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Archive for the ‘3D Printer Filament’ Category
Trying Out The Orbi-Tech BendLay 3D Printer Filament
11, Dec 2014
BendLay is another alternative filament from Orbi-Tech, the developers of LayBrick and Laywoo-D3 3D printer filaments. By design the BendLay is supposed to be something in between ABS and PLA in terms of properties and is intended to be used where ABS is too hard and flexible PLA is not tight enough, even though the filament is essentially a modified ABS . The BendLay is available in the form of transparent glass-like form only and according to the manufacture is: clear like Polycarbonate, bendable and resilient, high-impact resistant and unbreakable, easier to print than ABS, has no stress whitening by bending, with high interlayer adhesion and is apparently food-safe. It is supposed to be printed between 215° to 240°C and should be printable at high speed offering thermal stability the same as PLA (65 – 70°C). The most significant advantage that the BendLay has is that it is highly bendable without breaking, but is not as flexible as a flexible PLA filament, so it will not break very easy when you bend it as ABS or PLA might, but at the same time it is also not too flexible to be rubber like.
So far it all sounds good, so we have ordered a sample of BendLay filament to try it out. We tested it on out MakerBot Replicator 2 printer, but unfortunately we did not have very good success in printing with BendLay. We did not see the specific requirement for a heated build platform for using with this filament, but apparently it is required to get good printers. We have tried different extrusion temperature from 210 to 250 with both slow and fast printing speeds, but the filament was just not sticking well enough to the build plate. We have properly leveled build plate with 3D blue painters tape on it and when printing with BendLay on it we are seeing that there is slight warping at the edges of smaller objects and trouble with the printed part sticking good enough. So after a few layers we usually get the object detached form the build plate and he print failing, regardless of what settings we have used. People with heated build platform may have more success, but if you don’t have one you might want to stay away from BendLay and save yourself some trouble trying to figure out why you are getting so many failed prints.
Trying out the NinjaFlex Flexible Filament
6, Dec 2014
NinjaFlex is the name of a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) filament for 3D printers developed by a company called Fenner Drives. This is not the first flexible 3D printer filament that we are checking out, but it is probably one of the most popular one for this type of filament. The NinjaFlex filament is designed to print on a wide range of 3D printers that use direct-drive extruders with settings similar to the ones you would use for normal prints using ABS or PLA material. There are some differences though that you should be aware of regarding the use of flexible filaments and more specifically NinjaFlex.
This filament does not require you to have a heated build plate, it should stick well to the standard build plate of 3D printers designed only for PLA printing and it should stick well to most surfaces. The manufacturer recommended extruder temperature is between 210-225°C and what you need to make sure to do is to lower the extrusion speed to about 1/3 of the normal one for your 3D printer or to about 30 mm/s in order to have best results. This is similar to other flexible filaments such as the Arnitel Eco Flexible filament that we have already tried. Arnitel is producing flexible filaments with a sightly higher hardness of Shore D between 40 and 70 and the NinjaFlex is rated Shore A hardness of 85, making the NinjaFlex filament slightly more flexible than the Arnitel 40A that we have tried.
The recommended maximum temperature for exposing the NinjaFlex printed parts is 66°C, going higher than that they can start to feel softer not because they are flexible, so the thermal stability is similar to the one that PLA filaments have. The recommended minimum temperature for NinjaFlex printed parts is -30°C, because going below this temperature will make printed parts increasingly brittle and they may even shatter. Also you should note that while occasional contact with water will have no adverse effect on NinjaFlex, the product will degrade and lose its elastic properties when submerged in water for extended periods of time.
The NinjaFlex flexible filament is available in multiple colors including: Black, White, Blue, Red, Silver, Gold, Orange, Green, Semi-transparent, Yellow and Pink in 1.75mm 0.50 kg spools as well as 3mm 0.75kg spools. We got a Green Grass filament spool with diameter of 1.75mm for trying the filament out on our MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printer. Printing with our regular settings for PLA with an extrusion speed of 30 mm/s at three different temperatures has produced varying results. The recommended temperature range by the manufacturer is 210-225°C and we have tested printing at 210, 220 and 230 degrees Celsius with the results as seen on the photo above. At 210 degrees Celsius our test simple house was not not perfect, the base was fine, but the roof had some glitches making the printed part looking ugly, though the filament had no trouble sticking to the build plate. At 220°C visually the result was the best, great looking and smoother finish at 0.2mm layer height at Standard print quality. Going a bit higher and out of the recommended by the manufacturer temperature range still gives us a good print, but the surface finish looks a bit rougher when reflecting light. So it seems that you might want to stick to the upper recommended temperature range when printing with NinjaFlex flexible filament such as 220-225 degrees Celsius for best results.
A while ago we have ordered and received our Proto Pasta sample pack that included Carbon Fiber PLA. We’ve started playing with this interesting filament that is essentially PLA filament with small pieces of carbon fiber that can be used for 3D printing and we can share our experience and initial impressions for it. Proto Pasta, the manufacturer of this exotic filament is promising that the prints made with their Carbon Fiber PLA are more rigid, providing excellent structural strength and layer adhesion with very low warpage and they are right on the spot with that. The Proto-pasta Carbon Fiber PLA is made from NatureWorks 4043D PLA Resin compounded with 15% (by weight) chopped Carbon Fibers and the material is supposed to print just like you would print with normal PLA filament. This filament is offering increased rigidity, not strength, thanks to the carbon fiber or with other words you can expect structural support, but decreased flexibility compared to standard PLA filament. The recommended temperature of the printing nozzle from Proto-pasta that is written on the package we’ve received is between 190 and 230 degrees and no heated bed is required for printing the material, so pretty much any standard PLA-capable printed should be just fine,
On the image above you can see a test 3D print from standard black PLA filament on the left and then two test prints from the Carbon Fiber PLA material to the right, one printed at 230 and one at 250 degrees C. The standard PLA print is with a glossy and smooth surface, the Carbon Fiber PLA prints are with a bit rougher matte surface and are more lighter black than standard black PLA. We have started our testing at 190 degrees C, but we’ve had trouble with the filament sticking to the build plate properly, so we continued increasing the temperature and all the way to 210 degrees we had problems with the layers sticking (with properly leveled build plate). Going for 220 degrees Celsius all the way up to 250 has managed to produce good prints on our MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printer with prints at 230 degrees Celsius being the most problem free and with the best quality. We had no trouble with warping as expected and the adhesion was good, but you may need a bit higher temperature of the extruder to avoid problems with the material sticking to the build plate. Our initial impressions from the material are pretty good, now we need to print some parts for RC models to stress test the filament as apparently a lot of people are using the Carbon Fiber PLA material for remote controlled models.