Coex 3D is helping make the world a better place one spool of PLA at a time. Introducing CoexNext™ PLA, our new filament that’s made from recycled scrap materials from our production process.
To understand CoexNext™, you first need to have a basic understanding of the extrusion process. Each time we start the extruder for the day and every time we change from one size filament to another, waste is created (I know, we don’t like waste either but it’s simply part of the process). All of this out-of-spec filament is still good material and, at Coex, we find it shameful to throw it away. Every day we create roughly 15-20 pounds of waste PLA and PLA Prime – so what to do with all that out-of-spec filament? We created the “NEXT” use for it!
We grind up this material daily and then, about once a month, we re-run it to produce a couple of hundred spools of CoexNext™. The color of the material doesn’t matter to us, we run it all through our grinder to make it roughly the same size as the virgin pellet material used to create our regular PLA and PLA Prime filaments.
It’s true to say that CoexNext™ is a recycled material, but this is not recycled from garbage, it is simply recycled within our own production facility and given its “Next” purpose.
We may not always have it in stock, so check back often or create an account and set up an auto-refill option for this in-demand material. This way you’ll be sure to get what you need every time we run it.
The final color of CoexNext™ will be different every time because it is made from 70% re-grind and 30% virgin material. We found that we get better results when we mix in some virgin pellets along with the regrind because it flows better through the hopper on the extruder. Color has ranged from a grayish color to a brownish purple, but it will look different each time we run it based on whatever we have been making the most of.
The recommended print settings are identical to our regular PLA and the finished quality of your prints will be every bit as great as when you print with any other PLA from Coex 3D. Have some fun and feel good about being eco-friendly when you print with CoexNext™.
Side note – this whole process costs us more to re-process than when we threw it out. Grinding takes time and so does re-running it. The Coex 3D team has still decided that it’s the right thing to do. We sell it at a reduced price from our regular PLA but the real value is that you are purchasing something that is making the world a better place a few pounds of PLA at a time.