Hi everyone, I’m relatively new to 3D printing and currently working at a 3D printing company in Malaysia. My boss has tasked me with finding an alternative to the Markforged Onyx nylon material. So far, I’ve come across Obsidian-GF, but it still costs quite a bit—over a few hundred bucks.
If anyone knows of any alternative materials similar to Obsidian but at a more affordable price, I’d really appreciate your recommendations. Thanks in advance for your help!
Welcome to the forum.
Have you looked at Bambu’s offering?
In all honesty, there is no replacement for the continuous carbon fiber type of printing in a consumer printer. But if you are simply referring to the Oynx Nylon CF filament, I would think you have options.
Unfortunately, Markforged use a different set of tests to what many others use (likely to avoid direct test comparisons). But I think the tests can yield a reasonable comparison.
For example here is a chart of similar tests. However, its important to note these have forces applied differently and the test pieces are not the same size.
For the BBL filaments the tensile test pieces are 150mmx20mmx6mm thick
For the Markforged, the piece is 165mmx50mmx3.2mm thick
For the Heat deflection test all are at .45 MPa (about 66psi)
Now, with that said… the Markforged TDS doesn’t designate which orientation they are using to determine the test number, so they could be using the weakest orientation, and I posted the stronger XY orientation on the BBL filaments. But it is worth noting the BBL Z orientation was very similar to the Markforged numbers, where the Onyx numbers were generally just higher. However, I sincerely doubt Markforged is putting its worst foot forward on this TDS. I suspect the orientation used is the strongest, unless otherwise stated.
Note, I have never used the Markforged, but have used all of the others listed (almost… haven’t opened my PPA CF yet).
Personally, I’d test the PA6 CF/GF first and see if they meet the needs you have. Both are significantly cheaper than the Markforged and make a test cost efficient.
Oh… BTW, don’t choose any of the Nylons if you plan to use them in humid or moisture rich environments. PA12/PAHT CF may be OK, but all other Nylons absorb too much water and get really flexible. Again PA12s/PAHT-CF may be ok, but I’d look to a PET-CF, PPA-CF or PPS-CF from Polymaker. But note, the X1 may have problems printing a PPS-CF as they suggest 310C as a floor to the nozzle temps and the X1 only goes to 300C.
very much appreciated for the suggestion but my budget is below 100 bucks unfortunately
thank you very much for the details explanation and the suggestions, will check the listing u gave me and see which will be in my boss favor before i can print a sample
BTW does ugrading the nozzle to hardened steel helps avoid any problem in printing using PPS-CF
If you are using an X1C, it has a hardened nozzle, if it is one of the others, a hardened nozzle will help longevity of the nozzle. When nozzles wear out, the prints do start to have odd problems, so in effect, yes it will help with some problems.
