One of the engineers at my company came up to me today and asked if I could print using PC Glass Fiber filament, specifically 10, 20, or 30% glass fiber. I told him I was pretty sure I could, but I wanted to reach out to all of you and get some feedback. It can’t be nylon, it must be polycarbonate.
Can this be done on the X1C?
Is it advisable? (Meaning, besides the Hot End which I assume it will go through quickly, are there any other concerns?)
Anyone have experience with this kind of filament? If so, any tips or warnings?
Can anyone recommend a good filament?
PC with glass fibre isn’t easy to print. And you should look at the spec sheet of the manufacturer to see what heatbed, environment and nozzle temps they require.
I know some of PC glass fibrer filaments require temps above 300°C, which is the limit of the X1C.
But other then the temps, a 0.6 hardened steel nozzle with slow printing speeds should work out.
It might work if you print slow enough, nozzle temp between 280 and 330°C.
Haven’t tried something like that in a X1C yet, but trying it out is the best way to find out. But use at least a 0.6 hardened nozzle. An unhardened one might be gone by just a few prints.
Thanks for the info. But this is for a couple of parts for one of our customers and they always frown on replacement suggestions. We are currently purchasing small blocks of this material and machining them ourselves, but this costs us over $75 and $95 USD ourselves. My engineers want to see how much cheaper (and hopefully easier) it would be to 3D Print them.
I found some filament that will work from MatterHackers so we might give that a try.
depending on the size of the object printing it might not be cheaper. Also the strength of the object will be roughly at best half the value in Z direction. If that is a problem depends on the part.
Small little parts that are 6 and 8.2 grams of filament each, and that is with 100% infill. As far as strength requirements, as this customer typically does, the item is way over-engineered for the purpose it serves. Strength is not the concern, printing it to tolerance is my major concern.