Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?  

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

I am very happy with this filament.  

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@sembazuru

Besides resealing in gallon zip-lock bags when I can, I also keep my filament in 5-gallon paint buckets with screw on lids.  The buckets are about $3.00 and the lid set (collar, gasket, and lid) is about $10 at Home Depot.   I can fit 5 - 6 1kg spools on top of each other and some sample coils along the side.   I drill a series of holes on an old prescription bottle and fill it with loose desiccant beads  (around $15/lb on Amazon) and stick it in the hole of the top spool.  I don't know if it is the desiccant (replaced about once a year) or being sealed in the buckets most of the time, but I've pulled out and ran PLA that has been open for 3 years with no problems.

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

Posted by: @contact-2

Hi vintagepc,

You're definitely not the first to ask (maybe more like the 93rd 😆) and we're giving that a long, hard look, but THE issue is... and I've been in recycling for 20+ years... so take my word for it... contamination is a M A J O R issue.

I've seen what Replay3D says; like everyone else, I'd like to get that done too, but if PLA gets mixed into PET-G, it's going to give disastrous filament, which means no one's going to be happy.  If there was a way to ensure its ONLY one material, we'd be happy to try it.  For now, we just can't do it.  Now, on the spool-side of the equation, that's more a possibility, but then you have cost-issues.  It can only work (at present) if our customers would send us their spools.  Relatedly , we're working on master spools; that looks like a mid-2020 possibility.

-Rich

Apparently I missed your reply somehow, but I know where you're coming from. I experimented once with PLA/PETG supports and didn't purge enough... ooof -or should I say, snap-crunch!

I'll keep separating my scrap in the hopes there'll be an offering someday or until I've acquired enough scrap that it's cost-effective to consider one of the lower-priced DIY extruders to recycle it into something usable. I specifically have separate bins for different material scraps and explicitly throw out mixtures, e.g. purges when changing filament type. I don't have insight into how well it works for Replay3D, but since recycling scrap is a conscious decision you might be very pleasantly surprised in any scrap received with minimal contamination, e.g. you get enough good from meticulous users to offset the occasional bad batch. 

Economy of scale is the enemy here too, you naturally want to make large batches for product consistency, but at the same time it's necessary to test , e.g. each received lot for said contamination. PETG and PLA do have slightly different densities... it might be possible to separate them sufficiently by grinding the scrap plastic (to eliminate trapped air) and a sufficiently dense fluid that one floats and the other sinks... solvent separations are other options but now you get into a lot of processing that may or may not even be necessary, you don't know until the end.

I'm sure there are ways to detect the presence of other common filament plastics in a given base batch, but I doubt the time/equipment is worth it. 

Just jotting down thoughts and musings here for discussion; you've probably already considered many aspects. 

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

Do any US manufacturers sell .5 kg rPET?  I'd like to showcase it in front of the local chamber of commerce and want a variety of recycled water bottle filament to demonstrate. Feel free to DM. 

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

Not 0.5 Kg, but:

https://www.partsbuilt.com/reform-rpet-black-formfutura/

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@gregb

Hi Greg,

I'll DM you, but for everyone else to see, I've only once heard of a TRUE PET extruded into filament, which includes Formfutera... if you read their description, they make theirs from PETG.  Some folks in the Caribbean have said they used post-consumer bottles and made filament from it, but I can't vouch for their quality.

However, of course, we reclaim and reprocess PETG and extrude it into a filament, and we do it in the good ol' USA, but its not from bottles.  It is from industrial packaging.  If you'd like to see a sample, I'm happy to send you one.  Please see the attached photo.

Best,

-Rich/GreenGate3D

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@greengate3d

Thank you. I'm not looking for commercial grade quality, just to demonstrate that water bottles can be produced into functional parts for use in austere environments. Any kind of rPET directly from water bottles should work.  

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@gregb

AT CURRENT, I don't think its possible.  If it was worth producing, it'd be done already.  The reason why PETG is used over PET is because PET is too brittle.  You can CERTAINLY reuse PET in M A N Y applications, but extruding water bottles into filament won't give you a usable product.

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

Filamentive's rPET seems to check all the boxes. Not sure of the spool size, but I recall it was 1Kg. I've seen smaller 750g spools, but they tend to cost more than 1Kg spools from other brands. If you're trying to save money, I would focus on price rather than spool size. 

I'm not sure if they actually recycle bottles from the consumer waste stream, or just use plastic discarded from production. From what I understand, producing usable filament from truly "recycled" plastic is difficult, so probably not really practical for "austere" environments. 

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@gregb

I had a tough time getting it to print.  It was self induced.  Green Gate prints well.  

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

Thanks, Bob!  Nice to e-see you again!  The last time we chatted seems like early 2020.  We're up to 25 colors of rPETG and soooo close to releasing our rTPU 95 shore A. 

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@greengate3d

That is great news on the TPU

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

Posted by: @greengate3d

Thanks, Bob!  Nice to e-see you again!  The last time we chatted seems like early 2020.  We're up to 25 colors of rPETG and soooo close to releasing our rTPU 95 shore A. 

Oh yes, I've been following. I haven't needed any big batches of PETG lately, but you're on my list. Please give it a look and confirm that I've got your information summarized correctly if you don't mind.

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

Posted by: @sembazuru, and the domain owner information is hidden behind Contact Privacy Inc. Customer (hmmm... I wonder how much that service costs for my own domain).

Through Network Solutions, privacy is like $10 a year. If memory serves, GoDaddy is cheaper.

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@greengate3d - is shipping free on all orders now? Please provide an update so I can change my notes!

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@bobstro

Great video on their site!

I think it is gree with two spools, but then gain, that is what I always order.  

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@cwbullet - Looks like your kind of video! I like the camera view. It does look like free shipping kicks in with a 2nd spool. Just enough to convince me to order 2 instead of 1!

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@bobstro

Yup.  Definitely a well-edited video version of something like mine.  

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@bobstro

Pretty close...

Yes, we're US-based, but ONLY manufacture in the USA, too. 

Produces recycled PETG filament: 👍

Shipping is free for orders over $49, but now $7.50 for less.  We had to draw a fine line, since we give lifetime 15% discounts to military (active or retired, plus 10% discounts to first responders, teachers, and a few others) and didn't want them to get hurt with a 2 spool purchase, but we didn't want to give free shipping to those who only buy spools from our $20 "DOH" line (i.e., color mismatches).

Their PETG prints very nicely and is available in a variety of colors: THANK YOU!  😆

RE: Reliable rPET/rPETG filament manufacturer in the USA?

@cwbullet

Thanks! We had a ton of fun editing it.  Next rocket will break the Speed of Sound!