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Solvent Recycling for 3D Printers With Sidewinder Power

When you first launch your 3D printing business, you may not know about all the unique responsibilities you are taking on.  However, as soon as you dive deeper into the finishing process of printed products or parts, your knowledge of risk grows.  When you purchase any type of solvent for the finishing process, you become completely responsible for its safe handling, use, and disposal.  In order to minimize risk and save yourself a lot of money, a 3D printing solvent recycler would be a smart investment.

Over time you may accumulate gallons of unique solvent types such as IPA, Acetone, MEK, and Methyl Isobutyl Ketone.  Which will create a new task of proper disposal of these chemicals. None of these chemicals can simply be washed down the drain or tossed in the garbage.  There are both federal and state laws that determine the appropriate course of action with different types of solvents.  Whether you own and operate a large shop or manufacturing plant or are simply a small 3D printing business owner, you need to follow these laws or risk considerable repercussions that may include fines and incarceration.  Therefore, you should consider recycling your 3D printer solvents.

Purchasing a 3D printing solvent recycler will enormously reduce the difficulties of legal disposal.  The Sidewinder Model M-2 Solvent Recovery System was specifically designed and manufactured to help anyone interested in the 3D printing world reclaim their solvents responsibly and affordably.

It does not matter if you currently use ABS, PLA or resin to print your products or parts.  Different types of solvents are used to smooth and finish your projects.  The flexibility of the Sidewinder unit allows you to handle many types of solvents effectively while minimizing risk overall.  You do not have to transport them to another facility, pay for expensive hazardous waste removal, or even find a location to bring them to.

Instead, you can engage in safe and effective reclaiming of your solvents. The Sidewinder refrigeration reclaimer can handle acetone and other solvents used for smoothing and finishing your 3D printed projects. It is the only UL listed solvent recycler machine on the market which means it is a certified safe machine for indoor use. 

Sidewinder Solvent Recycler is Hassle-free and Easy to Use

As a 3D printer business owner, you probably prefer spending your time designing new 3D printed products and choosing materials rather than recycling solvents.  However, solvent recycling for 3D printers is a simple process when using the Sidewinder Model M-2.  It only takes three easy steps: 1. Load your used solvents; 2. Latch the lid securely; and 3. Press the On button.  The machine will manage the entire distillation process and output clean, usable solvent that can be used again and again.

Not only do you eliminate a lot of the disposal issues that come with using solvents for finishing 3D printed projects, but you also reduce your expenses when it comes to buying new solvents.

Ideally, the Sidewinder solvent recycling unit is for anyone who uses approximately 5 to 70 gallons of solvent per week.  Its sleek, efficient and compact design only requires a small footprint in your workshop or manufacturing facility.

According to the manufacturer, the Sidewinder can easily process about 50 gallons per week.  Although different variables are involved such as what solvents you are recycling and how dirty they are—along with humidity and barometric pressure—it may take a couple of hours to heat up, and then it should distill approximately one gallon per hour.  The manufacturer provides free phone support.

Enjoy Safety and Savings With Solvent Recycling

In order to maximize safety, this machine shuts itself off automatically once the recycling process is done.  It is UL listed and meets all applicable US standards required for solvent distillation machinery.  It does not require any special water hook-ups and can be cleaned with ease.

When it comes to saving money, recycling always makes more sense than paying for disposal and purchasing brand-new solvent for every project.  Although costs vary across the country the legal disposal of solvents usually runs around five dollars per gallon.  Therefore, the return on investment for the cost of the Sidewinder unit is around 3 to 4 months for anyone using 50 gallons of solvent per week.

How Does It Work?

A standard 5 gallon metal bucket of waste is placed in the chamber. Waste solvents are vaporized and re-condensed, making the solvent reusable. Vapors expand in the chamber, displacing air, and then fall through a refrigerated heat exchanger. After that, they condense and flow into the clean solvent receptacle. Waste stays behind in the cooking bucket. You can also use Sidewinder’s custom fitted processing bags which fit into the buckets like liners.

It’s important to note that this ‘cooker’ is meant only for commercial and industrial use by trained personnel. You never want to process unidentified compounds or anything containing acid. Do not process items containing nitrocellulose or cellulose nitrate. Always keep in mind that caution handling of hazardous waste is of utmost importance. You should find the Sidewinder to be simple and hassle-free, but also enjoy knowing that it comes with a one-year warranty. Is this a device you are interested in trying?

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5 Professional Finishing Options for FDM parts

Despite the advances of other technologies, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) remains the go-to 3D printing process for prototypes and simple plastic parts. It’s fast, it’s cheap, and there are thousands of filament options to account for projects of all kinds. When people talk about 3D printing, they’re often talking about FDM.

But there are limitations to extrusion-based printing technologies. While FDM is a highly effective and versatile process, it has often lagged behind comparable technologies — Stereolithography, SLS, etc. — in terms of surface finish. Layer lines can be severe, and FDM parts aren’t always usable when taken straight from the print bed.

Fortunately, FDM parts don’t have to remain in their as-printed form. There are several professional post-processing techniques that can be used to remove layer lines, improve the overall surface finish of a part, or even add color and other aesthetic features.

3ERP, a global rapid prototyping company that specializes in on-demand 3D printed parts, recommends the following five finishing options, all of which can turn ordinary FDM parts into high-quality components.

Sanding

It might not sound complicated, but sanding is one of the most important techniques for achieving a professional finish on FDM printed parts.

Using textured sandpaper, it is possible to smooth the surface of a part in a way that clears imperfections (such as support marks) and removes visible layer lines. It is a manual process, however, which means care must be taken to apply the sandpaper evenly across the part.

Sanding 3D printed parts generally involves using sandpapers of varying grit levels. This means starting with a coarse sandpaper (100 grit or higher) that will remove large bumps and blemishes and gradually moving up to a very fine sandpaper (up to 5,000) to achieve a polished finish.

Although sanding is difficult when dealing with finer details or thin walls, it is highly effective for improving part smoothness and is a great way to prepare parts for coating or painting.

Bead blasting

While sanding is widely used for improving the smoothness of FDM parts, the process of bead blasting may offer a more comprehensive solution, especially for complex parts with hard-to-reach areas.

The bead blasting process involves firing an abrasive substance at the plastic part in a controlled manner, rather than rubbing it manually with sandpaper. It is much faster than sanding, and is also adjustable in terms of pressure and bead hardness.

The abrasive substance is blasted at the FDM part with a motion similar to spray painting, allowing for an even coating across the part.

Polishing

Polishing is an important finishing procedure for aesthetic parts, and follows naturally from sanding: once a part has been sanded with a very fine grit, it is ready for polishing if necessary.

While sanding is used to improve the smoothness of an FDM part, polishing takes things further by giving the plastic a shiny or mirror-like appearance. This may be necessary for aesthetic parts such as models, or for functional parts that require minimal friction.

During the polishing process, a cloth or buffing wheel is used to consistently apply polish to the surface of the part, giving the plastic a durable shine. Although it can take some time, the polishing process effectively transforms FDM parts, giving them the appearance of injection molded components.

Painting

There is a huge variety of materials available for FDM 3D printing, from standard PLA and ABS to more specialist engineering composites designed for functional applications. Many of these materials are available in a range of colors.

Nonetheless, FDM parts often require a coat of paint after the 3D printing stage. This might be because the filament is unavailable in a specific shade, or because a part requires different colors in different sections.

At 3ERP, we offer a variety of painting options, including matte, satin, high-gloss, textured and soft-touch coatings. Shades can be color-matched for branding purposes, while priming (before) and polishing (after) is also provided.

Painting should be considered for any parts used in consumer products, with the only potential pitfall being a slight adjustment to dimensions. (Mechanical parts with exceptionally high tolerances may be better left unpainted.)

Metal coating

A dramatic rise in metal additive manufacturing technologies has made 3D printed metal parts more accessible to companies of all sizes. However, thin metal coatings can also be added to plastic parts made with FDM — a cheaper option when a metallic appearance is the main requirement.

There are several options for adding a metal coating to FDM parts, many of which are difficult or impossible to achieve without professional equipment. These include metallization, chroming and zinc plating, all of which can radically transform the appearance of a printed part.

Electroplating options use a vat of plating solution and an electric current add the metal surface layer, producing a professional-grade metallic surface finish in a very short space of time.

Contact 3ERP to find out how your 3D printed FDM parts can be improved with post-processing treatments.

The post 5 Professional Finishing Options for FDM parts appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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3D Printing News Briefs: June 27, 2019

In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re starting with a couple of stories from the recent Paris Air Show: TUSAS Engine Industries has invested in GE Additive technology, and ARMOR explained its AM materials partnership with Airbus. Moving on, Formlabs just hosted some live webinars, and PostProcess Technologies released a whitepaper on surface finishing metal 3D printed parts. Modix is sharing a lot of news, including four new 3D printer models, and finally, FormFutura has introduced sustainable packaging.

TEI Invests in GE Additive Technology

TUSAŞ Engine Industries, Inc. (TEI), founded in Turkey as a joint venture in 1985, has invested in GE Additive‘s direct metal laser melting (DMLM) technology. GE Additive announced at the recent Paris Air Show that TEI had purchased two of its M LINE factory systems and two M2 cusing machines. While the financial terms of the investment were not disclosed, the 3D printers will be installed at TEI’s Eskişehir headquarters, joining its current fleet of laser and Arcam EBM printers.

Professor Dr. Mahmut Faruk Akşit, President and CEO of TEI, said, “Today, we invest in TEI’s future by investing in additive manufacturing, ‘the future of manufacturing.’ Our longstanding partnership and collaboration with GE is now broadening with GE Additive’s machine portfolio.”

Armor and Airbus Partner Up for Aerospace 3D Printing

Air pipe prototype printed using the Kimya PLA HI (Photo: ProtoSpace Airbus)

Continuing with news from the Paris Air Show, ARMOR Group – a French multinational company – was also at the event, exhibiting its Kimya materials and a miniFactory printer, as well as its new aeronautics filament, PEI-9085. While there, ARMOR also met up with Airbus, which has frequently used 3D printing to create parts and prototypes, such as an air nozzle for the climate control system of its 330neo passenger cabin. The company has now requested ARMOR’s expertise in better qualifying its materials in order to standardize its own AM process.

“We have qualified the PLA-HI and PETG-S. We are currently testing more technical materials, such as the PETG Carbon before moving on to the PEI and PEEK. We have requested a specific preparation to make it easier to use them in our machines,” Marc Carré, who is responsible for innovation at Airbus ProtoSpace in Saint-Nazaire,

“We expect to be able to make prototypes quickly and of high quality in terms of tolerances, aesthetics and resistance.

“Thanks to ARMOR and its Kimya range and services, we have found a partner we can share our issues with and jointly find solutions. It is very important for us to be able to rely on a competent and responsive supplier.”

Webinars by Formlabs: Product Demo and Advanced Hybrid Workflows

Recently, Formlabs hosted a couple of informative webinars, and the first was a live product demonstration of its Form 3. 3D printing expert Faris Sheikh explained the technology behind the company’s Low Force Stereolithography (LFS) 3D printing, walked through the Form 3’s step-by-step-workflow, and participated in a live Q&A session with attendees. Speaking of workflows, Formlabs also held a webinar titled “Metal, Ceramic, and Silicone: Using 3D Printed Molds in Advanced Hybrid Workflows” that was led by Applications Engineering Lead Jennifer Milne.

“Hybrid workflows can help you reduce cost per part and scale to meet demand, while taking advantage of a wider range of materials in the production of end-use parts,” Formlabs wrote. “Tune in for some inspiration on new ways of working to advance your own process or to stay on top of trends and capabilities across the ever-growing range of printable materials.”

PostProcess Whitepaper on 3D Print Surface Finishing

PostProcess Technologies has released its new whitepaper, titled “Considerations for Optimizing Surface Finishing of 3D Printed Inconel 718.” The paper discusses a novel approach to help improve surface finish results by combining a patent-pending chemistry solution and software-driven automation. Using this new approach, PostProcess reports increased consistency and productivity, as well as decreased technician touch time. The whitepaper focuses on surface finishing 3D prints made with alloys and metals, but especially zeroes in on nickel superalloy Inconel 718, 3D printed with DMLS technology.

“With current surface finishing techniques used that are largely expensive, can require significant manual labor, or require the use of hazardous chemicals, this paper analyzes the benefits of a novel alternative method for post-printing the part’s surface,” PostProcess wrote. “Key considerations are reviewed including part density and hardness, corrosion (chemical) resistance, grain structure, as well as manufacturing factors including the impact of print technology and print orientation on the surface profile.”

You can download the new whitepaper here.

Modix Announces New 3D Printers, Reseller Program, and Executive

Israel-based Modix, which develops large-format 3D printers, has plenty of news to share – first, the company has come out with four new 3D printer models based on its modular design. The new models, which should be available as soon as Q3 2019, are the 1000 x 1000 x 600 mm Big-1000, the 600 x 600 x 1200 mm Big-120Z, the 1800 x 600 x 600 mm Big-180X, and the 400 x 400 x 600 mm Big-40. Additionally, the company has launched a reseller program, where resellers can offer Modix printers to current customers of smaller printers as the “best next 3D printer.” Finally, Modix has appointed 3D printing veteran John Van El as its new Chief Commercial Officer; he will help build up the company’s partner program.

“We are proud to have John with us,” said Modix CEO Shachar Gafni. “John brings aboard unique capabilities and experiences strengthening Modix’s current momentum on the path to become a global leader in the large scale 3D printing market.”

FormFutura Presents Recyclable Cardboard Packaging

Dutch filament supplier FormFutura wants to set an example for the rest of the industry by not only raising awareness about sustainability, but also by stepping up its own efforts. That’s why the company has moved completely to cardboard packaging – all of its filaments up to one kilogram will now be spooled onto fully recyclable cardboard spools, which will also come in cardboard boxes. All of FormFutura’s cardboard spools and boxes are manufactured in its home country of the Netherlands, which helps reduce its carbon footprint in terms of travel distance, and the material is also a natural drying agent, so it will better protect filament against humidity.

“Over the past couple of months we’ve been brainstorming a lot on how we can make FormFutura more sustainable and help renew our branding. As over this period we have received feedback from the market about helping to find a viable solution to the empty plastic spools, we started setting up a plan to reduce our carbon footprint through cardboard spools,” said Arnold Medenblik, the CEO of FormFutura. “But as we got to working on realizing rolling out cardboard spools, we’ve also expanded the scope of the project to include boxes and logistics.”

Because the company still has some warehoused stock on plastic spools, customers may receive both types of packaging during the transition.

Discuss these stories and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

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PostProcess Technologies Uses Hybrid DECI Duo Solution to Achieve Excellent Surface Finish for 3D Printed Shrouded Impellers

Exacting Surface Finishing of Complex 3D Printed Metal Geometries.

PostProcess Technologies, which expanded its channel partner coverage in North America this spring, is well known for its software and post-printing solutions. With its automated Hybrid DECI Duo solution, PostProcess helps its customers achieve excellent surface finish standards and replicable results for complex metal parts.

Recently, PostProcess demonstrated in a new case study how well its technology can help other companies. The subject was Ingersoll Rand, a $14 billion global industrial manufacturing company that specializes in compressed air technologies. The company uses 3D printing for its shrouded impellers, which improve the performance of a compressor package more than open impellers because there is no clearance between the stationary inlet and the impeller, so no slip losses occur as a result of compression gas recirculating in the space.

The design for shrouded impellers, which rotate 60,000 RPM, has very tight tolerances in order to meet aerodynamic testing. In addition, the blades need excellent surface finishing, and it takes months to build using conventional forms of manufacturing. So Ingersoll’s engineering team, needing to commercialize its shrouded impeller design, turned to 3D printing because of its complete design freedom; the technology also makes it possible to build the part as monolithic, so no welding is required. But, in order for 3D printed parts to meet performance thresholds, they do require outstanding surface finishes.

Ingersoll 3D prints its shrouded impellers out of titanium and nickel alloy, but they unfortunately come off the print bed at an Ra (roughness average) value that doesn’t meet the engineering team’s specifications. The team has tried everything from manual sanding and grinding tools to chemical etching, but the results were inconsistent and did not have the necessary, repeatable quality needed to produce end parts within the required specifications.

The company needed to find a replicable process that would provide them with the necessary surface finish for its shrouded impeller’s complex geometry, in order to, as PostProcess wrote in its case study, “drive a measurable increase in efficiency for its advanced air compressors.”

So, Ingersoll turned to PostProcess in hopes that the company could work with complex metal part geometries, like organic shapes and internal channels, and help achieve repeatable results and excellent surface finish standards for its shrouded impellers.

Automated DECI Duo for Post-Print Support Removal & Surface Finishing.

PostProcess delivered a “transformative outcome” for Ingersoll’s 3D printed titanium and nickel alloy parts, thanks to its patent-pending, automated Hybrid DECI Duo solution. The Hybrid DECI Duo – a single, multi-functioning, data-driven system – promises fast cycle times for even the most complex of parts Designed to optimize production floor space, the system also includes noise reducing features for a low dBa, an LED lighted chamber, and a manual mode for hands-on part finishing when needed.

The system also uses PostProcess’ proprietary AUTOMAT3D software, in order to optimize energy and exclusive chemistry, which includes detergents and suspended solids so the geometries maintain their fine-feature details while still receiving the desired surface finish.

“We have chosen the DECI Duo because of its repeatability, minimal setup, processing times, and cost of ownership. Photochemical machining, extrude honing, and micro polishing or micro machining all yield very good results when applied correctly, however extensive tooling and equipment costs, setup times, and required DOE’s prior to applying the surface finishing method to obtain a repeatable process have made the DECI Duo a better option,” said Ioannis Hatziprokopiou, Mechanical Engineer, New Product Development, Ingersoll Rand Compression Technologies and Services.

“In addition, some of aforementioned finishing techniques unevenly remove material inside the flow path of the impeller, whereas the DECI Duo uniformly treats the entire surface of the flow path. The final geometry of the flow path must remain as unaltered as possible after post-processing of any kind.”

3D printed shrouded impellers were
implemented on the last 3 stages of this 6 stage 6R3MSGEP+4/30 engineered air booster machine.

The PostProcess solution established operating settings that were in line with Ingersoll’s standards using benchmark parts. Then, the DECI Duo was able to consistently finish metal parts that were able to successfully pass exacting aerodynamic tests.

Ingersoll came to PostProcess with a need for high quality and requirements in consistency and repeatability. But, it’s also achieved additional advantages from working with the company, such as cost savings and ease of operation.

In addition, the DECI Duo also produced an average of 70-80% reduction in Ra for parts run for 20 minutes or less.

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below. 

[Images: PostProcess Technologies]