‘Most of the plastics we use come from ollandits derivatives. However, some plastics are of natural origin, such as latex or starch derivatives. Depending on the form of each polymer, we can classify plastics as thermoplastics (separate chains of polymers, thermoset (crss-crossed polymer chains) or elasto- ‘mers (coiled polymer chains). e Ose, @? reer Based on their intemal structure, we can distinguish between three large groups of plastics: thermoplastics, thermosets and elastomers. Thermoplastics ‘Thermoplastic materials are plastic that are softened by heating and can be formed and melted as many times as we lke. Ths is because their polymers have ‘weak bonds. Polyethylene ‘The most common type of plastic. It offers good chemical resistance. It is non-toxic, (PE) ‘s0 itis suitable for food packaging. It is used in bags, bottles, pipes, containers, etc. a ea = | Polystyrene: ‘Avery lightweight transparent plastic, Expanded polystyrene (styrofoam) is widely @s) - sedin packaging and for heat insulation == {paz Hip resistant asin and pac Rs wren pipes, able nalaon ard | | Coven (peat esdooas x& chloride) i 3 e “Polypropylene Aplastic thats easy to model and ye is estant to slventsand splintering i (PP) | used for toys, folders, packaging, etc. eT Suitable for food use ths plastic is completely recyleble, transparent and easy to (polyethylene dye.Itis used to make bottles. a terephthalate) ze : eS mI Teflon Highly resistant to chemicals and high temperatures. it has excellent non-stick properties so ts sed to coat fying pans and ater kitchen utensis. Polycarbonate Highly resistantto impact and hea. [thas good optical ensparency. HPO) Tedhags Progaming and bs 3 £50 ed Dares‘Melamine Resistant to high temperatures and chemicals; its easy to clean. Its used asa coating for wooden boards and in the ‘manufacture of kitchen cupboards. Bakelite ‘Ahard and britle, dark plastic that withstands heat very ‘well (but chars and breaks down at very high tempera- tures) Iti used to make handles of kitchen utensils elec- trical accessories, plugs, etc. "Polyesteresins Fig and brite, they are usually strengthened wih | breglass. They are used in car bodies, domestic swimming “poo et Elastomers Elastomers are very flexible materials that recover their shape and dimensions when external forces stop acting on them. They degrade easly | cannot be re-mel rey have been formed. Rubber Can be natural latex) or synthetic. Because ofits elastici- used to make tyres, hoses, rubber bands, etc. Neoprene Flexible, insulated and waterproof, so itis idea for smersion suits. ‘ee Peon a eaDifferent methods are used to give a stable form to different types of plastic. The ‘most common ones are: = Extrusion Tis procedures used with thermoplastics to obtain long products (pipes, profiles, etc). ‘The plastic material is poured through 2 hoppet on to a rotating worm. As the worm tins it pushes the plastic through a hot tube, where itis melted. it comes out of the tube in the shape of the nozzle ofthe extruder. The product is then cooled. 5 Injection moulding ‘The melted plastic is injected into a cold mould, were it slicifies. Once itis cooled, the mould is opened and the ob- Jectis removed. ‘This method is used to make casings for kitchen appliances, toys, buckets, bows, etc. = Compression mouldin ‘This procedure is used with thermoset plastics. The plastic is placed between a ‘mould and a counter mould. Using pressure and heat, the plastic is melted and adopts the desired shape. This method is used to form small parts such as plugs. Blow mouldin: ‘This procedure starts with a tube that has been formed by extrusion. Al is blown inside the tube until itdilates and adopts the shape of the mould. Blow moulding is used to form bottles, toys and hollow objects. = Vacuum forming This procedure is used with thermoplas- tic sheets that are heated and placed on a ‘mould. The vacuums then turned on, which forces the sheet adapt to the shape of the ‘mould. This method is used to make yoghurt pots, egg cups ayers for boxes of chocolates, etc. GB eri wins tone RR QaS oi | = on aes | athiav atid @nzno.s ap oncsnsn IM j (ea The plastic parts produced in the processes we have described usually have an ac- ceptable finish, Sometimes, however, we need to cut or drill same of these parts, or join several of them together. Machining operations are the techniques used to give the final nish to parts. They Include turning, milling and grinding, = Turning This consists of holding the plastic partin amps. and rotating it. As it turns, a blade shapes the outer surface ofthe part Did you know...? Tile ce heme psi tcn eye, Miling involves grinding the part using a rotary too with lots of teeth © Grindin: Agrinding machine has an abrasive wheel that polishes. the surface of the part to remove burrs and excess ma~ tera Plastics are extremely useful but they generate large quantities of waste that build up on the surface ofthe planet. Unite other materials (such as wood), plastics are mainly non-blodegradable; this ‘means that they do not degrade overtime. The recycling of plastics is generally also expensive and can release harmful or pollu: ing gases into the atmosphere, Plastic recycling begins withthe separation ofthe different types of plastics that we clispose of in yellow waste containers Thermoplastcs are washed, ground up and fed into an extruder, which uses heat to ‘melt them in order to make new parts We cll this process mechanical recycling. Tea gaming iba etePasties, 2D dadign and painting ‘Clonee 3D printer wit edb Because thermoplastic materials ate easy to mould and form, they are used in 3D printing (aso called additive manufacturing). ‘The most widely used plastics ae ABS (for industrial use) and PLA (for domestic use, ‘Special plastics can also be obtained using different additives. © ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) ‘Avery tough, hard and rigid plastic It can withstand high temperatures and is easy topaint tis very resistant and has some flexibility Iehas.a very high melting point and must be heated to 230-260 °C for use in addi- tive manufacturing, When we print with ABS, the resulting parts must obtain the required stability on a heat bed (a heated print bed where the partis created). ‘ABS easy to machine and has good finishes, Harmful gases are released when we print with this plastic, 50 it should only be used in ventilated environments. tis not biodegradable but itis recyclable (we can obtain filament coils from scraps left over from printing). PLA (polylactica ‘This plastic is created from natural materials such as com starch or sugar cane. Its biodegradable and does not release toxic gases when itis used in printing. Its ‘odourless, resistant to humidity and stable under ultraviolet radiation (it does not fade). Itcan be used for quick printing and does not need a heated print bed. It is used at ‘temperatures of 190-200 °C, Parts printed with PLA cannot withstand temperatures as high as ABS; at 50-60 °C, they start to break down, This material is also much more difficult to machine and paint than ABS, 1 Laybrick ‘filament for 3D printing made from a mixture of plaster and plastic materials. We can use this filament to create parts with a sandstone-ike appearance, Its easy to sand and paint. 2 D3. ‘A flament for 3D printing made from a polymer and 403% wood particles. We can Use ths filament to obtain parts with a wood:-ike fnish. t can be sawn, sanded and painted, 1 Filaflex ‘A flexible fiament witha base of polyurethane and other additives that make it ex- tremely elastic. Printing with this material is siow. It can be used to print trainers, prostheses, mobile phone casings, etc. edna Roymeg dts 50h onaPasties, 2 dastgm and prtatng haracteristics A3D printer's amachine that can print Figures with volume from a computer design, ‘The fist three-dimensional printer was created over 30 years ago, with the emer- gence of the stereolithography technique. With this method, three-dimensional ob- jects can be created from digital data. These early printers were mainly directed at industry and the medical fields because it was expensive to buy them and produce parts. ln 2005, an open-source 3D printer was created that could print its own components and lower production costs meant that 3D printers began to be seen in schools and households 3D printers use two main technologies: * Powder bed fusion. The printers that use this technology compact masses of powder in ayers * Extrusion deposition. With this technology, the desired shape is created by adding the material in layers. Printers that use this technique are more economi- cal to buy and are widely used in education. ‘The main parts we find inside 3D printers are: * Electronics. These control all the processes in the printer. They usually include {an Arduino controller board and temperature sensors, a heated bed, power supply, display and card slot, among other components. ‘+ Mechanics. These parts include the motors and mechanisms that move the ma- terial and deposit it in the selected spot. ‘+ Extruder. The part that takes the filament from the coil and deposits the exact, amount on the print bed. The extruder has a hot-end, which is the part that ‘melts the material, soit s a decisive factor in the quality of the printing, At the end ofthishot-end is the nozzle; the iament of melted plastic comes out ofthis. The size of the nozzle hole can range from 0.25 mm to 0.5 mm (the most com- mon size is 0.4 mm). Smaller nozzle holes print more slowly but they produce more precise parts. | ttomoree edna Pyeng ts 50-t aie BO prin ender For enquiring minds! Te apap amie te Us e Coe)Plastias. 8D dasiga and printing There are three distinct phases in three-dimensional printing: design, slicing and printing, Design Fist of al, we design the part that we want to print. We can use any graphic design program for this, including SketchUp, Blender, OpenSCAD, FreeCAD, Tinkercad and ‘AutoCAD. The ile must be saved in STL format, if we have never worked with design programs before or ifwe de not want to create ‘our own design, we can use any ofthe fee designs availabe in repositories such as Thingivese or YouMagine. § Slicing Pane Slicing programs translate the STL file into GCODE format, which is the format that —— the printer understands, ‘This format isa text fle. Slicing programs determine how many layers of plastic are needed to make the designed part and the order that they should be created i. Common slicing programs include Cura and Sic3r. ee ee ee ‘The GCODE file generated during slcing is copied to a memory card that is inserted inthe 30 printer. ‘These printers need certain temperature parameters and print options that are usu ally supplied by the manufacture. ‘The user can change these parameters later to suit the characteristics ofthe part to be printed, ince 3D printing was adopted by households, constant progress and new proposals are being made fortis technology. '8Q, a Spanish 30 design and printing company, has new launched Cielop, an open- bq source 3D scanner that eliminates the need to design complex parts that already exist. cies ees Clondex is 3 company from Extremadura that develops 3D printing technology. It ‘has created a lightweight, portable and foldable printer called Bamboo with a dual YX CLONDEX extruder fr two-colou printing that reduces printing times. The printer alo has in- terchangeable heads wit a Dremeltype ming tool for creating parts with a more precise finish and for miling soft materials soap past, wood, ete. 30 printing is not only used in industry or the medical sector anymore; some of the new proposals, like 3D food printing, target the food industry too. Foods such as ‘chocolate or pancake batter are easy to work with using 30 printer extruders, ‘And we can be certain that the future has lots more surprises instore, with creations that are unthinkable today. Bamboo printer In Pepin a -bins‘We can use different computer programs to control each stage of the 3D printing process. Some ofthe most common ones are described below. = Programs for designing parts * OpenSCAD. Free software and cross-platform application I fs used to create a 3D object froma program that indicates the characteristics of the object, called a script. We can also use existing (primitive) figures to create more complex shapes and structures, * Tinkercad. Free software application. We need an Internet connection to design with Tinkercad. The user modifies preset shapes by deforming or merging them, (or by creating hollow cavities inside them, We may find it limited if we want to «create very complex shapes, but itis ideal as an introduction to 3D design. * FreeCAD. Free software and cross-platform application for designing in 3D. Based on the C++ and Python programming languages. Slicing programs * Cura. This application translates the abject designed in 3D into horizontal layers so thatthe printer can build the object vertically, from the base up. The material Is deposited in layers and each one is completed before the next one is started. * Slie3. Free software application used to generate a fle containing information ‘on the layers that need to be printed to produce the designed part. control software ‘+ Repetier-Host. Freeware application for handling printing temperatures and ‘movements. It incorporates several slicing programs, such as Cura and Slic. It also displays the path and temperature ofthe hot-end during printing. eanpes of pars obained wih 2 3D per: sands for Hang SD cards (ef) etek for reps and maccamrce fhe pier ih). OpenScAD F& FreeCAD ‘Open Seurceparametic 30 CAD melee