Since the day we talked about sex on this platform, I knew that 3D printing would make us talk about the topics we expected the least. Researchers have developed a 3D printing material that could be ideal to fabricate abrasion-resistant and enhanced super-slippery flush toilets.
It should be noted that we have already highlighted the use of 3D printing to fabricate toilets to address insalubrity or simply for hygiene reasons. In this specific case, it’s different. What drives the idea, is the fact that a significant amount of water is wasted every day due to the unavoidable adhesions between human waste and the toilet surfaces.
According to the research, super-slippery surfaces can repel complex fluids and various viscoelastic solids, however, are easily broken by mechanical abrasions. Herein, the fabrication of an abrasion-resistant super-slippery flush toilet (ARSFT) required the use of selective laser sintering 3D printing. Unlike traditional super-slippery surfaces with limited thicknesses which can be easily worn away, the powder-sintered strategy endows the ARSFT not only with a self-supporting 3D complex shape but also with a porous structure that can accommodate considerable lubricants for an abrasion-resistant super-slippery property.
As a result, the as-prepared ARSFT remains clean after contacting with various liquids such as milk, yogurt, highly sticky honey, and starch gel mixed congee, demonstrating excellent repellence to complex fluids. Besides liquids, the ARSFT exhibits a high resistance to sticky synthetic feces. Notably, even after being abraded to 1,000 cycles of abrasion using sandpaper, the ARSFT maintains its record-breaking super-slippery capability. The concept of the 3D-printed object with a superior abrasion-resistant slippery ability will improve the development of super-slippery materials and further save water consumption in the human society, researchers say.
I am not sure where we will go from here but that’s something that could be interesting to explore for countries where water is still a luxury product.
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