Getting hot plastic to stick (idea / discussion)

Guys,

One of the issues I seem to be getting is finding a good way to get the
extruded plastic to stay were it has been extruded.

I just wondered if anyone had played around with static electricity as a way to get plastic to stick. If static electricity can cause a ballon to stick to a wall how about plastic to a reprap print bed.

Apparantly static electricity is used in spray painting to make the paint stick.

(from wikip)

[edit] Electrostatic spray painting (Powder-coating)
The atomized particles are made to be electrically charged, there by repelling each other, and spreading them selves evenly as they exit the spray nozzle. The object being painted is charged oppositely, or grounded. The paint is then attracted to the object giving a more even coat than wet spray painting, and also increasing the percentage of paint that actually sticks to the object.

Source [en.wikipedia.org]

regards

Stephen

source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboelectric_series)

Triboelectric_series

This is a series apparantly glass genereates a + static effect and Plastic
produces a - static effect.

This line got me quite interested

"Other examples of materials that can acquire a significant charge when rubbed together include glass rubbed with silk"

Glass would make an excellent surface to extrude on as it is pefectly flat with little chance of warping, easily available and cheap.

Now where can I get some silk?

Hope my lady doesn't catch me. Grin

Stephen

... have a look at the forces when warping, mostly applying when the plastic is already solid and cools down - i don't think with electrostatics you will measure any usable effects ... it's simply not strong enough

Viktor

I have a 50 W heated base plate that gets rid of most of the warping as long as I allow the part to cool on the base plate before moving it. It uses a lot of power, and the warm up and cooling periods add a lot of time between prints.