Topic: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Someone i know wants to make parts to be used in beer making.
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
PLA is supposed to be food safe. Just be sure the parts are watertight. Ideally they would be smooth as possible so they clean up well.
- coleke
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Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Interesting- do you know what type of device for brewing? Custom airlocks come to mind, but I could also see printing parts for an auto-siphon (when the brew is at room temp!!). Though if it's for a small scale packaging line, I wouldn't recommend 3d printed parts- maybe a mold or trial for a cnc'd stainless steel or uhmw part- it would be trashed after a few runs.
Grand Rapids, Michigan
SD2 with Sanguinololu board, glass bed mod, E3d_v5 bowden version hotend (currently direct drive), Lawsy Mk5 jigsaw replacement, octopi printserver, drv8825(tiny troubles)
SD2 with Sanguinololu board, glass bed mod, E3d_v5 bowden version hotend (currently direct drive), Lawsy Mk5 jigsaw replacement, octopi printserver, drv8825(tiny troubles)
4 2012-10-05 02:18:05 (edited by Manx 2012-10-05 02:25:50)
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
PLA is BIO degradable do you really want something in your beer or food that is going to be basiclly decomposing? http://www.material.chula.ac.th/Journal … T,%20Y.pdf
break down takes approximately 15 months. SO PLA AND ABS ARE NOT FOOD SAFE
- Brad
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Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
PLA will also melt with hot liquids.
I don't know to what degree abs is food safe, but legos are made out of it and kids suck on legos all day... they must have researched the safety of it.
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Brad each type of PLA has different chemical characteristics each type of filament could be different based on its production meathod.
this may help
http://www.healthychild.org/5steps/5_steps_5/
Other this is a catch-all category which includes:
PC (Polycarbonate): AVOID - can leach Bisphenol-A (BPA). It also includes ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), SAN (Styrene Acrylonitrile), Acrylic, and Polyamide. These plastics can be a safer option because they are typically very durable and resistant to high heat resulting in less leaching. Their drawbacks are that they are not typically recyclable and some need additional safety research. New plant-based, biodegradable plastics like PLA (Polylactic Acid) also fall into the #7 category.
styrene is a carcinogene and its oen of the main producs in ABS
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Doing further research there are only considered to be 3 food safe plastics
HDPE - High Density Polyethylene melting point 248-266 f
LDPE - Low Density Polyethylene melting point 248 f
PP - Polypropylene melting point 320-329 F
from another forum http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,31772,31789 it appears someone has used HDPE for printing
however according to http://reprap.org/wiki/Printing_Material_Suppliers HDPR and PP are only available except as a special order in the us
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Manx wrote:
Brad each type of PLA has different chemical characteristics each type of filament could be different based on its production meathod.
this may help
http://www.healthychild.org/5steps/5_steps_5/Other this is a catch-all category which includes:
PC (Polycarbonate): AVOID - can leach Bisphenol-A (BPA). It also includes ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), SAN (Styrene Acrylonitrile), Acrylic, and Polyamide. These plastics can be a safer option because they are typically very durable and resistant to high heat resulting in less leaching. Their drawbacks are that they are not typically recyclable and some need additional safety research. New plant-based, biodegradable plastics like PLA (Polylactic Acid) also fall into the #7 category.styrene is a carcinogene and its oen of the main producs in ABS
What a thorough treatment of the topic. It can be a bit difficult to explain this in so few words.
Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Brad wrote:
PLA will also melt with hot liquids.
I don't know to what degree abs is food safe, but legos are made out of it and kids suck on legos all day... they must have researched the safety of it.
Hi brad I just saw your post. Never assume just because soemthign is sold that ti has been thoroughly researched for safety. ABS has been around since the late 1950s and infact legos have used it for about that long. However again its not recomended for things to be used for long term food storage as it can result in leachinfg of chemicals.
- Brad
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Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
You are correct Manx, if your going to be storing something for long term you should research carefully what materials are best.
But I have no problem making a cup out of abs for a drink or two 
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Brad wrote:
You are correct Manx, if your going to be storing something for long term you should research carefully what materials are best.
But I have no problem making a cup out of abs for a drink or two
ABS is commonly used for foodware as it is. I just don't whatever leaches from it in me.
Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Thanks all. I've decided to stay away from the microwave. Probably will still make some kitchen tools like an egg separater. Maybe I should ask my materials science professor before the semesters over.
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
HDPE is basically plastic milk carton.
if anyone has a filament making machine perhaps they can try extruding some into filament then run it through their machine and see what happens?
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Exactly.
danny wrote:
HDPE is basically plastic milk carton.
if anyone has a filament making machine perhaps they can try extruding some into filament then run it through their machine and see what happens?
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
I haven't tried it but I've read that it warps far worse than ABS.
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
HDPE will require higher settings for heaton your setup i'm not even sure if the hot head is able to go quite high enough.
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
I'm interested in this topics as well, I have a few parts that will be exposed to alcohol so I want to make sure it is food safe. Is it possible to coat the parts with some kind of food safe silicone or something like that? With my setup these parts would never see any heat more than room temperature so high temperature is not a concern for me.
18 2012-12-14 00:44:00 (edited by Irish 2012-12-14 00:44:33)
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Carpeting is made out of used soda pop bottles and that's leeching into the air you breath all day long. There is little out there these days that isn't made of some kind of plastic that isn't giving off some kind of toxin. Big issue is how much is it giving off? Some are extremely slow and need other chemicals or light to have issues. Research, research and research is about the only answer.
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
Does anyone have a design for a moonshine still?? Is such a thing illegal to distribute? Is so, I don't have one.
Re: anyone know of a food safe filament?
it should melt at between 176 and 260 degrees (melt for extrusion)
http://www.maropolymeronline.com/Proper … 20Prop.asp
should be able to be used right out the box.
Whether you can print on Kapton however is a different story, Nylon cannot be printed on Kapton, (will not stick), but it will stick to a cardboard bed...
Would be good to find out what HDPE prints like -it should be possible.