PLA bonding, industrial method.
Bonding PLA is not and easy task when a very strong bond is needed for mechanical parts.
CA (Cyanoacrylate), Epoxi, solvent glues and others work quite well for small things and display objects.
There is a fantastic guide about how to bond PLA in here: https://blog.prusaprinters.org/the-great-guide-to-gluing-and-assembling-3d-prints_44908/
But when the parts are big and need to handle big stresses those systems tend to fail.
I needed for my last project a bonding system that produce joints as strong as the parts, give time to reposition, and fill gaps in the big parts if necessary.
So I developed a method of chemical welding PLA that meets that demands. It is not as simple as applying a glue but the results worth the little extra effort. Hope it helps others.
I made a video about it for the ones interested, make sure to see the end of the video:
RE: PLA bonding, industrial method.
Do you have a source for dichloromethane? Is it the main ingredient in a commercially available product?
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RE: PLA bonding, industrial method.
It is used as paint stripper, it is provably easy to find at paints shops.
I bought it online as there is not many paint shops in my area, so I suppose if you do web search you will find some shop where you can buy it.
RE: PLA bonding, industrial method.
The only on-line source I could find for the chemical product is the company ColeParmer, which has multiple conditions for purchase, which is why I was asking about products which might contain it. I will further research the paint stripping product line.
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RE: PLA bonding, industrial method.
Excellent video and information, thanks for sharing that.
It seems like that joint would benefit from a mechanical interface on top of the chemical bond. Something like a tongue in groove or horizontal or lateral dovetails.
would help transfer the load between parts and not only rely on the adhesive bond.
RE:
Yes you are right some kind of groove or dovels will be perfect, but the project has over 200 parts, which means 8oo faces that will need that interface.
Then the problems comes to create those 800 sketches and next operations in the CAD system.
So I decided that it was too much work and probably the CAD system will not be able to handle it. So no interface system.
Anyway the bonding is far stronger than the rest of the part so no problem in strength that is what I was looking for.