Hi All,
My lab recently got it’s first Pioreactor, and we love it. We are planning on printing some parts for it, but no one has any experience using polypropylene or polycarbonate based filaments. So in true science fashion, we are planning to print with several different materials and do some characterization. For sure we are going to test watertightness, ease of printing, and ability to be autoclaved. What other tests should we run?
Good luck! Two other tests come to mind:
Chemical compatibility: What are the GL45 media caps made of? - #2 by CamDavidsonPilon
Dimensional accuracy - and check again post-autoclave!
We use standard matte black PLA for most parts, and Prusa’s PC-CF for the autoclavable parts.
Thanks Cam. We will be testing that. On another note, is GL45 the standard used by the caps? I thought GL45 was for larger media bottles.
GL45 is used by media bottles, yes, but we sell a custom cap for them: GL45 media bottle cap with luer lock connectors | Pioreactor
Our vial caps are also made from PC-CF.
Hopping in here to ask a related question, which brand of PC-CF filament do you use for the vial caps? I’m planning to incorporate syringe pumps and air sparging and need to print modified vial caps for proper tolerance fits, which I would like to have behave similarly to existing Pioreactor components.
Prusament’s PC-CF blend requires annealing to withstand temperatures up to 130 C (otherwise 114 C is the spec limit), is this what your team does?
I’m also seeing CarbonX’s carbon fiber polycarb filament has a deflection temp of 135 C (and similarly wants drying at 120 C for 4 hours).
We use Prusament PC-CF, and don’t perform any annealing post-print.
114C is the heat deflection temp with a moderate force applied. In our case, there is little / no force on our prints when it’s in an autoclave. So warping hasn’t been an issue!
Our next vial cap will have more significant force on it, so that’s when we’ll use a different filament.
Great, thanks for the clarification! On a similar train of thought, will the file for the 40 mL vial lid be uploaded to the printables page at some point? I’d prefer to edit that model rather than start with the 20 mL model and have to replicate the poka-yoke bump-out myself : )
oh did we not add it? Looks like no!
Adding it now: Vial Cap S by Pioreactor | Download free STL model | Printables.com
Well done! Printing PP is not simple! What filament + printer did you use?
We’re using Yousu PP and a Creality K1 plus. We are still figuring out bed adhesion and warping for larger prints though.
Autoclave update: The benchy survived autoclaving at 121 and 30PSIg for 30 minutes with no noticeable effects.
Polypropylene is definetely a bear to print. We’re trying to figure out how to do so without warping. @CamDavidsonPilon is there a file available for the 40mL caps with fewer or no holes?
Here’s one with no holes: Blank 24-400 vial cap by Pioreactor | Download free STL model | Printables.com
Hi guys!
Has anyone tried PET-CF? It appears to be easy to print and has good thermal resistance (according to this Reddit post, it withstands autoclaving well).
@CamDavidsonPilon Could I ask what nozzle size do you employ when printing the autoclavable parts in PC-CF?
We use a 0.4mm hardened steel nozzle
I haven’t tried it. Any idea if it has good chemical resistance? I know some folks have had issues around NaOH addition eating plastics.
