# Plastics experts - 3D HIPS filament frog / egg / tadpole safe?



## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

Is HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) frog safe? In particular, 3D printed HIPS filament

The eggs will (hopefully) be laid, develop and hatch on the material.

I know polystyrene is considered "food safe" and is used for everything from food containers to medical products and we use it a lot in our hobby (background foam, petri dishes, deli cups) but is there any difference between 3D printed HIPs and injection molded?


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## Grimsrude (Apr 6, 2017)

HIPS is food safe -as you said.

That said, as a fellow 3D printer, 3D printed things had lots of ridges and aren't very water tight. So as a container, it'll not work too well. If you are wanting to use it for anything else, be aware if it has contact with water, it will harbor bacteria and algae very quick that you can't clean off easily. Even if you print at a very fine layer height, the ridges will still be there and will provide perfect living places for algae and bacteria. 

Now, depending on what you're doing, that may not really be a bad thing. It won't leach (as long as you properly clean your extruder and purge it of previous filaments) harmful chemicals, and if you are using it for decorations or some sort of apparatus it'll prolly be just fine. But submerged under water prolly wouldn't be a great idea.

EDIT: Are you planning to use it as a petri-dish type of thing? If so, I think it should be ok as long as you remove it once the tads are hatched.


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## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

Thanks for the reply!

My main concern is chemical leaching / VOCs and longterm exposure. Longterm, being the time when the eggs are laid until they hatch and are transfered to tadpole rearing cups ~ 2 weeks...

If eggs are laid on glass, leaf litter, plant leaf and even in a plastic petri dish or film canister most of us wouldn't have any concerns because these are natural or so ubiquitous that no one questions the safety of these materials. But a lot of people still have concerns (myself included) due to the novelty and newness of 3D printing.

The HIPS printed pieces are a egg deposit site which will be removed once eggs are discovered and placed in a petri dish -partially submerged in water.


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## Grimsrude (Apr 6, 2017)

At that rate, I think it should be fine. Leaching really wouldn't be a concern, but (unless it's past this point) I'd submerge the part in rubbing alcohol before and after using it to kill off as much bacteria / living things as possible that could be caught in the ridges between layers. And as long as the water in the petri dish is cleaned and changed as needed, 2 weeks won't be long enough for any tad killing algae buildup and bacteria shouldn't be any more an issue than what would normally be living on a petri dish and water anyways.


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## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

Thanks again for the advice. I'm not too concerned about bacteria but if it does present an issue I might consider sanding and vapor finishing. 

I've never had any serious bacteria or mold problems with eggs. Occasionally when some eggs are unfertilized they start to mold but it doesn't seem to affect nearby developing tadpoles.

What kind of printer do you have?


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## Grimsrude (Apr 6, 2017)

Yeah, for as short a time as it is I don't see it being a big problem, those are just some things I'd watch out for 

I've got a custom built ultimaker 2 style machine (bigger build volume than the real ones). Uses a duet wifi as the controller. Took way too long to build but now that it's done I love it. 

Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk


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## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

That's so cool I was looking into that option but then I found out Lulzbot is right here in my hometown.

The one thing Lulzbot is missing is wifi  I setup Astroprint on a Pi which is really awesome but it wrecked my bed on the first print. So now I use a 15' USB and have to remember not to close my laptop if I'm printing.


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