Of all of the plastics that encompass us on the day by day, the one we hear least about within the 3D printing world might be polypropylene (PP). On condition that this robust, barely versatile thermoplastic has traits you may want on your prints, the query is: why? [Lost in Tech] just isn’t answering that query in a current video; as a substitute he’s exhibiting us what we’re lacking out on with a assessment of the fabric.
A take a look at the Materials Security Knowledge Sheet and out there materials has [Lost in Tech] suggesting it gained’t be (a lot) extra poisonous for you than PLA, however you continue to wouldn’t need to huff the fumes. The most important situation printing PP is getting it to stay — glass beds and PEI are not your good friend, however polypropylene tape is simple to search out and makes a fantastic print floor. He critiques just a few different choices, nevertheless it seems to be like plain outdated tape continues to be your finest wager in the event you can’t come up with a Prusa PP mattress. The opposite large situation is shrinkage, however that’s hardly distinctive to PP and might be accounted for within the mannequin.
Simply because it may be used, that doesn’t imply it must be. [Lost in Tech] does make an excellent case for why you would possibly need to use PP — for one factor, it doesn’t string a lot, partly as a result of it’s not hygroscopic. That makes it nice for these of us in humid climes who don’t need to all the time faff round with dry containers, but additionally fantastic for components that might be in contact with water. Polypropylene additionally has nice chemical resistance for even scarier chemical substances than dihydrogen monoxide. The “killer app” although, at the least so far as [Lost in Tech] is worried, is to make use of polypropylene with compliant mechanisms: it’s extremely resilient to bending, and doesn’t fatigue simply. You would possibly even name it a “versatile” filament, however not like with TPU, you get a pleasant laborious plastic to go together with that flexibility.
When you’re on this somewhat-forgotten filament, we featured a “getting began” information final yr. You may even make your personal polypropylene filament utilizing non-medical “COVID” masks, however do you should definitely wash them first. What do you suppose? Is it time to provide PP one other likelihood, or has the 3D printing world moved on?
