Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, has become an increasingly popular manufacturing method across many industries, from the automotive industry to the medical industry. Over the last few years, there have been several advancements in 3D printing technology, allowing manufacturers to create increasingly complex and durable components that are on par with those made via CNC machining or injection molding.

Additive manufacturing has also had a significant impact on the food industry, which has strict requirements to ensure that the materials which come in contact with food are safe for people.

Is Additive Manufacturing Food-Safe?

3D printed parts can be food-safe and meet Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations, as long as specific steps and precautions are taken. To ensure your parts are safe for use with food, you’ll want to follow 3-A Sanitary Standards and review your part’s design, your materials, and the additive manufacturing process itself. To help you get started, follow these best practices when it comes to designing 3D printed food-safe products:

Eliminate Crevices and Voids

Make sure that any section of your part or product that can come into contact with food (product contact surfaces) is free of crevices and voids. These features are difficult to clean and can allow bacteria to thrive. If your part requires voids or crevices, ensure that those areas can be easily accessed for cleaning when your product is disassembled.

Round any Sharp Corners

Sharp corners are difficult to clean, and like crevices and voids, can potentially harbor bacteria. With this in mind, you should round any corners within your design, and instead incorporate fillets with large radii when possible.

Ensure Toughness

When you’re manufacturing food-safe products, make sure that your parts are robust enough for their applications. If they crack, corrode, or break down, bacteria can grow, putting users at risk. Additionally, if a part breaks, small pieces may contaminate the food, posing a danger to consumers and often requiring a recall of the product.

Smooth Surface Finishes

A part’s surface finish can be problematic, as rough surfaces have small pockets that enable bacteria to grow. However, creating food-safe 3D printed products with smooth, non-porous surfaces can be challenging, as 3D printers build parts layer by layer, resulting in microscopic crevices. To achieve surface smoothness, you can use:

• Mechanical finishing: Mechanical finishing techniques, such as sanding, bead blasting, and polishing, can help smooth a part’s surface while also improving clarity.
• Vapor smoothing: Compatible with certain plastics, vapor smoothing involves exposing 3D printed plastic parts to vaporized solvent. Your part’s external features and edges will melt and re-seal, creating a smoother, glossier surface without voids or crevices.
• Surface coatings: In situations where mechanical finishing isn’t a viable or cost-effective option, you might be able to use a food-safe coating, such as food-grade epoxy or polyurethane. Make sure your coating is compatible with any cleaning products and other chemicals your part will come into contact with to avoid pitting, delamination, and blistering.

The additive manufacturing process you choose also plays a role in the amount of post-processing you’ll need to do. Technologies like stereolithography (SLA), HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), and Carbon® Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS) produce parts with smoother surface finishes than fused deposition modeling (FDM), and typically require less post-processing. However, regardless of technology, even if a part is printed with food-safe materials, it might not be considered food-safe if the printer isn’t itself deemed food-safe. Something as small as an FDM printer’s nozzle containing lubricant can cause the resulting parts to be considered non-food-safe, so every detail counts.

How is Additive Manufacturing Used in the Food Industry?

Additive manufacturing, unlike injection molding, doesn’t involve machining expensive tooling to mold plastic parts. By eliminating the cost and lead time associated with machining injection mold tooling, companies can save a great deal of time and money when making parts and maintenance tools for their factories, such as spacers, grippers, and assembly tools. Additionally, additive manufacturing — particularly when combined with digital part storage and factories with cloud-based manufacturing capabilities — is an ideal process for producing spare parts, keeping equipment up and running and avoiding expensive, unplanned downtime.

What Materials are Used in Food-Safe Additive Manufacturing?

When creating products that will come into contact with food, choosing the right material is essential. You’ll want to choose a non-toxic, non-contaminating, corrosion-resistant base material, and you’ll need to make sure any added coatings or dyes are also food safe.

Specific food-grade plastics that are compatible with the additive manufacturing process include:

• Polyetheretherketone (PEEK): PEEK has high resistance to heat and dimensional stability, so it can be used in the microwave and dishwasher. It’s lightweight yet strong and can be manufactured with colorants, giving it plenty of design flexibility. PEEK can be found in coffee machine nozzles, mixing scrapers, blenders, kneaders, food packaging, and more.
• ULTEM 1010: ULTEM 1010 is a strong, high-performance thermoplastic compatible with the FDM 3D printing process. In addition to being mechanically suitable for many applications, it has been certified to NSF 51, meeting the FDA’s minimum public health and sanitation requirements for materials used in the construction of commercial food equipment.

What are Some Sterilizable Additive Materials That Meet Food Safety Standards?

Manufacturers often use sterilizable additive materials, as the last thing they want is for bacteria to grow unchecked within a product that comes into contact with food. However, it’s important to know that not all sterilizable materials are necessarily food-safe materials.

Creating Food-Safe Products With SyBridge

The introduction of additive manufacturing to the food industry has changed the game. Thanks to 3D printing, companies can create food-safe products from a wide variety of materials quickly, cost-effectively, and on demand. However, creating food-safe products via additive manufacturing isn’t as simple as selecting appropriate materials. You’ll also need to pay attention to your printer, your part’s design, and your part’s surface finish.

There’s a lot to remember when trying to meet regulations and create food-safe products, so using an experienced manufacturing partner can put your mind at ease and ensure your customers aren’t put at risk by unsafe products. When you work with SyBridge, our engineering team can help you choose an FDA-approved plastic that will meet your needs and ensure your design is ready for printing. You can also upload your part files to get an instant DFM analysis of your design, explore material options, and order your parts online — even using a purchase order (PO). Contact us to discuss the requirements for your next food-safe additive manufacturing project.

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Plastic food packaging is essential for maintaining product freshness and quality in transport, prolonging shelf life, and meeting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. Plastics that come into contact with consumable products must adhere to FDA regulations and use materials guaranteed safe for use in plastic food packaging. This helps ensure consumer safety and protect your business from inadvertently breaking food safety laws.

When it comes to food safety, it’s best to play it safe. Design teams working in the food and beverage industries should know what the best food-safe plastic materials are to ensure products remain safe for consumers. Here’s everything you need to know about the top five FDA-approved plastics for food contact.

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)

ABS is an amorphous plastic created by combining acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene polymers. ABS is a food-grade plastic safe for use in food processing tools like food processors and refrigerator linings. Excellent resistance to strain and abrasion, maintained impact resistance at low temperatures, and insulating properties make ABS great for food transportation applications as well. This food-safe plastic is very flexible and can easily be welded to complex shapes, adding to its manufacturing diversity.

Parts built with ABS are aesthetically pleasing and stand up well to applications that aren’t in extreme temperatures. However, ABS components are also prone to stress cracking due to ABS’s poor weathering and solvent resistance.

High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

HDPE is a thermoplastic often used in milk jugs, plastic water bottles, cutting boards, cereal box liners, grocery bags, and other plastic food packaging. HDPE’s tensile strength, high impact resistance and melting points, and large strength-to-density ratio make it ideal for food and beverage packaging. Also, HDPE is a nonporous polymer, which allows product teams to make long-lasting and easy-to-clean parts that don’t require additional maintenance.

Although HDPE does offer resistance to mildew, mold, and insects, it has poor weathering resistance compared to other materials on this list and it isn’t resistant to oxidizing acids. HDPE is also highly flammable, prone to stress cracking, and non-biodegradable. Further, it’s difficult to bond HDPE with other food-grade plastics, which can limit design and engineering capabilities.

These limitations notwithstanding, HDPE is an excellent choice for creating FDA-approved plastic food containers. For instance, HDPE’s high heat resistance makes it dishwasher safe — an excellent feature for food packaging. Also, HDPE is non-leaching, meaning a disinfectant cleans it quickly but dissolves in time for safe human interaction. Since HDPE is resistant to most chemical solvents, it can prevent harsh chemicals from interacting with food and beverages.

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK)

PEEK is a lightweight and strong semi-crystalline thermoplastic. Due to its high melting point and low coefficient of thermal expansion, PEEK has high dimensional stability. As such, PEEK food handling products can withstand microwave use, dishwasher use, and intense temperatures when cooking directly on heat.

PEEK is safe for direct contact with delicate foods like raw lettuce or fresh dairy products even during the production process. For this reason, PEEK food handling components are used in both food packaging and food production processes. Some common products made from PEEK resin include blenders, kneaders, mixing paddles and scrapers, and valves and nozzles on coffee machines.

PEEK outpaces other food-safe plastics in terms of design flexibility. PEEK can be manufactured with added colorants to make it a vibrant color, which increases process safety since broken or damaged PEEK parts will be immediately noticeable during production. This helps prevent hazardous food and beverage consumption and accidental contamination.

Acrylic (PMMA)

PMMA is a transparent plastic that offers incredible strength and stiffness and can be optically clear. This transparency makes it easy for advanced vision systems or employees performing physical visual inspections to analyze and monitor food product quality throughout transportation.

PMMA is often used to store milk and other dairy products, oils, and feed for animals. Acrylic is also used to create mixing bowls, where transparency can aid mixing and other cooking process applications. PMMA is BPA-free and non-toxic when solid, and it’s so biocompatible that acrylic is frequently used in dentures and cavity fillings.

The limitations of acrylic include poor impact resistance and limited heat resistance, weakness against attacks by organic solvents, and susceptibility to cracking under pressure due to poor wear and abrasion defense. It’s important to consider these downsides when choosing whether or not to use PMMA for food and beverage packaging purposes.

Polypropylene (PP)

PP is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic manufactured through the polymerization of propene. PP is lightweight and moldable but still high in strength, making it an excellent FDA food-grade plastic. It also boasts a high melting point — making it safe for dishwasher and microwave use — low water absorption, and excellent chemical resistance.

Polypropylene can be translucent or opaque and matched to any color. Design teams will have endless opportunities to experiment with aesthetics using this material. Colorful PP food components can also increase process safety and help teams adhere to food safety best practices.

Although polypropylene has a high melting point, it is highly flammable and prone to thermal expansion. These characteristics limit its high-temperature applications. PP is also susceptible to UV degradation, oxidation, and damage from chlorinated solvents. Its poor bonding properties can also limit manufacturing opportunities, so be sure to consider this in your design and material selection process.

Serving up Food-Grade Plastics With SyBridge

When designing parts or products intended for food and beverage handling, consider the many kinds of plastic materials you could use. Some plastics are better for packaging — they are strong, chemically resistant, and tough against stress. Others are better for direct contact with food — they’re safe, resistant to high temperatures, and can be formed into interesting and complex shapes. You also have to weigh plastics that are transparent for visibility against those that utilize bright colors for optimal safety.

A seasoned manufacturing partner like SyBridge can help you sort through these different considerations and choose the FDA-approved plastics for food contact that are best suited to your needs. By feeling confident in your choice of food-safe plastic, you’ll be able to quickly and efficiently manufacture beautiful, high-functioning parts and projects. Contact us today to learn more about food-safe product opportunities SyBridge can offer you.

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Electricity is a powerful, yet delicate force that is the key to our modern world. At any point, a person might wear or interact with several electronics at once, from cell phones to smartwatches and life-saving medical devices. While consumers might take these devices for granted, a tremendous amount of work goes into designing the various enclosures that protect the electric circuitry and wiring that ensures their functionality.

The delicate nature of these electronics often requires that they be housed within some kind of enclosure or cage to protect their circuitry and wiring from damage. These enclosures serve not only to keep chemicals, dust, moisture, and other environmental elements from adulterating the electronics, but also protect end-users from electric shocks and potential fires. Typically, the enclosure is the only part of the device that the consumer sees.

Electronics enclosures take a wide variety of shapes and sizes — from phone and computer housings to protective enclosures for power and telecommunications systems — and the specific manufacturing method best-suited for a particular job will depend on a number of factors, including material selection, price point, production volume, and design considerations.

Here’s what product teams need to know.

Key Material Selection Considerations for Electronics Enclosures

The design process for electronics enclosures should be “reverse-engineered” — designers and engineers can work backward, using what they know about the critical requirements for the final application to inform the design, material selection, and choice of manufacturing method.

The selection of the materials best-suited for the job will be determined, in large part, by the degree to which the enclosure will be subjected to stress and environmental wear. The housing for a bicycle speedometer, for instance, has strict material demands: it needs to be able to withstand rain, dirt, and constant intense vibration to prevent the device from malfunctioning. In contrast, a graphing calculator is far less likely to be exposed to high amounts of physical wear, which can significantly expand the pool of viable materials for the enclosure.

While some electronics might feature wood or acrylic materials (record players or handheld gaming devices, for instance), the vast majority of consumer electronics enclosures will be made from rigid plastics or metals. Metal enclosures tend to be stronger and more durable than their plastic counterparts, and are typically made from aluminum or carbon, galvanized, or stainless steel. One significant advantage of metal materials is that they are electrically conductive, which helps to negate incoming and outgoing electromagnetic interference and radio frequencies. Metal enclosures must be electrically grounded to provide shock resistance.

On the other hand, plastic enclosures are generally lighter in weight and less expensive to manufacture, and some engineering thermoplastics can even provide greater strength than metals such as aluminum, aluminum alloys, and magnesium alloys. They are also nonconductive — meaning that energized wires do not create shock hazards if they come in contact with the inside of the enclosure — and will not trigger circuit protection systems. If a conductive surface coating is needed for a plastic enclosure, one can be added in post-production, though the additional time, materials, and labor will increase the cost per part.

Unlike metal enclosures, plastic enclosures do not generate heat. When thinking about end-use applications, it’s important to remember that metals will get significantly more hot than a piece of plastic. If the electrical components inside the enclosure will generate enough heat to impact the material, opting for a plastic enclosure will generally be the safer option; humans would much more easily pick up a plastic shell than a metal one.

Many thermoplastics — polypropylene being one common example — are extremely moisture-resistant, but will degrade when exposed to ultraviolet light over prolonged periods. However, this effect can be mitigated by incorporating UV stabilizers into the enclosure material, or by covering the enclosure’s surface with paint or another UV-resistant finish. In some cases, the flexibility and rubber-like qualities of less rigid plastics can improve the part’s durability or provide watertight seals.

Common Methods for Manufacturing Electronics Enclosures

Ultimately, the material selection for a particular electronics enclosure will determine which manufacturing method is most efficient. Some of the most common methods include the following:

1. CNC Machining

CNC machining is a versatile, subtractive manufacturing process that uses digital CAD files to direct tools in shaping a part from a block of raw material called a “workpiece” or “blank.” The process is highly repeatable — meaning the same design file enables engineers to produce identical copies of a part simultaneously on multiple machines — and can be used to create both plastic and metal enclosures.

While other manufacturing methods are limited to creating relatively simple housings, CNC machining enables greater geometrical complexity to be incorporated into part design while providing super part tolerances. Another advantage of employing CNC machining is that enclosures machined from a single metal workpiece will not display any open seams, creating a clean, visually-appealing product. However, shelling a block of material on a mill might not be a cost-effective option, as you are likely paying for more material than what you’d end up using in the final product.

2. Sheet Metal Fabrication

Sheet metal fabrication is an economic and efficient means by which to produce electronics enclosures. Typically, these enclosures have significantly lower material expenses than their CNC-machined counterparts, in part because with just three bends, a sheet can be transformed into an open-faced housing.

The cases of desktop computers and many outdoor electronics enclosures are common examples of enclosures made via sheet metal fabrication, and what they lack in aesthetic value they make up for in durability.  The initial tooling costs associated with sheet metal fabrication can be high, but cost per part rapidly decreases as production volume rises.

3. Injection Molding

The injection molding process involves repeatedly and rapidly filling durable metal molds with molten plastics, thereby enabling the large-volume production of identical parts. Manufacturers often use this method to create simple enclosures from rigid or non-rigid plastics, such as those used in game controllers, electronic keys, kiosk displays, and many other products.

Tooling time and expenses increase the lead time and initial overhead for injection-molded enclosures, but parts become incredibly cost effective when produced in high volumes. Insert molding, a process similar to injection molding, also allows electronics to be firmly embedded within an enclosure for additional protection.

4. 3D Printing

3D printing, or additive manufacturing, uses CAD files to create parts one layer of material at a time, which often allows multi-part assemblies to be condensed into single pieces. 3D printing grants greater geometric freedom — enabling the addition of features such as curved internal channels that are extremely difficult or impossible to produce via other methods.

Further, 3D printing allows for electronics to be fully enclosed within their casings, which often eliminates the need for additional assembly. Generally not suited to large-volume production, additive processes are effective and affordable for prototyping and small- to medium-volume runs. Both metal and plastic components can be 3D printed.

Manufacture Electronics Enclosures of Superior Quality

As digital technologies become evermore ingrained into daily life, maintaining the long-term functionality of electronic devices becomes more important than ever. Electronics enclosures provide critical protection, but engineers and product teams need to ensure that material choice and part design are optimized to deliver maximum benefit.

Choosing a manufacturing partner like SyBridge means that you will gain firsthand access to our decades of collective expertise and knowledge. We’re an on-demand digital manufacturing platform specializing in the efficient and economical production of superior products. Contact us today to discover how we can help transform initial design ideas into fully functioning, durable parts.

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