Dec.9, 2013
Matt Stultz at 3dppvd.org in Providence, Rhode Island has been experimenting with filaments for long. Other than the common ABS and PLA, he has also tested several varieties of printable plastic, such as thermochromic, Laywood, Laybrick, polypropylene, HIPS filament. In February 2013 he introduced High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) to the maker community. HIPS is a dissolvable suport material that can be printed to create a support structure within your model, but can later be removed by placing the print in a solution called Limonene that removes that material. This amazing filament opens up the potential for moving parts and more complicated structures to be printed in one print instead of multiple.
Based on 3dppvd.org's research, MakerBot released their official support for dissolvable HIPS support material in October. MakerBot has priced their new filament (1.75mm) at $65 a kilo, but you can also get the same material offered by Filaco for $44.
With this interesting development, more and more people are likely to experiment with different kinds of plastic filament. In the video below, Matt Stultz gives the lowdown on a variety of some of the new and exciting advanced 3D printing materials and their uses.
Posted in 3D Printing Materials
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