Sustainable technical material

Spectrum ecoPET 9021 is another polyester technical material available in our range. Unlike the more widely used PETG in 3D printing, it is based on a non-glycol-modified variant of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The lack of glycol translates into significantly higher rigidity and tensile strength of PET compared to PETG.

In line with the movement to maximise the proportion of recycled materials in production, we decided to use recyclate as a raw material source by introducing the ecoPET 9021 technical filament. With classic recycling, which involves regranulation of flakes from cut bottles, it is extremely difficult to achieve adequate purity and homogeneity of the material. This is because manufacturers usually produce packaging from different PET grades. A mix of different materials usually translates into subsequent problems in the printing process of the filament created from such a regranulate.

In order to ensure quality and ease of printing, the recycled filament must have high purity and homogeneity, which is why we turned to a more advanced raw material created by chemical depolymerisation and re-polymerisation of waste. As a result, the Spectrum ecoPET 9021 filament does not differ in printability from other materials derived from virgin material while retaining more than 90% recycled content in its composition.

This approach has resulted in a reproducible, eco-friendly and easy to print filament. Its advantages over classic PETG are not only its impressive thermal resistance of up to 125°C (max. 200h) and low water absorption but also its higher tensile strength and rigidity. Spectrum ecoPET 9021 can be used in prints requiring high rigidity and chemical and thermal resistance. Areas of application include functional prototypes and serial parts in mechanical, automotive and medical industries, among others.