Mar.28, 2014
A group of Purdue University students who created a soy-based, renewable and recyclable filament for 3D printing won the top prize in the annual Student Soybean Product Innovation Contest.
Called FilaSoy, the new generation 3D printing material was developed by members of the S3D Innovations team: Carmen Valverde-Paniagua of Chihuahua, Mexico, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering; Nicole Raley Devlin of Rockville, Md., a doctoral student in chemical engineering; and Yanssen Tandy of Jarkarta, Indonesia, a senior student in chemical engineering.
FilaSoy is a special kind of thermoplastic - it is low-energy, low-temperature, renewable and recyclable filament. Made out of polylactide (PLA) which is made from corn, starch, tapioca root and sugar cane, Filasoy retains similar properties found in PLA with an added "green" twist, a special soy component. FilaSoy is composed of approximately 20-25% soy-based materials and raw polylactide pellets.
The main function of the soy additive to PLA is that it could reduce the brittleness and keep the filament renewable, according to the team.
It also has a higher Young's modulus than PLA for greater resistance to deformation. Soy also has anti-microbial properties and can be advantageous in children's toys and other products that are in contact with germs. This allows users to create a wide variety of products such as toys, specialty parts, models, art, and more. notes the team.
The concept of FilaSoy is not simply to generate a generic material for the currently available products. FilaSoy also brings a renewable, cost effective product (soy) as an additive to the current available market while changing the properties of the material for other purposes and significantly reducing the cost of production. Since FilaSoy is renewable and derived from plant matter, it is green, recyclable, and maintains superior quality.
The three Purdue engineering students earned the top prize of $20,000 by developing this recyclable 3D printing material.
Posted in 3D Printer Materials
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From their site: Benefits There are many benefits to FilaSoy over currently available filaments. The melting temperature of FilaSoy is lower than other filaments in the market, which saves energy costs. It also has a higher Young’s modulus than PLA (a common filament used for 3D printing) for greater resistance to deformation. This allows users to create a wide variety of products such as toys, specialty parts, models, art, and more. The concept of FilaSoy is not simply to generate a generic material for the currently available products. FilaSoy also brings a renewable, cost effective product (soy) as an additive to the current available market while changing the properties of the material for other purposes and significantly reducing the cost of production. Since FilaSoy is renewable and derived from plant matter, it is green, recyclable, and maintains superior quality. Choose Soy The main function of the soy additive to PLA is that it will have the similar properties of PLA but with the added benefit of soy which reduces the brittleness and keeping the filament renewable. There is a huge interest in the plastic industry to develop new biopolymers and additives to enhance PLA. Additive manufacturers have been working towards developing a solution to some chronic limitations of PLA and other biopolymers which include susceptibility to degradation, loss of properties during processing, and reprocessing. Also, bio-based polymers and blends have less flexibility in polymer design such as copolymers. Additionally, biopolymers require additives that do not inhibit compostability and recycling. This is where soy will come into play. It will reduce brittleness without affecting any of the other properties mentioned previously. Best of all, the soy additive itself is renewable. This is especially important for end use and for manufacturing because brittle materials break during thermoforming. The biggest strength of a soy-based 3D printer filament is that it comes from a naturally occurring source and thus reduces its ecological footprint. In addition to being ecofriendly, the mechanical properties can be enhanced in a green and renewable way without affecting its recyclability. Soy also has anti-microbial properties and can be advantageous in children’s toys and other products that are in contact with germs.
michaelc wrote at 3/29/2014 4:53:55 AM:
Its unclear why tapioca root, corn starch and sugar cane by themselves are not green enough.
Laird Popkin wrote at 3/29/2014 3:28:42 AM:
I agree. PLA is already 'green' in that it's made from a completely renewal source (corn), and it can be recycled or composted. So while it's cool that you can mix Soy into PLA, I'm not sure how that's an improvement from the 'green' perspective. Is Soy easier to grow than Corn? They imply that it's cheaper, and has other interesting properties (less brittle, more sterile) which could be good.
Randolph Garrison wrote at 3/29/2014 3:22:08 AM:
Job well done. Do you produce it with the different diameters that the 3D printers require?
jd90 wrote at 3/28/2014 3:01:17 PM:
I dunno about the "added green twist", I think standard PLA is already green by their standard. It's "coming soon". I'm generally annoyed by "coming soon" announcements. I hope it's like 1-3 months and not 1-3 years.
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