Is PETG HF something that I would be able to sell and won’t start to soften in a hot car in California summer heat? I’m concerned that PETG HF will not be strong enough and the cases my customers purchase may not last in summertime heat.
I own a company where we are implementing 3d printed cases for our products, and I was quite happy with the first prototype I made with Bambu PLA.
It was smooth, nice matte finish, felt quite durable.
After reading that PLA will soften around 60c, and PETG HF will soften around 70C, I decided to get a bunch of Bambu ABS to make our first production run.
Unfortunately the black Bambu ABS looks cheap, the semi-gloss shine and surface defects are not quite what I wanted to sell to our customers.
Is PETG HF something that I would be able to sell and won’t start to soften in a hot car in California summer heat?
Made a comb with it and tossed it in my glove compartment. It still works but it’s warped a bit. Not something I would sell to anyone as it took under a month to warp in high heat (Florida summers)
Heat creep/deflection isn’t only dependent on temperature - it’s not like once you pass the magic number - it just sags. It’s a function of temperature as well as mechanical stress. So the answer is, unfortunately, it depends. I wouldn’t do it personally, there are lots of other materials that could be more suitable.
You are correct to be concerned. The formulas used for filaments can vary greatly among manufacturers but especially between batches of Bambu filament. We’ve seen a lot of reports from members here who have purchased in bulk only to see dramatic color shifts between date codes, so quality control is clearly not Bambu’s strong suit.
On the subject of what will survive. As you probably are already away, most of a car’s interior is made from ABS so we know pure “molded” ABS stands up to the 95 °C that a car sitting in a SoCal desert can experience. But there is a difference here. Molded ABS is pure ABS whereas filament has plasticizers or other additives doped into it. That combined with the fact that infill percentages will also affect warping, and you get a mix of variables that are hard to control.
So here is what I would recommend. If you are truly concerned about customer satisfaction or worse yet, customer returns, then doing some inbound QC on filament spools by date code would probably be some cheap insurance. What I might suggest is to create a test model that you can print quickly and place it into an oven that you can regulate the temperature to 95 °C. Then measure deformation.
This YouTuber does a couple of interesting standard test using a standard kitchen oven and a M20 nut for weight. You may get some ideas for your own test scenario.
In this particular video he does an oven test he performs for many of his strength vidoes. Advance to time index 13:28 if this link doesn’t work.
I wouldn’t “Pay” for anything printed on a home use 3D printer!
The quality isn’t even close enough to charge someone for a 3D printed part from your spare bedroom.
