Stepping off on this project (finally), will post my notes here. I'm doing some design/fab work for a customer and they are fine with me publishing all the R&D work I did to prepare their product so other people in OSS/OSH can copy and improve. (Funny thing, chemists, they have these crazy ideas about sharing research and process, even with the competition, and it sounds almost like open source. Client wants some small (50ml) containers for a chemical process that are printed in PEEK because of its chemical and electrical characteristics. (Lots of details on wiki.) Right now they use some cheap, COTS kitchen containers but these are hard to clean and easily damaged. I suspect it's also hazmat at disposal time, so they have the choice of paying for expensive disposal or expensive hourly rates to clean and re-use the containers. A smooth, easily cleaned PEEK container solves pretty much all of their problems. (And maybe all of the problems of their competitors? This I hope! From a potential vendor, I have a PEEK sample that prints at 390 - 430 C. I floated the cost ($1/g) by the client and they're still interested. I did some test prints in 1800 that can't be used for the customer's real process, but they can play EZ Oven Bakery in the lab and see if it fits all their lab tools and space requirements. Rather than "test" (aka "destroy") with my dual hybrid, I want to print an x carriage using the "single" model from the distro. I'd print it in EDGE and mount a single v6/Titan that's been stripped of all the plastic possible. I have the budget (and time) to buy a reel of another filament, say BluPrint or Alloy 910, so I'm open to suggestions.
Super interesting. What are " OSS/OSH" and "1800"? Which printers are currently used for printing Peek successfully? How are they constructed? I thought that it involved making something of an enclosed compartment with a raised ambient temperature? In which case you might want to print the extruder in something high temperature and make it full bowden to get the extruder motor out of the way?
I haven't found any specific product yet, just a few people who are printing with self-fabricated systems. The Dyze hotend is popular and they have a thingiverse collection of adapters for other printers. They suggested (in email) that I can print out of PLA with their hotend and not have any temperature problems. Bowden is a good suggestion, moving all that plastic off the hotend makes cooling less of an issue.
I've been following the Indmatec news, but way out of my project's budget. The Roboze is interesting, I'll take a look.
It all sounds quite the adventure, and thanks for posting about it, it will be interesting to see how you get on.
Stupid paying work out of the way and back to this... I'm going to print a single bowden carriage for this, that way if something overheats and melts it's not my dual hybrid from E3D. I'll use EDGE, but I'm working on the printed parts list. Should I just print everything in STLs/single except for the ooze wiper/bucket and motor mount?
