This was an ornament I printed roughly 6 years ago. Being a Christmas ornament it spent most of those 6 years stored in my roof space.
Being in Australia this would have been subject to average temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees c but also peaks across summer approaching 70 degrees c. Also in high humidity.
The PLA crumbles into tiny pieces at the softest touch.
I thought it was interesting that PLA would start to break down in these conditions.
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70 Celsius degree and humid? Bro where it is in Australia? Since i see that even in Dubai it peaks around mid 50s and not humid
60C is when PLA starts to warp, but even lower is when it starts to degrade. 6 years is more than enough for this level of degradation even in a less volatile environment.
It’s interesting to me the reported natural feature of PLA to be biodegradable. The state it ends up in these conditions almost seems worse for the environment like micro plastics.
PLA is widely used as a medical plastic and its normal decomposition is into lactic acid.
Even if it is just being atomized down into smaller and smaller particles it’s safer for you than any other common plastic.
The colorants added are the only risk
Not entirely true as there are no industry standards for PLA. Lots of manufacturers add things they don’t put on the label. Especially in the variants like PLA+ and High Speed PLA.
After reading a bit, it seems that you are correct. Under natural conditions PLA wont actually turn into non toxic compounds at all. Biodegradable just means that it can be theoretically done. The conditions necessary for it are however only available in industrial, heated and controlled composting systems. Without those conditions it will break apart but it will stay bad for the environment on a chemical level.
Just look up “PLA biodegradable test” on a search engine or youtube and you will find plenty of people that tested this.
Humidity ruins PLA. It turns brittle AF once it has absorbed any major amount of moisture, and that is significantly sped up with temperature.
My boss printed me three LEGO bricks when he got his 3D printer (everyone here knows I am an AFOL = Adult Fan Of Lego). I have no idea what kind of printer that was, but the bricks were very detailed. Now they have totally warped out of shape. I kept them on my desk in the electronics lab, so heat or sunlight are no major issues here.
Resin printer probably
average temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees c but also peaks across summer approaching 70 degrees c. Also in high humidity.
Oh Australia… 🫠
You’d get those kinds of attic temps in many places in the US.
Attics are no place to store stuff, keeping them under 140f in the summer is a challenge
