3 ms·
No, it's similar to hard plastic.
by stagbeetle 10y ago
No, it's similar to hard plastic.
- jlebrech 10y agoI thought it was plant based
- stagbeetle 10y agoBoth plastic and petroleum jelly are petroleum-based, but have drastically different properties. The cellulose polymer acts as hard plastic.
- maxerickson 10y agoCellulose acetate was one of the first materials used for many of the things we use petroleum based plastics for now. Early Lego were cellulose acetate. It's still used for lots of things.
- logfromblammo 10y agoCellulose is a very useful chemical. It was generally replaced by petrochemical synthetic polymers for many of its original applications because the latter may be more stable at higher temperatures, under UV light, in contact with certain common chemicals (like water), etc. And most of the petro-plastics are cheaper to manufacture. Cellulosic thermoplastics often appear in products where you don't want the plastic component to last forever, particularly textile fibers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_acetate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_acetate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_triacetate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_triacetate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellophane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellophane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyocell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyocell This 3D printing application seems similar to processes used to produce rayon and cellophane, but instead of producing the more universally useful fiber and sheet forms as a commodity, it forms an end-product directly and then stabilizes it chemically.