Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Bugs Brew PLA Direct
A team from South Korea’s KAIST University and the chemical company LG Chem, have developed a one-stage process which produces our favourite fabrication material, polylactic acid, and its copolymers through direct fermentation of starch. They've genetically engineered E.coli to do the job, which makes the production of PLA cheaper and more "commercially viable."
There are undoubtedly patents on this, and I don't know how the separation process works, but cheaper biodegradable feedstock for the current generation of RepRaps and the ability to basically brew the stuff in a vat will doubtless have an impact on both RepRap technology and our greed for oil.
Vik :v)
There are undoubtedly patents on this, and I don't know how the separation process works, but cheaper biodegradable feedstock for the current generation of RepRaps and the ability to basically brew the stuff in a vat will doubtless have an impact on both RepRap technology and our greed for oil.
Vik :v)
Labels: kaist, pla, polylactic, polylactic acid
Sunday, May 13, 2007
PLA Filament works
Back at the start of the year, plastics suppliers Claraint were kind enough to donate 10kg of polylactic acid (PLA) granules to the RepRap Project. Alan from Imagin Plastics - a welding rod and extrusion specialist in Henderson, New Zealand - then ran these granules through an extruder to produce 800m of 3mm diameter filament which I picked up on Friday. It was dried overnight at 60C and then extruded using a 180C die and 170C feed. Here's there wondrous extrusion machine:
And here's the batch of filament I picked up. It's actually quite transparent.
By running an unmodified Mk2 extruder at 155C and increasing the pressure on the filament - it's much harder than CAPA - I managed to run it well enough to produce this shotglass:
This material definitiely has some artistic possibilities.
Further experimentation is needed, but it does look like it will be possible to make watertight containers with a reasonable degree of strength from PLA in a Darwin. A straight-through extruder would probably have an easier time feeding filament, as the stuff is rather stiff.
Vik :v)
And here's the batch of filament I picked up. It's actually quite transparent.
By running an unmodified Mk2 extruder at 155C and increasing the pressure on the filament - it's much harder than CAPA - I managed to run it well enough to produce this shotglass:
This material definitiely has some artistic possibilities.
Further experimentation is needed, but it does look like it will be possible to make watertight containers with a reasonable degree of strength from PLA in a Darwin. A straight-through extruder would probably have an easier time feeding filament, as the stuff is rather stiff.
Vik :v)
Labels: clariant, extrusion, filament, henderson, imagin plastics, pla, polylactic acid, reprap, zaphod
