Food Grade Materials, Water

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by 242584_deleted, Feb 17, 2017.

  1. Does anyone know if any of the materials that Shapeway's offers, would be safe to store water in?
     
  2. MrNibbles
    MrNibbles Well-Known Member
    Only the Shapeways ceramic porcelain material is considered safe for contact with food or liquids that might be consumed. Other materials could possibly be coated with food safe coatings made for the purpose, such as certain resins or epoxies, but Shapeways does not offer such post production treatments.
     
  3. Cheers, however I noticed that there is no option for a non-glased version in porcelain. Does anyone know anyone that can offer 3D printing in terracotta/clay, without plastic binding glue?
     
  4. 3Dcarving
    3Dcarving Well-Known Member
    @ballyhoos
    It would be interesting to create a 3d printer that only deposits raw clay! It could then be cooked.

    Could we just replace the extruder (specific clay) does that exist?
    cordially
     
    242584_deleted likes this.
  5. Youknowwho4eva
    Youknowwho4eva Well-Known Member
    Our porcelain is produced by printing the mold, then casting the porcelain in the mold, so there is not binder. We've looked at offering non-glazed, but the non-glazed parts are very fragile, and it's a proprietary blend developed by us, so the firing is also unique.
     
  6. Ideally this is exactly what I'm trying to find but using terracotta as it's more versatile, cheaper and stronger than porcelain and ideal for water. Porcelain needs to be fired at a higher temp. unlike terracotta which could contain more "grog" making it stronger & lowering the firing temp also. Why this hasn't been done yet, I have no idea. Maybe someone from Shapeways could shed some light on this? Because it could lead to creating actual cookware.

    Currently it would seem that 3D printing at the consumer level is for very small gimmickly items only. "Print" an actual useful part of proper size and it's not economically viable as the cost is horrendous, as I have recently found out.
     
  7. Youknowwho4eva
    Youknowwho4eva Well-Known Member
    The ceramic that we used to offer, was a special powder used in the same printers as the full color sandstone, the current offering is a truer ceramic. The special formula allows it to flow more freely through the printed mold, allowing for finer details and thinner parts. I find the parts to be much more substantial than the previous offering. 3D printing will never be as cheap as mass manufacturing. We make a one time use mold. Where a manufacturer would use a reusable mold. But that mold could never be unique like a one off 3D printed piece. We don't have the same limits in geometry as a reusable mold.

    I have see videos of extruded ceramics, as well as concrete. With extrusion you wouldn't have near the level of freedom of geometry. But we're always open to suggestions if you find a material and process that you'd like to see, and it's something our community wants available.
     
  8. MrNibbles
    MrNibbles Well-Known Member
    Certainly there are people out there experimenting with clay printing; generally modifying existing extruder type printers to work with clay formulations of one type or another. But that doesn't mean it would be cost effective for Shapeways to offer such products. You're more likely to find stuff like this being done by smaller ceramic studios for internal production and custom items.

    Depending on the formulations you might expect much lower resolution prints. Nothing like you could achieve with the old or present ceramic/porcelain process at Shapeways.

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