Many people rave about the properties of PET, but it’s often too expensive. Or is it?
PET, or Polyethylene Terephthalate is one of the many types of plastics invented in the 20th century. It’s been used for many purposes, but due to its ability to provide a moisture barrier, it’s often used to make drink bottles.
In recent years it’s been repurposed for personal 3D printing by providing the plastic in filament form. The results are quite striking, if you’ve ever seen or held a PET print in your hands. The material has a very shiny finish that’s excellent for some artistic applications (shown here), while its strength can exceed ABS.
PET is now available from multiple 3D printer filament vendors, but it’s typically quite costly as compared to the more common ABS and PLA filament spools, which currently range from USD$20-50 per kilo. Let’s check some current PET pricing from a few vendors that market PET spools:
- MadeSolid PET+, USD$35 per pound, or USD$77 per kilo
- ToyBuilder Labs Taulman T-Glase, USD$36 per pound or USD$79 per kilo
- MakerGeeks PET 3D printer filament, USD$80 per kilo
- colorFabb XT, €35 per 750g, or USD$88 per kilo
On average the cost appears to be USD$81 per kilo. That’s pricey, especially when it’s now becoming common to find kilos of PLA at USD$20 per kilo. What can you do?
One solution is to take part in a new product launch that’s providing very low cost PET 3D printer filament. Venezuela-based Ivan Areinamo’s project hopes to provide you with low-cost PET 3D printer filament. The project offers 1Kg PET filament for only USD$25! Wait for it – this price includes WORLDWIDE SHIPPING!
Even better, the project also offers volume discounts if you’re buying more than just one spool. For example, you could opt for their 10Kg offer and score PET at only USD$18 per kilo.
How can they bring the price down so much? Areinamo explains:
Production is in Venezuela and this gives an advantage of low-cost raw materials as oil and derivatives that we need to produce the filament. In the other hand the cost of electricity here in Venezuela is the lowest in the continent.
We’re very surprised this project has so few backers at this point. In fact, this is the second iteration for Areinamo, who attempted a similar launch earlier that didn’t make the goal. We think there are more than enough people with 3D printers capable of printing PET, so there should be no reason not to give this a try.
Via IndieGoGo
