What is PET?

[thebigbeeper]

I have a source of never ending transparent green polyester strapping - http://www.samuelstrapping.com/en/pr...&sub=1&pid=174

Does anyone know if this is PET?
Would this work in say an EB2 extruder?
Any toxins related to such material?

[footguy]

PET or PETT is the chemical initials for a certain type of plastic. Used in filament form in 3D printing

[jimc]

as with all the plastics we use , there are many formulations of each. it may be polyester but that doesnt mean it is a good for 3d printing. the most common pet for printing is petg. petg comes in many variations as well. just no way to tell of what they use in the strapping is any good. not to mention, how do you intend to get this trough your printer? grind it up and extrude it into filament?

[thebigbeeper]

Yes I plan on running the waste strap from the facility I work at through a chopper to create small enough pcs to run through an eb2 extruder. My issues are determining whether or not this material will work before I drop the $900 on the extruder, and is it toxic? Not trying to poison myself or others to obtain to obtain free filament.

The following website is giving me the impression that this strapping is PET and should work. http://www.qualitystrapping.com/plas..._strapping.php

[DonaldJ]

How clean is the waste strap? You could end up spending a lot of time (and money) to get it clean enough for extrusion. For safety issues, see if you can track down the MSDS (material safety data sheet). It's possible that it melts at a temperature beyond the capabilities of your printer.

Good luck.

[jimc]

I have printed quite a few formulations if pet. Some work fantastic. Others were completely unprintable. The only way to know is to try it. Pet is not toxic. Has no odor when printing but again you have no ide what that is. It may be pet or it could have aother crap in it as well. Grind it and find someone with a filastruder willing to run you off a sample to test.

[elmoret]

A Filastruder can handle PET:

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/8876/pet-tglase-regrind/

[postmahomeson]

i got you a good source and all the infomation and technical features you want to know ( including safety )
http://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.11972.html

and if you are getting it from ocean plastic make sure it is purified because of potential water pollution,
but it certainly is a researchable topic ,

also you are a smart person for checking the material before melting take for example pvc ( poly vinyl chloride)
which poly vinyl is safe enough but the only part of PVC that is dangerous is the chloride ( i mean unless you use Poly vinyl with high plasticisers with toddlers that would suck in all the plasticiser and what ever ) other than that you should be fine as long as you do not litter

[curious aardvark]

and if you are getting it from ocean plastic

He's getting waste strapping from where he works - what on earth led you to think he was sieving it from the ocean ??????

Actually that also answers the question - ask someone where you work what's in the strapping.
Unless you're actually stealing it - there's no reason they wouldn't tell you :-)

having seen what gets dumped into industrial skips at factories, I can well believe there's an unending supply of scrap.

So ask someone if they mind you using the waste and then ask them what it's made of.

Life is often easier if you're honest.
Also if it works, your company might be interested in commercial production of filament from the waste, and as the resident expert, could be good for you :-)

[thebigbeeper]

Ok, so I finally found the msds http://www.sfm.state.or.us/cr2k_subd...ING_YELLOW.PDF

It appears the melting point is around 255C and I would need some sort of ventilation if I'm reading this correctly.

As for where I'm getting it from, I work at a corrugated container company and our board stock comes in with the polyester strap and ships out with polypropylene. Management has no problem with me taking, because they receive no money for its disposal. Until recently it all went into a dumpster out back with the rest of the trash. Their interest past allowing me to take was minimal, so that is why I was clueless on exact composition.

I appreciate everyone's input.