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  1. #1
    Staff Engineer
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    892

    Pegasus PDMS replacement

    Typical of my current state of alleged mind, I cannot provide the source of this information. I have read recently of a product called Breakable Glass Silicone Rubber:
    http://www.barnes.com.au/addition-curing-silicone/breakable-glass-1573

    The information I read indicates that a vat coated with this material is transparent (glass!) and works with SLA type printers. The parts I can remember include easier release of the model (no sticking!) and long life. I believe the person who is using is reports five weeks of steady use and only a slight clouding.

    It would appear that the person reporting this information is a resident of the land down under. Unfortunately, it also appears that the product is unavailable to be shipped to the US. The AUD 70 price translates to US$52 and change. I feel this material would have great value for our printer owner membership.

    Is there anyone on this forum who is from Australia and would be willing to manage a bulk shipment if the interest is high enough?

    As a direct connection to the above, how many here are interested in the product? I am considering to purchase a large quantity and then parcel it to the interested parties. I would be the one to risk my funds based on the response here and would expect to have the shipping paid for Australia to USA and internally to the United States, but I'm not aiming to make a profit.

    If anyone has suggestions for other forums in which to post this suggestion/request, please post here as well.

    thanks
    fred

  2. #2
    Technologist
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Posts
    121
    Sounds possibly interesting...glad to hear someone is saying it is in use...I would have been worried about this: "Demould within the hour after mixing to prevent crumbling upon demoulding."

  3. #3
    Staff Engineer
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    892
    I'm certain that is because the "normal" use of the product is to create a facsimile of glass. If this material is poured into a mold and allowed to set for an excessive period, it becomes brittle like glass. For our purposes, we would be "molding" it into the vat and would not demold it until it was time to replace it.

    In the interim, I recall where I saw the original reference. It is on the "official" FSL mailing list/forum, but there's no encouraging information for the US users there either.

  4. #4
    Staff Engineer
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    892
    An update on the special stuff! I've found a web site in the land down under that lists USA shipping, although with a huge shipping cost. The stuff is $79.95 a kilogram, which would probably last a year or two, from what I've read, with a $42.55 shipping cost. The total cost of $122.50 per kilo goes down to $101.34 per kilo if ten kilograms is ordered. If ten people wanted to order the stuff, I could place a bulk purchase, but then it would have to have shipping added from me to them, a minimum of eleven dollars for USPS flat-rate boxes. even then, that's $112.34 per kilo, about a ten dollar savings.

    The likelihood of nine other people sending me a message for this material is slight, but I'm going to make a post to the other forum when I get another email from the list. We'll see what happens.

    It's looking more and more likely that I'll be motivated to get my Pegasus up and running before Christmas!

  5. #5
    I'm interested in trying Teflon AF 2400 which is a super oxygen permeable material... It's apparently what Carbon 3D uses and patented in their CLIP type printers. However, it's very expensive, 100ml 1% solution for around $450, which i don't think can be used and then 25 gram quantities of the resin in the few thousand range.

  6. #6
    Staff Engineer
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    892
    Wow! Expensive barely describes the price.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by fred_dot_u View Post
    Wow! Expensive barely describes the price.
    LOL yeah. Also trying to figure out what NewPro3D's patented tech is about and Nexa NX1 printer... supposedly both game changing materials better than even CLIP.

    So far I've found that they call it Lubricant Sublayer Photocuring.

  8. #8
    I think I may have stumbled upon it from there info graphic: http://www.nexa3d.com/lspc-technology/

    clear silicone oil must be what they use... it will still bind with oxygen keeping the band gap so resin won't cure to the tank.

    I just so happen to have some clear silicone oil laying around.... hmmmm

  9. #9
    Well that was a quick test... I used 40 weight clear silicone oil put it in a tiny clear spoon then put a few drops of resin on top.

    First thing I noticed, the resin was more dense so it sank to the bottom of the spoon.

    Then I took it outside for curing and it cured within seconds.

    So that's not the wonder material.

    Tried it on some PDMS too, no appreciably difference in regular PDMS and silicone impregnated. They both seamed to release with ease.

    So we need to find something cheap, clear, more dense than resin and oxygen permeable.

  10. #10
    Staff Engineer
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    892
    I chased a few of the links from the site you provided. Three 0.75 liter resin container and three self-lubricating films for three hundred euros. Resin is clearly a consumable, but the self-lubricating film, quantity three also sounds like it's not everlasting.

    There are other SLA and DLP type printers "out there" that use saline solution as the release agent. More accurately, of course, the carrier, as it never has to release during the creation. Most of the saline types I've seen are bottom up builders, while the Nexa appear bottom down (upside down) builders.

    If/when I receive the breakable glass from the land down under, I'll have material to test. Cheap at first, no, but long life makes lower cost overall. Of course, it would be even better to have a printer ready to accept the stuff. The two resin printers I have are yet in the original boxes. My reading of these printers was so demoralizing that I originally planned to sell them in as-new condition and take a loss. With the breakable glass possibility, the printer may become a viable working device.

    With your work as well, it becomes (or will become) even more flexible.

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