I am missing ABS :(

I hate trying to fix stringing.
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