PLA Powder

I have been looking around for some powder for use for laser sintering. I was wondering if anyone had experimented with PLA powder.

During my search I discovered that it is used in hand cleansers and make up products to provide an abrasive "scrub" to remove dirt. There are also other powders available such as a PLA wax mix that may be of interest to us reprappers.

I thought that this might be an avenue to explore as there are many "Cottage industry" cosmetics companies that must purchase this stuff in small quantities.

Powder supplier

I hope to add the ability to sinter polymer powders to the powderbed printer after first using cold processes, so it would be really valuable to get sources for the powders, maybe a wiki page for links etc

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Random Precision

... one of my local companies ships PLA-granules - i should ask, if they have it as powder too ...

Until now i have some other powders from this company: PMMA (fresh after grinding, i have to screen it), PE, ABS(?) and some thermoplastic pigments that will melt to solid too.

From another company i've got lignin-powder, what's an organic thermoplast, extracted from wood ... it's brown in colour, so should work good with IR-lasers, which have problems with white or clear materials (so i have to mix them with pigments for laser-sintering).

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Did you find a PLA Powder provider? I'm also trying to find one that will ship small quantities in order to run some tests (also for SLS)

... no PLA powder - found some clear/white PP and coloured thermoplastic pigments.

Clear powder is only usable with a CO2-laser, not with the common diodelasers.

Got recently a CO2-laser-engraver and actually busy with converting/reworking it for use with a RAMPS electronic ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

From what i can tell, PLA practically only exists as a material for disposable silverware and as a 3D printer material, and also BB pellets. These are super niche uses with the somewhat weak justification that they biodegrade ("faster" than other plastics = 100s of years underground still). AS far as plastics go, its pretty weak, and low temp, compared to most plastics, except PVC, PS, and LDPE...which are many times cheaper.

If it was really useful or available, you would see sheets of it on sale at mcmaster. so I doubt you will find a powder pla any time soon, unless you can think of an application, like I heard ABS being used in powder coating or laser printers.

... as PLA is more moisture sensitive than other plastics, this could be one of the problems involved, prohibiting storage of powdered PLA

In July I'm job changing for going deeper into lasers and SLD/DLM - will then reassign my sources for powdered materials, so can look for PLA or other bio-plastics as powders.

But my main interests for plastics are more focussed on sheets and wires ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

HI All,

PMMA powders available ex stock in 45, 85 and 140 micron if needed

info@aksechemicals.com

Hey guys heres some links i found that may be of use... I have been looking also for SLS experiments, If anyone has ordered pla powder (not pellets) please let me know what your experience was like...

A. Schulman

Resinex

One-Plastics

Busytrade.com

Micro Powders Inc