Researchers from Canada’s Western University have developed a new open-source approach for 3D printing water pipe fittings. According to the London, Ontario-based team, around 126 billion cubic meter
Could be promising as long as the print is water tight.
If these weren’t made using the FDM process, they could be quite useful; but as-is the FDM process is weak along the Z axis, and these kinds of fittings aren’t going to withstand a lifetime of abuse – not only that, the kinds of plastics we’re printing with aren’t really regulated to any kind of degree, so depending on what kind of things are in the water, you could just be pumping large amounts of microplastics into your system by using something like this.
It’s a great avenue for research, but we need more robust methods of printing for something like this.
If these weren’t made using the FDM process, they could be quite useful; but as-is the FDM process is weak along the Z axis, and these kinds of fittings aren’t going to withstand a lifetime of abuse – not only that, the kinds of plastics we’re printing with aren’t really regulated to any kind of degree, so depending on what kind of things are in the water, you could just be pumping large amounts of microplastics into your system by using something like this.
It’s a great avenue for research, but we need more robust methods of printing for something like this.