Cheap PET Filament for $12.50/kg coming soon?

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Are you tired of wasting big bucks on your 3D printer filament? Well soon their may be a solution. One man named Ivan Areinam from Venezuela plans to begin production of a PET printer filament, if he can raise enough money on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. He believes he can easily produce the filament cheap enough in order to be able to sell it for $12.50 per kg. In doing so, he could transform the way many of us print. No longer would dollar signs pop into our heads when we mess a print up, or will we feel guilty printing too many trinkets. More details on this filament and the Indiegogo project can be found here: http://3dprint.com/11829/indiegogo-cheap-3d-filament/

Below is what typical objects look like when printed with PET filament. Let's hear your thoughts on the feasibility of this project.

[GrantGabrielson]

I don't think its possible that you could do it for that price, shipping within the US for 1KG if spool within the US is usually over $8. The fact that he lives in Venezuela means it should be at least $13, plus $5 in plastic, plus the cost of machinery($10,000/15=666), the cost of 3 extruders is about $3000(3000/666=$4.5). 13+5+4.5=22.5, which is way more than his $15. Does anyone else math not add up?

[jimc]

well i agree that those prices will be difficult to stick to. maybe if you walked over to the plant where its made and grabbed a roll but by the time it ships..no. with that said though pet is the 3rd most used plastic in existence. it should be able to be produced very cheaply. imo pet is the future filament for fdm printers. problem now is pricing is high because its being marketed as a specialty filament.

[GrantGabrielson]

Yeah, I agree about the pricing being high now because it's a specialty filament, I bought a broken filastuder and fixed it up a few months ago, all pellets cost nearly the same, even polycarbonate. However, filament prices vary a huge amount more just because it's a specialty filament. I believe shipping is included in the pledge price(That's how it is on kickstarter, but it might be different on Indiegogo, so correct me if i'm wrong). PET might become popular as a filament, but it would take time to get people out of their PLA/ABS. I don't think that FDM has very much time left on it (my guess is around 5-10 years) before other forms, or new forms of 3D printing start taking over, SLS patents are expiring, Photosensitive resin printers are gaining popularity, and new technologies are always in development.

[oklok]

12.50 USD per kg? That is really cheap, my question for him is, how do he earn money if he sell it so cheap? Maybe 0.5 Kg but 1 kg`is doubtful.

[Alayax]

I very much doubt he is going to end up selling for that price; old mate has not included shipping in his costings.

The problem is not the cost to produce, it is shipping. I buy ABS and PLA straight from the factories, for around $10 USD per 1 kg roll, by the time it gets to you, after my ridiculously high mark-up and shipping, you pay around $50 ( http://www.alayax.com/3d-printing-consumables.html ) Companies with warehousing buy bulk so pay for less than that, but their overheads gobble up profit, so they have to up the price.

The stuff is heavy and bulky, so shipping to the US, UK or Australia is about $35 USD (with DHL, snail mail is less, but not by much).

I think now that companies like Verbatim are producing filament, from the local hardware or office supply stores, for about 12USD per roll.

[neoivan]

Hello to everybody, thank you, all your comments are welcome and are taken into account.

There are parts of the project that I can not comment in great detail, however you can be confident that the project can offer the price quoted for the filament.

In http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.php?5179-Che... discussed various things about this project and they use a simple math and calculated incorrectly. You must remember that I am in Venezuela and the economic system has 4 exchange rates, we have electric power subsidized imports and certain products are also subsidized, among other variables that make advantageous installation project here in Venezuela.

Do not believe everything in the news, the economy of Venezuela has some problems but it allows for opportunities to engage in certain areas. I do not wanna fall in discussion and debate policy and economy.

Here we are not talking about making money and getting rich. Some wonder how it is possible to achieve the cost I am stating for the filament, but we must remember that using a platform of crownfunding the idea is to make an impact in society and help each other.

So the idea of ​​this project at an early stage and as I indicated in the description, is to produce low cost filament, with sufficient quality to be used without problems on the 3D printing and demonstrate with facts that are exaggerated prices offering other manufacturers.

At the end we will benefit us all.


Thanks for all the support I have received,


greetings to all


I will post Updates and answer only in twitter, facebook and indiegogo

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/l...ting/x/7421134
http://twitter.com/PetFilament3dP
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Low-C...23199577845586

[curious aardvark]

haven't tried pet yet - but I'm currently getting abs for £13.60 kg delivered.

Shipping from venezuela will cost more than that by a long way.

But good luck to you :-)

[neoivan]

Shipping in Venezuela is cheap

Tarifario FedEx

Tarifario FedEx 2014 (PDF)

http://images.fedex.com/downloads/la..._2014Rates.pdf

[frederick78]

At $12.50/kg, it makes me almost want to buy it to resell.