{"id":2927,"date":"2019-09-23T11:19:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T11:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/?p=2927"},"modified":"2019-09-23T11:19:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T11:19:44","slug":"willowflex-creates-a-flexible-compostable-3d-printing-filament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/2019\/09\/23\/willowflex-creates-a-flexible-compostable-3d-printing-filament\/","title":{"rendered":"WillowFlex Creates a Flexible, Compostable 3D Printing Filament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.bioplasticsmagazine.com\/en\/news\/meldungen\/20150820-Introducing-WillowFlex.php\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>August 20<sup>th<\/sup>, 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WillowFlex\nis a new flexible filament for 3D printers that offers unmatched superior\nperformance with greater temperature resistance, better adhesion and faster\nprinting speeds. The filament is made with a bioplastic called Terratek\u00ae Flex,\na compostable elastomeric bioplastic made by Green Dot (Cottonwood Falls, KS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BioInspiration\nprides itself on identifying materials that \u201cfollow nature&#8217;s lead\u201d, i.e. are\ncompostable, upcyclable, harmless, innovative and resilient. In the course of\nthe search for a material that could meet these requirements, BioInspiration\nlearned about Terratek\u00ae Flex, Green Dot&#8217;s compostable elastomeric bioplastic.\nIt was a good fit: Green Dot had already been experimenting with ways to put\ntheir plastic into 3D Printing for a number of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WillowFlex\noffers makers and the decentralized production community a filament that is not\njust greener, but also offers unique physical properties unmatched by other\nflexible filaments currently available. As BioInspiration CEO Brian Crotty\nexplained, &#8220;We see over and over that nature has a way of surprising us.\nWhen we began experimenting with WillowFlex, we found that as a bioplastic\nfilament, it had several advantages inherent to the material.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nmaterial maintains structural integrity at temperatures above 212\u00b0F (100\u00b0C) and\nmaintains flexibility at temperatures as low as 5\u00b0F (-15\u00b0C). WillowFlex has\nexcellent layer adhesion and can also be printed at higher speeds, allowing for\nfaster part production. Florian Deurer, who works in the filament laboratory at\n3dk.berlin was immediately impressed with the material. &#8220;It&#8217;s totally\nuncommon for a plastic to be this flexible, this heat resistant and to also\nhave a melting point that is that low that you can print it at temperatures\nuncommon for other plastics,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what&#8217;s very\ninteresting about this material.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Analysis: This article shows how even 3d printing is\nmaking strives towards sustainability and trying to reduce the pollution of\nplastics. Creating a flexible, biodegradable, bioplastic filament is a first step\nin bringing bioplastics to the forefront of technology allowing humans to\ncreate plastic objects that will biodegrade over time. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 20th, 2015 WillowFlex is a new flexible filament for 3D printers that offers unmatched superior performance with greater temperature resistance, better adhesion and faster printing speeds. The filament is made with a bioplastic called Terratek\u00ae Flex, a compostable elastomeric bioplastic made by Green Dot (Cottonwood Falls, KS). BioInspiration prides itself on identifying materials that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2929,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions\/2929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}