Introducing Nylon White FS: Expanding 3D Printing for Food and Beverage Factory Floors
In the fast-paced world of food and beverage manufacturing, companies are constantly seeking ways to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and innovate their production processes. Additive manufacturing has emerged as a powerful tool to meet these demands, offering flexibility and speed in creating custom parts and tooling and keeping lines up and running. However, one critical barrier has restricted its adoption in this industry: the limited availability of food-contact certified filament materials.
For food and beverage manufacturers, ensuring production parts that are in direct contact with food or are in close proximity to it comply with strict food safety regulations is not just important—it's a requirement. A common necessity is that these parts must be made from materials that are food-contact certified. Without certified materials, parts typically cannot be used in areas that involve direct or even indirect contact with food products. This limits the potential of additive manufacturing to applications that are safely away from food such as secondary and tertiary packaging.
That’s about to change. We are excited to introduce a food-contact certified additive manufacturing material designed specifically for the food and beverage factory floor. This material opens up new possibilities for manufacturers to more deeply integrate 3D printing into their operations, providing compliance with food safety standards while delivering the benefits of additive manufacturing.
Nylon White FS
Nylon White FS is an unfilled, non-abrasive nylon that is certified by NSF to NSF/ANSI Standard 51, Food Equipment Materials and is compliant with FDA CFR Title 21. It is suitable for production tooling and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) applications on food and beverage factory floors where the use of a food-contact certified material is required or preferred.
To certify Nylon White FS, NSF performed a rigorous audit including material formulation, toxicology, and cleanliness review as well as a manufacturing facility audit. The requirements of NSF/ANSI Standard 51 are intended to ensure that materials do not adulterate food or make food equipment difficult to clean and sanitize.
While Nylon White FS, in filament form, is certified for food contact, there are additional considerations to account for when determining if printed parts are safe for use in food contact applications. For instance, it's important to ensure that part geometries do not trap food or fluids, have smooth and cleanable surfaces, are used within rated operating conditions, and are cleaned in a way that maintains food safety. These considerations are not exclusive to printed parts—they apply to any part that is in contact with food, regardless of the method used to manufacture it. In general, companies have their own validation processes to assess the food safety of a given part and they should adhere to their processes when assessing Nylon White FS parts.
To help address some of these considerations, we have developed a 3D Printing Guide for Food and Beverage Applications that contains guidelines and best practices.
Food and Beverage Applications
The Zone Concept
For some companies, parts are classified as “food-contact” or “non-food-contact” where food-contact parts must be made from certified materials. Other companies classify parts by the “Zone Concept” where the Zones are defined as:
Zone 1 : Touching food
Zone 2 : Not directly touching food but in direct proximity to it
Zone 3 : Adjacent to Zone 2 and with some risk of cross contamination
Zone 4 : Areas remote from food processing that pose little risk of cross contamination
Parts to be used in Zones 1 and 2 are usually required to be made using food-contact certified materials while parts in Zones 3 and 4 generally do not incur significant industry specific challenges and these parts may not need to be made from food-contact certified materials.
In short, a food-contact certified material enables parts in Zones 1 and 2 to be considered for 3D printing.
Applications
Nylon White FS is ideal for production tools and replacement parts to support manufacturing operations in food and beverage plants. It is also well suited for machine builders who produce machinery for food and beverage clients.
It is a great fit for Zone 2 applications such as tooling and MRO for primary packaging, pre-processing, and processing steps. Example applications:
- Conveyor guides and pushers
- Chutes and funnels
- End-of-arm tooling
- Factory aids such as brackets, shrouds, and mounts.
Nylon White FS parts can be considered for Zone 1 applications where users adhere to their internal protocol and procedures to ensure printed parts meet their food safety requirements.
Unlock 3D Printing in Food-Safe Environments
Markforged has been delivering significant value to food and beverage companies for years, but the true potential of additive manufacturing was previously untapped due to the absence of a food-contact certified material. With Nylon White FS, manufacturers can now explore a wider range of 3D printed applications in food processing and packaging facilities and increase the value of:
- Minimizing tooling and MRO part lead times and inventory costs
- Resolving line down situations as quickly as possible with minimal costs and labor
- Optimizing line changeovers
Getting Started
At launch, Nylon White FS will be compatible with FX10™ printers. To purchase a spool, contact your Markforged reseller or visit the Markforged webstore.
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