Comparison between current natural PLA (left) and In-PLA (right).
3D printing materials company taulman3D has launched a new line of industrial PLA filament. In-PLA brings new colour clarity and additional strength to the company’s growing range of high-strength 3D printing materials.
In-PLA is a colour correct “clear” base resin, which makes for better colour matching and more vibrant, “non-yellow”, translucent printed parts.
The material can also be enhanced with an epoxy coating, “XTC-3D” for added clarity in translucent prints.
taulman3D is known as a supplier of unique high strength 3D Printing materials and recently unveiled the new super Alloy 910 at 8,100PSI tensile strength.
“A little known fact about taulman3D is that our materials are not extruded, but are “drawn”,” taulman3D explained. “A manufacturing method where the material comes out of the main heaters larger in dia, and then drawn or “stretched” under water to size specifications. This unique manufacturing method allows us additional control of the final taulman3D material features when 3D Printed. However PLA is an extruded line and we have added the best extrusion equipment with all of the laser sensors needed to maintain a constant dia and size.”
Translucent red In-PLA prints.
In-PLA functions at a print temperature of 207C to 212C and all other settings are identical to standard PLA print environments. It is available in 1kg spools at 1.75mm and 2.85mm.
The material boasts extremely small warping/shrinkage and can be used on non-heated build platforms to print with better bridging and reduce the required support material and design cycle costs.
taulman added: “While the small shrinkage feature is a significant advantage of PLA, we wanted to bring PLA closer to the utility side of 3D Printing. As a material to be used by design houses for “Form/Fit”, it was also important to bring a material that can more closely align with colour and gloss expectations. The clarity of In-PLA needed to meet a transmission specification of 90% at 2mm when formed to an optical flat, or thick film “without a yellow tinge”. This was a difficult specification to reach, but will allow follow–on colours or special orders to be more easily matched to standard industrial colour swatches. We also wanted In-PLA to take advantage of the optical correction capability of being coated with “XTC-3D”, a clear, 2 part coating that corrects for zero DOF of clear plastic threads.
