Josh wouldn't you rather have nylon or ninja flex like material which is a form of PLA. Regular PLA has no benefit other than it shrinks less, has better adhesion and it's biodegradable. With ABS you can achieve more or less 2/3rds of those strengths with a few steps. I can't speak for you but I want a filament that brings me something new rather then a semi environmentally friendly filament. You have to remember that the manufacturing companies that produce PLA utilize equipment that run excessive amounts of oil and energy which cancels out a lot of the "environmentally friendly" filament that most people brag about.
it was promised at the time I purchased my printer and I want Zortrax to make good on their (already late) promise.
To say ''"manufacturing companies that produce PLA utilize equipment that run excessive amounts of oil and energy which cancels out a lot of the 'environmentally friendly' filament that most people brag about''" is a bold statement that I would ask you to back-up with facts. It is my belief that your logic stems from other ill-logical statements like: "Electric vehicles' eco-friendliness is negated by the coal it takes to produce electricity and the energy it takes to create the battery".
You need to keep in mind the alternative: oil (which by the way, also requires a lot of electricity / gasoline / energy to gather and refine). A single gallon of gasoline for example, consumes ~6 kWh of electricity just in the refining process (which happens to be amount of electricity it takes to drive 18 miles! in an electric-vehicle). Sources: http://gatewayev.org/how-much-electricity-is-used-refine-a-gallon-of-gasoline
it was promised at the time I purchased my printer and I want Zortrax to make good on their (already late) promise.
To say ''"manufacturing companies that produce PLA utilize equipment that run excessive amounts of oil and energy which cancels out a lot of the 'environmentally friendly' filament that most people brag about''" is a bold statement that I would ask you to back-up with facts. It is my belief that your logic stems from other ill-logical statements like: "Electric vehicles' eco-friendliness is negated by the coal it takes to produce electricity and the energy it takes to create the battery".
You need to keep in mind the alternative: oil (which by the way, also requires a lot of electricity / gasoline / energy to gather and refine). A single gallon of gasoline for example, consumes ~6 kWh of electricity just in the refining process (which happens to be amount of electricity it takes to drive 18 miles! in an electric-vehicle). Sources: http://gatewayev.org/how-much-electricity-is-used-refine-a-gallon-of-gasoline
I understand your point of view but since when have chinese manufacturing plants cared about eco friendly manufacturing? not all filament comes from china but a huge chunk does and their processes doesn't differ much for PLA.
Have you ever used PLA before? It's brittle doesn't do very well outdoors from UV and heat and is not flexable what so ever(standard filament).
Sure there are perks of PLA but the perks aren't that great in my opinion.
If you do any type of sanding you would understand the benift of vapor smoothing with ABS and most methods for vapor smoothing PLA are poor or contain chemicals much worse then Acetone.
Again all this is of opinion and I understand where your coming from as well but I personaly
would like to have filament that allows me to push the printer to the next level rather than provide me
As I have already mentioned, there are pros and cons to every polymer. So I'm not sure why you needed to see a "pro" list, but whatever, moving on:
- Other printer manufacturers have been known to offer BOTH ABS and PLA as a choice.
- Open-Source software does NOT mean manufacturers have no effect on the development of their software. Anyone is free to contribute (including the 3D printer manufacturer) and new versions are released when enough contributions have been made. There are MANY aspects to Z-Suite that are lacking when compared to Cura (an open-source software).
- The industry DOES apply PLA in mass production. Plastic cups and food containers seem to be the big products for now, but PLA has a place in many other products as well. Given that it's shrink-rate for injection-molding is identical to ABS, I was able to "mass produce" a companies electronic-housing product in PLA. We have run 10K+ of them without issues, we even had the material colored to look identical to any other opaque polymer.
- If PLA is never available on Zortrax, then why would they bother promising it when I purchased my printer?
I hope the "staff" under your name doesn't mean you are a decision-maker at Zortrax.
Because I shouldn't be the one telling you the benefits of PLA... you should already know them.
Lets get someone from the Zortrax team that knows what they are talking about to respond.
I'd STILL like to know when Zortrax will be offering PLA,
hehe Rafal is CEO and founder at Zortrax....not sure you can get any more clear answer than that.
Sorry about PLA, I dont know much about it but for the little I know I personally wouldnt use it for the kind of prints that I do therefore on my end I wouldnt miss it. I’d rather see more advanced material developed by zortrax.
As I have already mentioned, there are pros and cons to every polymer. So I'm not sure why you needed to see a "pro" list, but whatever, moving on:
- Other printer manufacturers have been known to offer BOTH ABS and PLA as a choice.
- Open-Source software does NOT mean manufacturers have no effect on the development of their software. Anyone is free to contribute (including the 3D printer manufacturer) and new versions are released when enough contributions have been made. There are MANY aspects to Z-Suite that are lacking when compared to Cura (an open-source software).
- The industry DOES apply PLA in mass production. Plastic cups and food containers seem to be the big products for now, but PLA has a place in many other products as well. Given that it's shrink-rate for injection-molding is identical to ABS, I was able to "mass produce" a companies electronic-housing product in PLA. We have run 10K+ of them without issues, we even had the material colored to look identical to any other opaque polymer.
- If PLA is never available on Zortrax, then why would they bother promising it when I purchased my printer?
I hope the "staff" under your name doesn't mean you are a decision-maker at Zortrax.
Because I shouldn't be the one telling you the benefits of PLA... you should already know them.
Lets get someone from the Zortrax team that knows what they are talking about to respond.
I'd STILL like to know when Zortrax will be offering PLA,
lol Josh you must not know that Rafal is the CEO of Zortrax.
You may not think he knows what he's talking about but no one has been able to produce a printer in the price range with the reliability and quality of the M200.
If I am the CEO of Zortrax, I would just buy a few off the shelf PLA filament, repackage it as Zortrax and put it on sale for 30 dollar for members. Those who think it is pricey, they have the option not to buy it. I never promised the price will be the same as ABS right? Then, after two or three months, I will announce it will be discontinue due to lack of demand.
If I am the CEO of Zortrax, I would just buy a few off the shelf PLA filament, repackage it as Zortrax and put it on sale for 30 dollar for members. Those who think it is pricey, they have the option not to buy it. I never promised the price will be the same as ABS right? Then, after two or three months, I will announce it will be discontinue due to lack of demand.
Hmmm…no wonder I never become a CEO :P.
We try it but all off the shelf PLA filaments in random time clogging extruder or create problems when switching between ABS<>PLA, better to do not offer some materials then…
It is not that we totally drop idea of PLA, but slowly I believe that do not exist injection molding grade PLA and mainly PLA is just substitute for PET all materials which we now try to use are near injection molding grade then is no problem with switching between materials.
We try it but all off the shelf PLA filaments in random time clogging extruder or create problems when switching between ABS<>PLA, better to do not offer some materials then... :)
It is not that we totally drop idea of PLA, but slowly I believe that do not exist injection molding grade PLA and mainly PLA is just substitute for PET all materials which we now try to use are near injection molding grade then is no problem with switching between materials.
Best Regards
We injection-molded QTY: 10,000+ units (3" x 3" x 2" electronics casings) with PLA 3052D CL (CL=clear, but then colored) INGEO BAG107 from Nexeo Solutions Plastics.
Injection-molding grade PLA does exist.
- I'm not sure if this particular PLA manufacturer sells it in spooled-form, but I can tell you first-hand that the material exists, and it injection-molds just fine.
