Do not let moisture within the air have an effect on your filament or your 3D prints. Take an in-depth have a look at the science behind your filament and the way water within the air impacts it.
All plastics, together with 3D printing thermoplastic filaments, are polymers. Polymer science is an unlimited and complicated subject, nevertheless it’s pretty straightforward to know what a polymer is. A polymer is a cloth made up of a number of repeating monomers. That in all probability appears like one other language, so let’s put it by way of a cloth you might be possible acquainted with – PVC.
The Fundamentals: What Is A Polymer?
PVC, which is brief for Poly (Vinyl Chloride), is a cloth made up of a number of vinyl chloride molecules joined collectively in lengthy chains. Vinyl chloride is the monomer, and there are a lot of of them, thus, ‘poly’. Straightforward sufficient, proper?
More often than not, the “P” in a cloth abbreviation stands for “Poly”. Widespread examples embody:
- PET – Polyethylene terephthalate, generally generally known as Polyester
- PLA – Polylactic acid (additionally referred to as polylactide)
- PP – Polypropylene, or polypropene
- PE – Polyethylene
- PS – Polystyrene
- PA – Polyamide, generally generally known as Nylon
PLA, PET, and Nylon – these are just some of many polymer supplies that makers can 3D print their components with.
Now, you possible have come throughout the phrases ‘copolymer’ and/or ‘copolyester’ when taking a look at filaments in your 3D printer.
A copolymer is solely a polymer made up of multiple monomer. ABS might be probably the most acquainted copolymer. It’s made up of three monomers – Acrylonitrile, Butadiene, and Styrene. Particularly, ABS is a terpolymer, as a result of it’s made of three monomers, however ‘copolymer’ covers the whole lot comprised of greater than 1 monomer. Different examples could be Taulman’s line of Nylon copolymers – 618, 645, Bridge, and Alloy 910.
A copolyester is fashioned when PET, aka Polyester, is modified. Copolyesters have gained recognition as 3D printing filaments lately – PETG, PET+, Colorfabb XT, nVent, nGen, and T-Glase are all copolyesters.
MatterHackers’ NylonG is made out of Polyamide and bolstered with glass fibers to extend tensile energy and take up giant quantities of kinetic power.
Hydrolysis – Sounds Fancy; Is It Dangerous For My Filament?
Now that we now have a fundamental understanding of what a polymer is—a protracted chain of monomers—it’s time to speak about water and a course of referred to as hydrolysis.
When monomers are joined collectively, it’s referred to as polymerization. Word that this isn’t a one-way road. Polymer chains can degrade and be damaged down—or depolymerize—and there are numerous ways in which this occurs. One among these methods is hydrolysis. Hydrolysis is when a water molecule breaks a polymer chain. All types of complicated chemistry happen when polymers hydrolyze. We’re not going to get into these particulars, however the materials properties affected when hydrolysis happens (they’re modified anytime the polymer chain size is decreased or elevated) are lack of tensile energy, change of readability, and so on.
While you extrude filament that has absorbed water, the water in/on the fabric vaporizes and creates air bubbles. This could break aside polymer chains (shortens them), weakening the fabric and creating voids within the strands of filament which weakens inter-layer adhesion. It additionally leaves an undesirable floor end.
You could not understand it, nevertheless it’s possible that you’ve already skilled the consequences of hydrolysis in your 3D printed components. Pictured under check prints made out of Taulman Bridge nylon. The left was dried earlier than printing. The fitting was not dried. These have been printed with materials from the identical spool.
The print on the left was dried earlier than printing whereas the print proper was not dried.
After drying the nylon spool in a vacuum oven earlier than printing, we produced the print on the left. Then we left that very same spool sitting out for two+ weeks earlier than printing, which resulted within the print on the precise.
The dried nylon is pretty clear. The moist nylon is sort of opaque. It is probably not clear within the picture, however the dried nylon has a easy, shiny end, whereas the moist nylon has a tough, textured end. Each objects are powerful, however the moist nylon is significantly simpler to tug aside on the layers. You too can see that nylon tends to warp—regardless if it’s moist or dry.
That is MatterHacker Black Professional Collection PETG. The left dice was dried earlier than printing, and the precise one was allowed to sit down out for two+ weeks.
The left dice was dried earlier than printing, and the precise one was allowed to sit down out for two+ weeks.
As you’ll be able to see, there’s a clear distinction in floor end and texture. It’s exhausting to inform within the image, however the dry dice is shiny and has a constant end from prime to backside. The moist dice is textured, with a satin-matte end. The feel is the place air bubbles left voids. Moist PETG is considerably extra brittle than dry, and the interlayer adhesion is considerably decreased.
Happily, many of the filaments we print with aren’t very prone to hydrolysis at room temperature with out the presence of an acid or a base. They’re, nevertheless, very prone to hydrolysis when heated to extrusion temperatures. Which means that we don’t have to fret as soon as an element has been correctly printed, however we do must take steps to forestall hydrolysis when printing.
Since most of the frequent 3D printing supplies are hygroscopic (readily take up moisture from the air), we should take steps to each dry our filament and maintain it dry.
Nylon, polycarbonate, and copolyester filaments are all very hygroscopic and prone to hydrolysis when printed within the presence of water. Nylon and PC can take up sufficient water in 48 hours to break prints.
How Do We Know If Filament Is Moist And Wants To Be Dried?
The simplest approach is to extrude some filament and watch it come out of the nozzle. When you see any bubbles, hear any hissing/popping/cracking, or see steam coming off the filament, then it’s undoubtedly moist and must be dried out.
This video reveals a transparent distinction between moist and dry nylon. (This was Taulman 645 nylon)
The Best Solution to Dry 3D Printer Filament
Though the strategies that we now have listed are tried and true, the simplest approach to dry 3D printing filament is with the PrintDry PRO Filament Drying System. Its compact body lets you dry and retailer filament proper out of your desk or workspace, each exterior of printing hours or throughout printing. It even comes with one vacuum-sealed container and pump for further cupboard space. We right here at MatterHackers have been utilizing the PrintDry for fairly a while and are more than happy with the outcomes.
When you have nylon, polycarbonate, TPU, TPE, or PETG and the spool has been sitting out for greater than a day or so, you then possible must dry it. PLA and ABS are additionally prone, nevertheless it takes fairly a bit longer for them to soak up sufficient water to trigger main points.
How Do You Dry Filament And Hold It Dry?
There are a couple of methods to dry out filament and maintain it dry.
First, it’s necessary to dispel a typical fantasy. You can’t successfully dry filament out by storing it in an hermetic container with desiccant. You’ll be able to maintain filament dry this fashion and it’s extremely beneficial when not utilizing a spool. Nevertheless, to correctly and completely dry it as soon as it has been saturated it’s essential actively dry it.
Probably the most out there technique to dry your filament is to bake it in an oven. Nevertheless it’s straightforward to overheat your filament which may trigger off gassing from the plastic. These gasses may be poisonous, which may be harmful to inhale or have meals close to. Ovens aren’t beneficial for drying filament, nevertheless it nonetheless may be executed with warning. Convection ovens work very effectively as they consistently flow into sizzling air across the spool. That is basically how the uncooked resin pellets are mostly dried – sizzling air is handed over and thru the uncooked resin pellets earlier than they’re extruded.
There may be one necessary factor to know earlier than baking your filament. You have to preheat your oven and permit it to achieve the set temperature earlier than placing the filament in. Ovens work the identical approach that sizzling ends on 3D printers work – with PID temperature management – and it’s frequent for ovens to overshoot the goal temperature a bit. This doesn’t have an effect on meals, nevertheless it undoubtedly can break your filament by fusing the filament and/or melting the spool that it’s on. To fully take away any risk of unintentionally fusing/melting your filament throughout drying, we suggest utilizing drying methods particularly designed to take away moisture from filament just like the PrintDry.
Efficiently print hygroscopic filaments with ease through the use of a PrintDry Filament Drying System.
How To Dry 3D Printing Filament:
1) Preheat your oven to 160-180°F (or 70-80°C).
2) Place spool within the oven for 4-6 hours
3a) Take away and place it in an hermetic container, ideally with desiccant. 5-gallon buckets with hermetic lids from native {hardware} shops work very effectively for filament storage. Raw rice works as an affordable desiccant different.
3b) If utilizing a PrintDry PRO, you’ll be able to alternatively feed filament out of the system’s port and on to your 3D printer for dry storage whereas printing.
Filaments with decrease glass transition temperatures (Tg) like PLA, use decrease temperatures to dry. Decrease temperatures additionally require extra time to completely dry.
That’s just about all that’s essential to dry out your filament and guarantee optimum materials efficiency and floor end. Lots of our clients sometimes resolve mattress adhesion points and tough floor completed components by merely eradicating the moisture that has collected of their filament. When you have some spools which were sitting out for some time and aren’t printing in addition to they used to, dry them out and check out once more. Probabilities they only want somewhat drying off to print like new once more.
As at all times, Blissful Printing!
Hold your hygroscopic filaments freed from moisture earlier than 3D printing to attain most high quality components.
