Thermoset Type Plastics used in a extrusion type printer?

Would it be possible to use thermoset resins such as epoxy and polyester in an heat/extrusion type printer say with polyester or epoxy powder in a screw type extruder? Obviously temperature would need to be higher than thermoplastic to extrude but would be possible? What about material strength after such a heating/cooling cycle(s)?

... check for "hot melt dispensing", as shown here (look at the video too) - [www.vermes.com]

This could be ued with "filled" materials too ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Ok that's an interesting piece of equipment.
I have been trying to "think outside the box" regarding plastics and how to develop new processes for producing material such as filament or print heads that can utilize new materials.

The specific material/process I want to develop would involve using powder form plastics but not in the same way as SLS.

I'm quite certain the equipment I would be using and the blends/additives would work. I also can do it with mostly existing equipment and for a low cost. I knew it was possible to obtain very fine powders that are typically used in SLS powder fusion printing but when I saw the prices for those powders as provided specifically for SLS it was horrifying.

100.00$+ per kilogram! Additionally there are currently limited polymer types available (primarily various nylons)

I have theorized a process to produce very fine spherical plastics in a number of polymers however that is a whole other thing and would involve serious equipment and manufacturing methods including solvent reclamation.

There is at least one processor that may be able to produce powders from many types of polymers that I plan on getting in contact with to see if they can help.

As an alternative I was thinking of thermoset types of plastics and wondering if they could work. For example there are Polyester and Epoxy powders that are commonly available and relatively inexpensive for use in the metal powder coating industry.

My real question is how well those types of polymers respond to several heating and cooling cycles.

They may be able to be heated once and retail good strength characteristics but can they be heated to transition (softening temperature) twice? Three times? (and still retain favorable physical properties)

It's my understanding that with thermoset plastics maximum crosslinking of polymer occur with initial mixing of a base resin and catalyst and may increase with an initial heat treatment but don't now how they would respond to being fully melted and cooled subsequently. Similar considerations would also apply to photo polymers.

P.S. that hot melt glue application apparati could be probably used for numerous processes including application of binder for metal powder printing. Perhaps not necessarily what I'm looking to do but interesting though. Thanks for showing that. I figured Rep Rappers were perhaps the best community to talk to about obscure, perhaps untapped materials and equipment repurposing!

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2024 01:24AM by brianmh13.

... repeated melting plastic materials will degrade them - so maybe better working with solvents or lower temps.

One of my related ideas was to laser-sinter dark plastic powders or lignin-powder (have some from Tecnaro)

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

That's what I thought. I imagined it's detrimental to thermoset types of polymers. To what degree though would be interesting to determine.