Printing Nylon

As I understand it, Nylon is made from two clear liquids that form Nylon almost instantly when combined. With this we may be able to print some netting fabric for clothing, filters, and even as reinforcement for other structures. Being that these are liquids we may be able to use a color ink cartridge printer for testing and then just install the same print head on the RepRap for our projects.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2007 11:35AM by Cheap!.

I've seen a video of this reaction taking place. Its fast. Could be a real good way to add strength, flexibility, and fabric to our print list. I'm not sure how crazy the two chemicals are that produce it though. I think they come exclusively from petroleum products. Not great but could be doable.

Demented

think about the type of things that could be printed with the print head. Dreamcatchers galore, and suspension bridges, and really intricately designed fishing nets, and maybe even a raincoat?

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Jay

I'm thinking more along the lines of amazingly durable products. I remember the first time I bought a quality tool after having suffered through using a shitty one. The difference was apparent immediatly. Think of having all of the stuff you own be of the utmost durability, quality, and style. Those are the things I'm thinking.

Demented

... AFAIK the string made in the scool-experiment with the two liquids in a glass isn't the 'real' nylon end-product - it's not so strong and homogene as the known nylon-wire.

I think you have to cure/harden the reaction-string with wetting in some third chemistry or remelt and stretch it 'on the fly' ...

Then it's worth thinking: either you 'weave' 3D-objects with the hardened string (as in my thread "3D fabric" [forums.reprap.org] )
Or you perform the reaction on the surface of the fabbed object - either by a 2K-mixing-head or with a two-materials-ink-jet, where the two fluids combine dotwise to form the 3D-object ...

Viktor

My wager is that nylon will be problematic to print.
As Viktor says, the stuff you get when mixing the adipic acid with a diamine, for example, releases molecules of water that need to be carried away or they interfere in the properties of the end polymer.

I would rather look into Polyurethanes: polyols and diisocyanates can produce very hard and tough polymers. They can also be bough as bi-components for pretty cheap:

look at the bottom of this page, that's the one I mean:
[www.shopmaninc.com]