About food safety of the nozzle.
Hello. I like cookies and I use prusa printer i3 mk3 mainly for making cookie cutters. I'd like to know whether the nozzle of the printer or any other part that touches the filament contains lead or not. I couldn't find the direct answer to it, so I've posted this hopefully to find out.
RE: About food safety of the nozzle.
I'm using the nozzle that came with the printer.
RE: About food safety of the nozzle.
The standard nozzle is brass: mostly copper and tin, but some brass has trace amounts of lead and arsenic. You are probably safe considerting the contact time during extrusion. You can check the E3D website for any safety concerns (if you have a factory MK3/s with V6 extruder).
Most PLA is considered food safe, but you may want to check the actual MSDS for the plastic you are using. Some use plasticizers that may not be safe.
RE: About food safety of the nozzle.
Proper "food safe" nozzles will be stainless steel. Copper nozzles may contain small amounts of lead as Tim notes, and it may not be consistent across nozzles. While PLA is fairly innocuous, additives and coloring may not be and have not been certified as food safe.
Perhaps more importantly, FFF prints themselves will contain lots of small holes that can't be fully cleaned and are ideal for bacteria. Cookie cutters may be OK but only for limited use. Look into food-safe epoxy coatings if you want to re-use 3D printed cooking utensils.
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He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
RE: About food safety of the nozzle.
I've bought i3 mk3 2 months ago. I'm not sure whether the nozzle is v6 or not, but I wanted to know whether the nozzle containing lead or not which I found out from tim's post. Thank you. I'm contacting the manufacturer about pla silk filament I'm using as well. This one, by the way.(amazon)
I'm not here to make sure it's safe 100% because I don't think it's possible. I just wanted it to be safe enough to trust like having an accident using self driving car. I'll consider switching into stainless nozzle soon.
RE: About food safety of the nozzle.
Hello. I like cookies and I use prusa printer i3 mk3 mainly for making cookie cutters. I'd like to know whether the nozzle of the printer or any other part that touches the filament contains lead or not. I couldn't find the direct answer to it, so I've posted this hopefully to find out.
i think that these nozzles do not contain lead and have about the same thermal conductivity as brass. Furthermore the nozzles are extremely abrasion resistant and of course also more expensive than standard brass nozzles.
Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.
RE: About food safety of the nozzle.
There are the E3D Nickel Plated copper nozzles, too. But they, like some of the steel nozzles, have a proprietary anti-stick coating. And when I asked about the coating, E3D was silent on the subject. So as Bob mentioned: there are things in the printer in contact with the filament beyoubnd the nozzle; and things in contact with the filament before it even gets to the printer. Like, is that vacuum sealed bag food safe? Did the Chinese manufacturer use only food safe grease on their machinery? Are there lead components in their processing mixers and extruders?
Probably over thinking the issue, but if you are selling something, these are the considerations you should make.
RE: About food safety of the nozzle.
Thanks!