3D printing material: When to use PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, Polycarbonate, Nylon etc.

do you select your materials for the intended application or do you just stick with one material for all your printed Parts I recently saw someone calling P outdated claiming ptg is Superior in any situation but is such a claim actually warranted let's Dive Right In welcome back Factory owners when it comes to 3D printing material I see and hear a lot of misconceptions so today's video is about different materials and when to use them knowing the right material for the job makes a huge difference as especially for technical Parts while printing figurines in pla usually yields the nicest looking results and mechanical properties rarely matter we need to take things like stiffness and temperature resistance into account air pollution is another thing you shouldn't disregard especially my dear friend ABS is notorious for giving off a lot of fumes so much that you can see the residue of my printer's acrylic panels even if you don't blend it you need to be careful and don't breathe this ideally you'd have a well ventilated space and an air filter on hand hand and don't get me started on resin printing there's a good reason why that thing resides in Exile in our garden shed but there are also less obvious properties like creep we have to consider creep is the tendency of a material to deform Under Pressure not a good thing if you need to screw things together tightly now on to the different materials pla is pretty much the most common 3D printing material today it doesn't give off much odor and is by far the easiest material to print with due to extremely low deformation when cool down because of that you can run the part cooling fan at 100% immediately after the first layer but since the material already gets soft at around 50° that's also rather mandatory for printing smaller parts fast you will usually run into cooling issues long before your hot end can't keep up melting the plastic anymore you don't even need a heated bed to print it although it's advisable to use one remember that I told you to never buy a printer without a heated bed that also means that pla Parts can't stand much heat after after they're printed direct sunlight doesn't seem to be a big issue as long as it's outside where air can move I've had these two muai outside for years now with no issues but outside temperatures don't go above 40° here so your results May Vary I've had Parts melt in the office under direct sunlight though and cars are even worse with no air movement at all pla doesn't stand a chance against the Heat so always keep expected temperatures in mind especially if you're printing something loadbearing in situations where heat is no issue you pla has some properties no other material can quite match it's extremely stiff even more so than polycarbonate all while being easier to print in applications like shelf brackets this is exactly the properties you'd want other materials would start to flex at some point pla behaves like carbon fiber here meaning it will bear a lot of load until it finally snaps in half with no prior warning that also means it's not the best choice for parts that snap together especially if it's a regularly used snap mechanism my general experience from years of everyday usage is that pla parts are usually stronger than you'd expect I never had any part break unexpectedly even my kitchen counter and bar stools hold up perfectly fine after 5 years only thing I need to add is pla is suceptible to creep so if you plan to screw Parts together remember to not overtighten them otherwise the parts will deform and the screws become loose over time it also doesn't like to be cut sanded or drilled while the last two aren't impossible you reach the point where the material starts softening due to heat pretty fast and you end up with a deformed part so if you plan to do any kind of postprocessing you rather stick to your other materials ptg has become more and more popular in recent years it's usually a bit more expensive than pla although with the rise of Chinese Brands the difference became minuscule in terms of heat resistance it lies between PLA and abs with a softening point of around 75° it's also much more resistant to solvents like isopropyl alcohol and hydrochloric acid than those two that makes it an ideal Choice when regular sterilization is necessary for example for the face Shields that were printed everywhere at the start of the pandemic or if you need a part that survives dishwasher Cycles the printability is also quite good it sometimes even aderes too good to the bed especially on glass a thin layer of PVA glue makes removal way easier in those cases but the B isn't the only thing that sticks a bit too well L too it's almost impossible to remove from the nozzle and heater Block in case of a failed print I still have remains on my prer Mark II from my humble beginnings since then I added a silicone sock to all of my hot ends anyway so this is not an issue anymore even though it sticks extremely well the layer adhesion is still a bit less than with pla according to CNC kitchen's tests it's also prone to stringing since it generally likes to stretch instead of break but with the right settings this can be kept to a minimum as especially using zetop AKA Z lift does more harm than good and I have turned it off for all my materials since I found that out this also makes printing quite a bit faster let me know in the comments if slicer tuning is an interesting video topic for you the mentioned stretching is also how it behaves under heavy load at first it flexes until it can't take any more load then it stretches itself thin until it finally snaps in half as long as you stay below that load there's nothing to worry about its flexibility makes it an IDE choice for all kinds of Snappy applications be it a permanent Mount or a frequently used snapping mechanism with its higher temperature resistance even the summer heat inside the car is no issue creep is also no big deal with ptg although it still happens to some degree it's not as Extreme as with pla you can even postprocess it after printing with a knife or sandpaper drilling is also possible but you have to go slow to not have it melt and molten plastic is a pain to remove from a drill bit ask me how I know abs and ASA are both almost identical the biggest difference being that ASA is UV resistant making it ideal choice for demanding outside use most other polymers aren't UV resistant but can still be used outside if they're not under heavy load black coloring actually blocks the UV rays from getting deeper into the material leaving only the outer perimeters affected ASA is also a bit more resistant to certain chemicals but not by much in any case you don't specifically need those advantages you can choose any of both they're highly heat resistant up to around 100° which makes them the leader of the common materials only surpassed by way harder to print materials like polycarbonate nylon and Peak it is also a bit more flexible than PG and has more impact resistance that means it can take harder hits before it cracks and breaks all these properties make them the ideal material for printed part printers like the voron or prusa printers the voron material selection guide even specifically recommends ABS or ASA and nothing else while prusa prints most Parts in ptg especially heat bed covers and part cooling fent routs need to take a lot of heat so even prusa prints them in ABS in the case of my enclosed Pria Mark iiii even ABS wasn't enough anymore so I printed both of them from polycarbonate the silicone sock on the heater block adds some additional heat protection to the surrounding parts postprocess ing in the form of cutting works extremely well with abs the higher melting point also makes drilling easier plus it doesn't stick nearly as bad as PG in the case it does melt keep in mind that it still gives off fumes if it gets too hot especially when sanding in any case you should wear a respirator when sanding and ideally use an attached dust collector not only for abs but for any plastic and of course for wood as well any form of fine dust in your lungs poses a health risk even if it's just once TPU is a flexible material and comes in a variety of softness grades it's the same material phone bumpers are usually made of its temperature resistance varies and lies somewhere between PLA and PG the most common variants come with a hardness grade of 995a on the shore scale available filaments go down as much as 60a but those are a real pain to print and need to go very very slow I've also seen 65d but don't get fooled despite the lower number a 65 on the D scale is actually a bit harder than 995a and even 95a can already be tricky to print the secret is going slow and keeping retractions to minimum but not completely off since you will get stringing from hell again turning off setop helps and keep the extruder gear tension to a minimum the bed should stay cold and you probably need to apply a separation layer of PVA glue as well otherwise you might need to say farewell to your bed coating when removing the print also printing flexible ible materials with a Bowen system is quite a bit harder than a direct extruder oh look I Told You So despite the printing challenges it's a very unique polymer because of its flexibility it can digest more impact than any other material I even use it in my home gym try that with a solid plastic it's also perfect if you need any kind of rubber feet I even went as far and printed gaskets from TPU although rubber works better they get the job done and I can have them in any size I want you can Define the overall softness of your part by Des setting a higher or lower perimeter count and infill percentage for even flexing behavior from all sides it's best to choose a three-dimensional infill like cubic gyroid or 3D honeycomb its rubbery texture makes post-processing a bit difficult drilling only works with a very sharp drill bit and sanding doesn't yield good result cutting works extremely nice though but that was to be expected the those were only the four most common printing materials but there's more now some of you told me you're struggling to design your own models so I made an indepth video series on Fusion 360 for you it's specifically tailored to 3D printing tools and parts with many practical examples check out the first chapter for free using the link in the description below and let me know how you liked it and if there's anything I could improve now onto the last common materials polyamide tra named nylon is one of the really hard to print materials it WS like crazy if you don't have a heated chamber I've never managed to print more than a few millimet high but it was also all I needed so far a large brim is usually necessary to get any kind of better teion on a whole machine in terms of material properties nylon is really strong it's rather soft and therefore extremely impact resistant for a solid polymer the layer adhesion is also incredibly strong I have a spare gear for my car's trunk mechanism printed from nylon and I'm unable to break the two kns off without tools it's also pretty heat resistant although not as much as polycarbonate it's a good fit for anything where stronger layer adhesion is mandatory nylon also has some self-lubricating properties so it's very commonly used for Gears you can also print your own gasket Rings if you need a specific size for postprocessing cutting sanding and drilling works very well polycarbonate is rather rigid so it feels more like pla than abs nonetheless it's very impact resistant and strong it's commonly used to make bulletproof glass that alone speaks for itself with a softening point of over 120° it's also pretty heat resistant it's a bit easier to print in nylon in my experience but the large brim is still advisable I use it where heat resistance is absolutely crucial or if I need to be absolutely sure A Part doesn't break like with the mounting brackets I used for my secondary computer display I definitely don't want that thing to drop post Pro processing can be done with sandpaper and drill bits cutting is a bit of a pain since the material is rather stiff there are a few materials that are either less common or a variation of other materials especially all filed materials that are available nowadays like wood metal Stone and carbon fiber count as the latter the filed material doesn't change the base property of its material it's mostly for Aesthetics and in reality tends to weaken the polymer's strength unfortunately that also applies to carbon fiber fil filaments anything that fits to a 0.4 mm nuzzle isn't really a fiber anymore and behaves more like a stubble those materials do look very cool though especially after polishing I also have a spool of pmma on hand which is the same material used for acrylic glass I haven't done much with it yet except for printing a 3D Beni and a nozzle box cover though with a bit of tweaking it seems like an interesting material to print there are even more filaments you can buy but they're usually rather expensive expensive and very hard to print materials like polypropylene PVC and Peak the L needing 450 deg hot in temperature the upside is it's very temperature resistant if your barbecue has a plastic handle it's probably Peak many manufacturers offer materials like PLA and abs with a plus in the name the plus stands for a variety of additives changing the material properties for example to make pla less brittle or abs L prone to whopping there's no standard for what the plus means though it can stand for any kind of additive and is brand specific it can also mean that a material is losing some of the desired properties like chemical resistance if in doubt you can find out more details in the manufacturers data sheet especially the more expensive Brands list those for all the materials on their website to download I hope you found the video helpful and if you want to see more you can subscribe over here and watch another one over there see you in the next one hold

Channel: Small Batch Factory

Views: 60,345

Keywords: 3d printing, diy, fusion 360, CAD, woodworking, metalworking, maker, makerspace, workshop

Id: Tgjly16zVQ0

Length: 14min 10sec (850 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2024