There’s a 3D printer resin that can apparently be reused, over and over.
Normal 3D printer resin is a one-way trip: once solidified, it remains solid forever. More printing requires more resin. There is no recycling path for typical resin prints, as they must be tossed into the landfill.
Imagine my surprise when a reader pointed me to 3Dresyn’s “Circular RePrint Bio”, a “Depolymerisable Circular 3D resin”.
Hold on, what does all that mean? They explain:
“This is a 100% circular, bio-positioned 3D resin for SLA, DLP and LCD printing at 385–405 nm that prints solid parts and later depolymerises back to a reusable syrup under a controlled thermal trigger.”
In other words, you can heat a print in this resin and it will decompose back into the original resin. It’s intended for circular workflows where parts must be remade in different shapes repeatedly.
3Dresyn, based in Spain, offers a wide range of unusual 3D printer resins, colorants, resin additives, resin for inkjet systems, 2PP resins, molding resins, and even resin for volumetric 3D printing processes. They also produce SLS powders and binder fluids.
I’ve never heard of a 3D printer resin that can do this. 3Dresyn describes the process as a “true circular workflow”, which goes from liquid to printed solid to liquid.
They offer this resin in two variants: DP80 and DP150. The number represents the temperature at which the depolymerization occurs, in Celsius. For low temperature applications, for example, you’d choose DP80, which breaks down at 80C. For higher temperature applications, DP150 breaks down at 150C.
The materials tend to soften at slightly lower temperatures, for example, DP80 is “activated” around 70C. 3Dresyn said that this can be done either in an oven or in a warm bath, although I’m wondering how you recover the resin if it dissolves in a tub of warm water.
They say that depending on the print’s geometry, it could take between ten to sixty minutes to complete the syrupization process.
3Dresyn said the material has a slightly clear appearance with an amber tint.
I’m quite fascinated with this material. But I also have several questions:
- It seems to use a different chemistry than typical acrylate resins; is it similarly toxic?
- Does the material degrade after repeated cycles?
- How strong is the material when cured?
Then there’s the pricing and availability. Currently, 3Dresyn’s website lists the two variants as “SOLD OUT”, so they are not actually purchasable at the moment. It’s not clear if or when they will become available again.
The pricing is a bit surprising. A 1kg bottle of either variant will cost €700 (US$928). That’s extraordinarily expensive as resin goes.
But perhaps there’s another way to think about it: if you can recycle it over and over, then you get more use from this resin. Imagine iteratively printing a dozen prototypes in resin, but using only one prototype’s worth of resin?
That’s a scenario worth thinking about.
Via 3Dresyn (Hat tip to anonymous)
