Jim, I noticed the same things about the article. I included the link as an example of what's out there. If you Google "PLA and 3D printing", you''ll come up with a lot of other sources, some of which have a very different take. Beth's article says "PLA was chosen because of its strength and ability to make very large prints without cracking or warping."
Gosh, Ann – That article is less than encouraging as an endorsement for PLA. It actually says it is best used as the support-structure for the primary material being ABS; that the PLA will degrade away, leaving the host ABS in place. The article is about 2 years old. I'm hoping that if MakerBot has invested their product line on this material as the primary building block, that it has rugged, stable material characteristics. Guess the Jury's still out.
Jim, I just did a little googling on the topic of PLA use in 3D printers. Here's some info: http://blog.makezine.com/2010/05/15/3d-printing-using-pla-as-a-support/
This device looks very attractive for a small sized design house. I would ask the entry-questions:
1) Not familiar with the PLA material; can we compare it something familiar and provide some specs-?
2) How big is the platen-? (max LxWxH of printed result)
3) What is the expected cost of the materials to print (per unit volume of delivered objects)-?
4) While 100 microns sounds awesome, it equals .004" – nearly 10x the coarse resolution of an Objet printer; but at 1/10th the price, still very acceptable.
Realizing these value-added points, it makes this very desirable for my office. I'm looking forward to learning more about it.
Beth, I notice that the Replicator 2 uses bioplastic PLA, not ABS. This appears to be an emerging trend in additive manufacturing, at least at the higher end. Do you know of any other 3D printers that use bioplastics?
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