This is probably old news to many of you, but it was new (and exciting!) to me when I found out about it at my local 3D Printer store ...
A number of filament makers are now producing filaments which incorporate wood, stone, stainless steel, bronze, iron, carbon-fibre, polycarbonate, colour-change (temperature-change, UV sensitive), electrically conductive, magnetic, flexible (rubber-like) …….
(A quick Google will turn them up)
They all seem to use a blend of plastic resin (typically PLA or ABS) as the matrix, with a powdered filler – the plastic melts at the sort of temperatures that consumer-grade 3D printers (like my RepRap Mendel Preusa) can handle, and you can print the same shapes etc, but you get composite builds, with very different bulk mechanical properties to the raw plastic.
I was having a look at some sample prints made with these new filaments – quite amazing!
They’re a bit more expensive than the conventional plastic filament, and some of them are a bit tricky to use (very sensitive to the right printing temperatures, very abrasive on your nozzle, etc), but they open up some really interesting design options!
A number of filament makers are now producing filaments which incorporate wood, stone, stainless steel, bronze, iron, carbon-fibre, polycarbonate, colour-change (temperature-change, UV sensitive), electrically conductive, magnetic, flexible (rubber-like) …….
(A quick Google will turn them up)
They all seem to use a blend of plastic resin (typically PLA or ABS) as the matrix, with a powdered filler – the plastic melts at the sort of temperatures that consumer-grade 3D printers (like my RepRap Mendel Preusa) can handle, and you can print the same shapes etc, but you get composite builds, with very different bulk mechanical properties to the raw plastic.
I was having a look at some sample prints made with these new filaments – quite amazing!
They’re a bit more expensive than the conventional plastic filament, and some of them are a bit tricky to use (very sensitive to the right printing temperatures, very abrasive on your nozzle, etc), but they open up some really interesting design options!
