Printing PETG materials using FDM rapid prototyping technology

PETG/PCTG is a non-crystalline copolyester (while Coca-Cola or pure water bottles are crystalline polyesters, usually called PET, which are processed by a three-step process). In the production process, since a certain amount of ethylene glycol is replaced by 1,4-cyclohexane dimethanol (CHDM), crystallization can be prevented, thereby improving processing and transparency. The product is highly transparent and has excellent impact resistance. It is especially suitable for forming thick-walled transparent products, and can be designed in any shape according to the designer’s intention. It can be formed by conventional extrusion, injection molding, blow molding, etc., while PETG/ PCTG products have excellent post-processing properties and can be subjected to conventional machining modifications. At the same time, this kind of copolyester passed the FDA’s food contact standards, so it can also be applied to food, health care and other fields.
advantage:
It is first of all a transparent material, so many times the following will be chosen for comparison.
1) PETG/PCTG It is first of all a highly transparent plastic. It has excellent optical properties, high gloss surface and low turbidity, its light transmittance is close to 90%, close to pmma, and better than polycarbonate (PC).
2) PETG/PCTG has a wider range of chemical resistance (such as coffee, chocolate, grease, acid, etc.). It has excellent chemical resistance to the following chemicals: automotive oils, soaps, detergents, detergents, carpet cleaners, toothpaste and peppermint oils, perfumes, cooking oils, 2-propanol, hydrocarbon solvents, etc. ,
3) It is one of the few environmentally friendly plastic materials to date. The reason why it is environmentally friendly is because it only burns CO2 and water after burning, which can protect nature. Since 2006, many developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan are strongly promoting the use of environmentally friendly materials like PETG. (PETG has SGS, FDA, MSDN certification), PETG has become one of the preferred alternatives for non-environmentally friendly transparent materials such as PVC. Once your customers propose to use environmentally friendly plastics, PETG should be the first choice.
4) PETG/PCTG is particularly suitable for forming transparent products with thick walls. PETG products with wall thickness can maintain the same excellent light transmittance, and PETG/PCTG products have a transparent ice-blue color that caters to the world trend. The surface is extremely delicate and has super visual effect. In addition, their thick walls Or inside a solid product, it is not easy to generate bubbles during processing. (We have a lot of transparent samples for guests to watch, and these samples belong to all major brands).
5) PETG/PCTG has extremely high toughness, excellent tensile properties and good impact resistance. In transparent plastics, PC has the best toughness and impact resistance, but the stretchability is not good; the tensile properties, toughness and impact resistance of acrylic are not good; and PETG has extremely high toughness and excellent tensile strength. Performance, its maximum stretch ratio can reach more than 180%, its impact strength is several times that of acrylic, but slightly worse than PC, while PCTG is a wide range of transparent plastics, plastics with close impact strength to PC One of them, PCTG has a reputation of being “not bad” and is derived from its super-toughness.
The superior toughness greatly reduces the breakdown of finished products during secondary processing, transportation, installation and use, greatly reducing the overall cost of finished products. PETG/PCTG also has a prominent advantage: Its physical and mechanical properties hardly change at low temperatures.
6) They have fun secondary processing performance. Excellent ductility makes it possible to have multiple secondary processing methods for PETG/PCTG. You can laser cut, mill, die, drill, weld, punch, bend, cold bend (less than 2.5 mm), screw/rivet/bolt or fix their products. The processing performance is poor, because the PC is more likely to cause stress concentration during molding. Once the above secondary processing method is performed, the stress balance of the PC product may be broken or the product may be cracked.
7) They have excellent printing properties and coating properties. That is to say, the surface of PETG/PCTG plastic products can be subjected to various printing (spraying, silk screen printing, pad printing, hot stamping, etc.) or spraying without any special corona treatment, and the bonding property with the surface coating. Very good (Note: PETG/PCTG has a wide range of chemical resistance, but it is not guaranteed to be resistant to solvents in all sprays. Customers are advised to pre-customize PETG/PCTG suitable sprays)