3DVinyl has been 3D printed in the shape of a giant vase, by PVC stabilizer firm Chemson, on a pellet-fed 3D-printer designed by Titan Robotics USA.
Chemson representatives at Rapid 3D, a 3D-printing exhibition in Pittsburgh, USA took three hours to print the 14kg vase. It’s a first for 3DVinyl in that all 3D-printing work conducted so far with vinyl, or PVC, has so far been with filament-fed machines.
Since unveiling their technological breakthrough in May 2016, Chemson Group, worldwide leaders in the PVC stabiliser additives industry, has been working on changes to the material’s thermoplastic PVC formulation. These include improvements to the Z-axis interlayer adhesion, impact resistance and thermal stability.
Speaking after the May 2017 exhibition, Greg Harrison, Specialist for Chemson on Additive Manufacturing materials and 3DVinyl co-inventor, said: “We have some more formulation adjustments to do, which will shortly be completed, but overall we have demonstrated that 3DVinyl PVC has a place in the industrial Advanced Manufacturing world of 3D-printable polymers.”
Dieter Klamen, Director of Chemson, said: “After this initial success of having a printable version of PVC in the form of 3DVinyl, the international Chemson team is currently undertaking concerted efforts to adapt PVC’s well-established unique potential and versatility for applications in the 3D Printing/AM world. These new PVC products will be introduced step-by-step into the 3DP community after basic 3D printability is assessed in our rigorous pre-tests.”
Giant Vase with Greg Harrison and Dieter Klamen