Recovering polymer from three-dimensional printed objects
AssigneePeridot Print LLC
InventorsErica Fung, Alay Yemane, Emre Hiro Discekici
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of recovering polymer from a three-dimensional printed object can include dissolving a polyamide polymer of a three-dimensional printed object in a polyamide-dissolving solvent to generate dissolved polyamide polymer from the three-dimensional object, where the three-dimensional printed object can include a particulate fusing compound and from about 90 wt % to about 99.9 wt % of the polyamide polymer; separating the particulate fusing compound from the polyamide-dissolving solvent and the dissolved polyamide polymer; and evaporating the polyamide-dissolving solvent from the dissolved polyamide polymer.
Claims19
-11. (canceled)
A method of recycling a polymer from a three-dimensional printed object, comprising pelletizing a recovered product from the three-dimensional printed object, the recovered product including from about 90 wt % to about 99.99 wt % of a polymer and from about 0.01 wt % to about 10 wt % of residual fusing agent components including dried residual organic co-solvent and dried residual surfactant to form injection molding pellets having a size ranging from about 750 nm to about 10 μm.
Recovered polyamide polymer from a three-dimensional printed object including i) a polyamide polymer and ii) a particulate fusing compound having a D50 particle size of from about 20 μm to about 150 μm and is selected from the group consisting of carbon black, lanthanum hexaboride, tungsten bronze, indium tin oxide, aluminum zinc oxide, ruthenium oxide, silver, gold, platinum, iron pyroxene, iron phosphate, copper pyrophosphate, and a combination thereof, wherein the recovered polyamide polymer is obtained by a method comprising:
- dissolving the polyamide polymer of the three-dimensional printed object in a polyamide-dissolving solvent to generate dissolved polyamide polymer from the three-dimensional printed object, wherein the polyamide-dissolving solvent is selected from the group consisting of a cresol, a fluorinated C2-C4 alcohol, and a combination thereof;
- separating the particulate fusing compound from the polyamide-dissolving solvent and the dissolved polyamide polymer;
- and
- evaporating the polyamide-dissolving solvent from the dissolved polyamide polymer,
- wherein the recovered polymer comprises from about 90 wt % to about 99.99 wt % of the polyamide polymer and from about 0.01 wt % to about 10 wt % of the residual fusing agent components.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.