Filament Energy Testing | MatterHackers

One of the vital frequent questions we get from prospects is, “What’s the strongest 3D printing filament?”  That’s an important query as a result of for 3D printing to be helpful, we’d like to have the ability to print elements which might be robust sufficient for purposeful use.

“Energy”, nevertheless, is a bit imprecise as it may refer to some totally different mechanical properties – tensile power, yield power, fatigue power, compressive power, and influence power – so it’s a troublesome query to reply with out extra info.

Don’t fear, you don’t have to know what any of these phrases imply for this text. We’re not a testing lab and we are able to’t carry out any scientific checks of these mechanical properties, and we certainly did not discover a Younger’s Modulus.  What we are able to do is carry out a comparative check – placing 3D printed elements via the identical check, and seeing how filaments examine to one another.

Comparative Testing

We began with a component everyone seems to be conversant in – a 3D printed carabiner. We scaled it to the approximate measurement of the aluminum carabiners yow will discover at native {hardware} shops which might be rated for 150lbs.

To get rid of as many variables as doable, we printed all of them on the identical 3D printer (Rostock Max by SeeMeCNC) with the identical settings (excluding those printed on the MarkForged, however we’ll get into that later).

A 0.4mm nozzle was used, and the carabiners have been printed at 0.25mm layer top with 5 perimeters, 5 stable high & backside layers, and 50% triangle sample infill.

Protocol

We rigged up a drive gauge to a block and sort out pulley system with an 8:1 ratio. Which means for each 1 pound we utilized to 1 facet of the system, we utilized 8 kilos to the opposite facet.

Once more, this was a comparative check, not a scientific one, so issues like friction within the block and sort out setup weren’t accounted for.

Every carabiner was connected to the pulley system and we used a ratcheting cable pull to use stress till the carabiner failed. The drive gauge recorded the height drive reached.

Listed below are our summarized information:

Considerably surprisingly, Taulman 645 failed on the lowest weight of any filament we examined, however it was the one filament that didn’t break. As a result of it’s not very inflexible, it simply bent and deformed till it got here off the check rig.  This toughness is clearly a really helpful attribute, however it’s not a really perfect materials for one thing like this carabiner.

The opposite supplies just about failed within the order we anticipated. PLA was the primary to interrupt, and when it broke, it shattered. PETG additionally failed violently, however was fairly a bit stronger than PLA. That is why it’s a superb common function filament – it’s stronger than PLA and far simpler to print than ABS.

We suspected that NylonX would carry out properly on this kind of check, however we didn’t count on it to carry out in addition to it did. Put merely, it’s simply superior. It’s a lot simpler to print than common nylon as a result of the carbon fiber lowers the shrink fee considerably. The CF additionally stiffens it considerably, so it doesn’t have the deflection of standard nylon. It was over 100% stronger than PLA in our check, and , on common, 60% stronger than ABS! 

As you possibly can see, Polycarbonate carried out very properly, and it had the tightest unfold from peak to low load till failure. Sadly, it was additionally essentially the most troublesome materials to print with of all of the supplies we examined. It requires thorough drying earlier than printing, and it’s very susceptible to warp and curl up and doing.

The carabiners printed on the Mark Cast have been a bit totally different than the others. The MarkForged prints in nylon and has the power to bolster elements with steady fibers. For this check, we printed 2 with fiberglass reinforcement, and a pair of with carbon fiber reinforcement. MarkForged makes use of their very own proprietary slicing software program referred to as Eiger.io, so the settings weren’t equivalent to the opposite printed elements, however we obtained them as shut as we might. The settings used have been 4 stable high/backside layers of nylon, 2 outer partitions of nylon, 5 concentric rings of fiber reinforcement, 50% triangle sample infill, and 0.125mm layers.

For causes that aren’t but clear, they didn’t carry out in addition to we had anticipated – with each the Fiberglass and CF elements performing worse than NylonX and Polycarbonate. We’ve gotten some extremely robust elements off the MarkForged previously, so we’ll be exploring this a bit extra to see why the carabiners didn’t carry out as anticipated.

Outcomes

After watching the video of the elements breaking, and our information, we realized just a few issues.

Whereas we have been making use of stress to the 3D printed carabiners, we weren’t simply measuring tensile power. We discovered that the integrity of the latch and the power of it to remain closed so long as doable was an enormous issue within the max load earlier than failure. The extra versatile the filament is, the extra simply the latch unseats/opens, and this results in failure extra shortly. After observing this, we experimented through the use of latches printed in PLA filament and NylonX for just a few of the checks. For instance, after we examined the Taulman 645, we carried out 2 checks with latches printed in 645, 2 checks with PLA latches, and a pair of with NylonX. The height worth for Taulman 645 was reached through the use of the NylonX latch – which is smart given the outcomes we noticed.

This isn’t shocking, however we level it out in order that we don’t get folks asking us if this check means PLA filament is stronger than Nylon. With this specific half and check, stiffness was essential. Most nylon filaments, like Taulman 645, aren’t notably stiff, in order that they didn’t fare properly on this check, however that doesn’t imply they aren’t robust, sturdy supplies. The PLA elements shattered aside after they failed. The Taulman 645 simply deformed sufficient to not assist any extra weight. They roughly returned again to their authentic form after eradicating them from the check rig.

As an apart, we did check 2 of the aluminum carabiners from the ironmongery shop. They have been stamped as being rated as much as 150lbs. Each of them maxed out our drive gauge at 480lbs. Then, we taped the latches open, they usually failed at 168 lbs, and 183 lbs. We aren’t certain, however it might appear that the load score is predicated on the load it may maintain with out the latch engaged.

Though we used the identical 3D printer and the identical settings for all of the elements, there was fairly a little bit of variance in load earlier than failure. Whereas we didn’t carry out sufficient checks with every 3D filament to get a correct statistical information set, it seems that there could also be a good quantity of inconsistency inherent to the FFF course of.

Inconsistencies weren’t important sufficient to alter the failure level location. Each single carabiner failed in the identical spot, which is strictly the place we’d count on the carabiner to fail. We did count on to have at the very least 1 or 2 fail attributable to poor layer adhesion or different 3D printing-related problem, however that wasn’t the case.

Conclusions

We’ve been completely impressed with NylonX. We have been printing with it for about 3 months now, and it is simply an superior 3D printing materials. Sturdy, sturdy, simple to print, and it has an important floor end.

And but, essentially the most shocking results of our check was how robust NylonX turned out to be. It even outperformed the continual fiber bolstered Mark Cast elements – which we have been positively not anticipating. In actual fact, the MarkForged elements, whereas clearly very robust, didn’t carry out in addition to we had anticipated. Solely Polycarbonate had the next load capability than Nylon X in our check. That is smart as a result of despite the fact that Nylon and Polycarbonate filament have comparable tensile strengths, PC is considerably extra inflexible, so there was much less deflection and the latch was capable of keep engaged longer.