I got introduced to the use of bio-ethanol when I was teaching in Belgium at a course hosted by Stijn Hanssen with DigiFlow3D. What other options does the dental office have for washing their prints? Wow, that would be tough to get installed in a dental office. Some caution dental offices and 3D printing laboratories that objects should be washed under a fume hood.
Iso alcohol how to#
I typically advocate for using either alcohols and I go into detail and clinical recommendations in our online 3D printing course about how to use one or the other.įor those who are worried about the flammability of IPA, make sure you check out this amazing video of isopropyl burning compared to ethyl alcohol and methyl alcohol. I reverted back to the 91% IPA as the 91:9 ratio of alcohol to water was a bit gentler on my 3D printed parts. As surgical guides and, more importantly, occlusal guards and temporary resins became available, I learned through Edisonian approach that the stronger ratio was giving me strange results and weird finishes on the prints. So for years I preferred 99% IPA for my early 3D printing projects and would routinely use the stronger 99:1 ratio for models. I said to myself, “Wow I can get 91% IPA at the local store” versus “Wow wouldn’t it be awesome to use something that’s 99% awesomeness versus 91% awesomeness?” Yeah, I have no life, I get it. For around 3 years or so I kept this dance going between the two strengths. I do not recommend using 70% IPA in 3D printing. The negative of using that ratio for 3D printing is that it doesn’t clean the resin well enough.
Iso alcohol skin#
The benefit of using 70:30 alcohol to water ratio is that it’s gentle on skin and floors around the house. It’s excellent as a cleaner for sticky tape and also serves as a great way of disinfecting cuts or scrapes. Many of us are used to using 70% IPA around the house. The biggest drawbacks of using IPA is that it is one of the more flammable alcohols used in a laboratory, it’s a bit more expensive compared to ethyl alcohol, and it has a strong smell. It’s reliable, simple to purchase anywhere, and has a tremendous amount of flexibility. So what makes up the extra 30, 8, and 1% respectively? Water.Ĭommercially Available Isoproyl Alcohol – 70% (left), 91% (middle), 99% (right)įrankly, IPA works fantastic for 3D printing applications. It comes in 3 different commercially available common strengths: 70%, 91%, and 99%. Why? It’s simple to get just about anywhere and it has withstood the test of time. The most common alcohol used for washing resin 3D printed objects is isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and it’s chemical formula is C 3H 8O. Resin, for most stereolithography printers, is not water soluble, since they are based upon a methacrylate or acrylic esters. Soap is water-soluable, so all we need to do to wash a bowl is to rinse it under water. Since most stereolithography 3D printers use a liquid resin to print, when an object comes out of the printer, it has a sheen on it of uncured resin, just like washing a bowl in the sink and soapy water sheen is seen on the bowl.
Iso alcohol pro#
Printed Temporary Partial Straight Out of the Sprintray Pro Printer (left) after washing (middle) after curing (right)įor this article, let’s focus on one key part of that post-processing cycle: the wash solution. This cumulative wash-dry-cure cycle is termed “post-processing.” Frankly, post-processing is the biggest secret of 3D printing- it just sucks… but it works. Additionally, after the object has washed and dried, we finalize it with a UV curing cycle. For now? We go through the routine of taking a stereolithography resin print, like that from a Formlabs Form3, SprintRay Pro, or 3D Systems Nextdent 5100 3D printer and wash away the liquid layer of resin that remains on the surface of the 3D printed object. Well… we kind of wish that it was something as cool as that, but in reality, it’s simply a necessary drudgery until systems that can automate print-wash-cure cycles, like the Structo Velox, are more common. Post-processing is the biggest secret of 3D printing – it just sucks…”įor those who do this on a day to day basis, it represents a seemingly whimsical like procedure analogous to an orchestral conductor timing a great concerto. – design, export, import into printer software, mix resins, fill tank, click print, come back later, remove build-platform, remove resin from build-platform, clean platform, wash prints in alcohol, dry, UV cure. For many of us who have been involved with 3D printing for sometime, we’ve got the methods down.