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Prompted by discussion in comments of a recent question whether PLA is suitable for parts that need to be in contact with acetone, I did some casual experiments and found that my clear/"natural" 3D Solutech PLA is mostly but not entirely resistant to acetone, while my blue Hatchbox PLA is quickly softened and deformed by it. This got me wondering: how do you go about finding PLA that's actually PLA (and nothing else)? Just "clear/natural" in product description does not seem to suffice.

I know this is close to a shopping question, so please make suggestions on how it could be improved if it's too close. It'd be great if there were keywords that worked, but an answer is probably going to be more along the lines of how to go about inquiring with manufacturers or where to find places where manufacturers might advertise that their products as pure.

R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
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2 Answers2

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There's only two ways to make sure it is pure PLA without color and additives:

  • Make it yourself. Order PLA-pellets for manufacturing and put them into a filament extrusion machine
  • Contact your manufacturer and ask them to do the above for you.

Note though that the pure PLA might have undesirable attributes for pritability that are fought with fillers and additives.

Trish
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If acetone resistance is what you are after, try PETG:

"While the chemical resistance of PETG is one of its most desirable characteristics, it is also one of the reasons why smoothing PETG prints is challenging. Since dissolving PETG with a solvent, smoothing via solvent application (like acetone smoothing for ABS) is not a very good option." See 2. Chemical Resistance in https://3dinsider.com/how-to-smooth-petg-prints/

Perry Webb
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  • According to https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joshua_Pearce/publication/326697946_Chemical_Compatibility_of_Fused_Filament_Fabrication-based_3-D_Printed_Components_with_Solutions_Commonly_Used_in_Semiconductor_Wet_Processing/links/5b684c8c45851584787f2b5b/Chemical-Compatibility-of-Fused-Filament-Fabrication-based-3-D-Printed-Components-with-Solutions-Commonly-Used-in-Semiconductor-Wet-Processing.pdf PETG fares very poorly against acetone. It may be a matter of additives, but then we're back to the same issue... – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Jun 22 '20 at 21:42
  • But as noted in the question, it was prompted by the acetone topic, but my question here is really not an XY question for "how do I get acetone-resilient filament?" but genuinely "how do I get real PLA?", with motivations like *actually being able to test* the properties of PLA rather than some manufacturer's PLA-ABS-plasticizers-etc. frankenfilament. Also, PETG is a huge pain to print with. I am running a quick informal test soaking some in acetone to see what happens, though. :-) – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Jun 22 '20 at 21:44
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    And indeed it turned gummy in under 30 minutes. – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Jun 22 '20 at 22:07
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    Leaving my answer to document your results. – Perry Webb Jun 23 '20 at 17:25