Mar 9, 2016 | By Alec
As the 3D printing community consumes vast amounts of plastics (and how many of those prints fail?), it’s always good to use 3D printer filaments that are biodegradable or that can be recycled. PLA is a great start, but is only completely biodegradable in bioreactors and specific laboratory conditions. Grinding units are another option: machines through which failed prints can be recycled into new 3D printer filament, though unfortunately these are still very expensive. Fortunately, a third option has just appeared: Extrudr Green-TEC, by Austrian 3D printer filament manufacturers Extrudr. Unlike PLA, it can be 100% degraded in natural cycles.
If you’ve never heard of Extrudr before, that’s probably because they haven’t been around for very long. Though they have been popping up at a few 3D printing and making events here and there, they are actually a very young manufacturer from Austria that has been working on their products since February 2014. Though opting for a new manufacturer can be a bit daunting, as you don’t know what you’re going to get, co-founder Johannes Früh previously explained to 3ders.org that they have a good quality production line. “We can guarantee high quality standards like Diameter, Resin, Roundness, Printability, etc.,” he told us.
Though very young, they have already set up an varied line of 3D printable filaments, including various colorful (and multi-color) PLA and ABS options, a number of PETG filaments and some biopolymers. At the beginning of the year, they also released glow in the dark, wood-like and pearl-like 3D printer filaments.
To that line, they are now adding Green-TEC in four colors: black, blue, red and white. As they explain, it’s completely created using biological compounds and pure raw materials. “The material has a bio-organic composition and blends for composting as opposed to PLA,” they say. “ Therefore, Green-TEC is CO2 neutral and ecologically absolutely harmless.” It’s an excellent alternative for the more conventional ABS or PLA filaments, they say, and not just because it’s environmentally friendly. It is also non-toxic and features superior temperature resistance, hardness and elongation when compared to ABS or PLA.
It’s also easy to work with – Green-TEC 3D printer filament hardly suffers from shrinkage or warping, as opposed to ABS. This makes it quite suitable for larger and more complex prints with a large surface area. It doesn’t even need a heated print bed. And as it meets all EU regulations for food contact plastics, you can use it for a wide variety of 3D printing products as well. Though slightly more expensive than other filaments at €56 per kilo (or approximately $61 USD), its environmentally-friendly properties are especially appealing. It also comes in both 1.75 and 2.85mm options.
Specifications for Green-TEC filament:
- Heat resistant up to 110-120 C (248 Fahrenheit),
- Low temperature of 170-200 C
- High mechanical resistance, which leads to lighter components
- Very low warping (<0.5%)
- Food safe
- Biodegradable
- High Layer adhesion and good optical properties
- print parameters
- Printbed: 0-60 ° C
- Liability: Bluetabe, Kapton, carbon, glass
- Print speed: up to 120mm / s
Weight:
- 1.75mm - 2.4 g / m
- 2.85mm - 7.6 g / m
Posted in 3D Printing Materials
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