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There are entry-level consumer filaments that would withstand the UV and heat requirements for outdoor use, such as PETG which is UV stable and as strong as ABS
by ehnto 4y ago
There are entry-level consumer filaments that would withstand the UV and heat requirements for outdoor use, such as PETG which is UV stable and as strong as ABS.
By entry-level I mean able to be printed on the everymans Ender 3, <$300 printer with little expertise. There are of course dozens of exotic filaments you can print on a slightly more advanced machine and even that can be done for pretty cheap, <$500 perhaps if you have the expertise to upgrade an Ender and tune it properly.
The benefit injection molding has over printing in this case, is these parts might want to be redesigned to reduce sheering at the layer lines on the peg things.
- malfist 4y agoUV stability is only one aspect. What happens when you build a greenhouse out of these and the temps reach high enough to deform these? How long do you think the structure will stay stable with or without UV paint? I've had a greenhouse melt nursery pots left in it and they're made out of polypropylene, which has a glass temp 50C higher than ABS.
- traverseda 4y agoThe inside of your greenhouse is reaching ~150 degrees celsius? Why aren't your plants boiling? Is it just a color thing? EDIT: the glass transition point of PP is -25C, vs ABS's 105c. I think you confused glass transition point with melting point, they're very different things. I think polypropylene will always be a bit soft, and will hold a shape that it's deformed into, it it hold that shape long enough.
- ehnto 4y agoSorry I think you might just be mistaken. If your greenhouse is reaching 150c then there's actually not that many common plastics that wouldn't hit the glass transition temp. There are some exotic "plastic blends" like glass or carbon fibre/mineral blends that can do it, but even most of those are less than 140c. In this table even the modified versions of polypropylene have glass transition temperatures below negative: https://omnexus.specialchem.com/polymer-properties/properties/glass-transition-temperature#A-C https://omnexus.specialchem.com/polymer-properties/propertie... I don't think it should be too surprising that 3D printing filaments can withstand similar characteristics to other outdoor plastics. One commonly used outdoor plastic is PVC which has a glass transition temp between PETG and ABS: PETG: 80c, PVC: 85c, ABS: 103c. If you left a PVC pipe in your greenhouse you wouldn't expect it to deform.