Formfutura 1.75mm LimoSolve – Natural – 3D Printer Filament

When it comes to desktop 3D printing, Polystyrene filament has very similar characteristics to ABS thermoplastic filament in terms of impact strength and stiffness and it prints very nicely too. HIPS printed parts can be sanded, primed and painted with acrylic afterwards. Besides these similarities with ABS properties, Polystyrene has however one very different property compared to ABS. As it happens Polystyrene dissolves completely in Limonene, a colourless liquid hydrocarbon that has a strong smell of oranges. Limonene however does not interact with ABS. Polystyrene’s solubility in Limonene is a very interesting property that makes PS filament particularly suitable as a support material for printing complex ABS structures. If your 3D printer has a dual extruder, you can print with ABS and PS to build structures which are impossible to make without support material. When your print is done just give it a bath in Limonene, let the Polystyrene dissolve resulting in a seemingly “impossible” creation made with a FFF/FDM desktop 3D printer. Imagine which complex structures you are now able to print…. Extremely difficult to print models, which were previously only printable with very expensive SLS printers, become available to FFF/FDM 3D printers by making use of a soluble support materials! Think about mechanical applications – such as ball bearings, ball and socket joints, and caged gear mechanisms – which are now available for printing with FFF/FDM 3D printers.