While disposing of failed prints and no longer needed prints I noticed something unexpected.
These glow in the dark filaments seem to be rather strong compared to standard PLA.
I know it is tiny beads inside but I was not ware that those would make parts stronger and much stiffer.
I could find quite a lot of videos and websites showing the differences between normal PLA and fibre ‘enhanced’ PLA.
But did anyone ever do a proper test with glow in the dark PLA?
Seem to be unable to find any…
Interesting, and I guess it makes sense.
I have used the Bambu Glow filament, and it does seem strong. I just hadn’t tested it again other PLA.
Still no time for comprehensive tests but here is something to think about :
Those filled filaments, especially the glow ones are recommended to be printed at rather slow speeds and most also print them more on the high side of the temp range.
Ever noticed, especially with PLA, how certain areas or parts of a model have different physical properties or surface appearance ?
Like how you can print some thin spring lever to be either very flexible or rather stiff, just based on print speed and extrusion temp…
I have a few (small) bags of glow in the dark powder for various projects.
When I forget them in the summer sun to charge them up they hold the temperature almost as good as sand.
On the other hand PLA, even if printed solid, looses the stored heat to the environment at a much faster rate.
Isn’t this a bit like letting some molten glass drop into cold water ?
The outside cools much faster than the inside, creating a strong tension when the warmer material inside starts to shrink.
Metal filled filaments on the other hand loose the heat stored in the metal much faster as there we won’t have individually sealed beads and well, because metal likes to give up stored energy…
Their added strength comes for the surface roughness of the metal particles which isn’t that much more compared to plain PLA.
All this made me wonder if people actually put their new filament rolls on a scale…
I have quite a few different filaments here and they are all sold as 1kg rolls.
All with the same centre diameter on the spool, all with the same fill level - full spools.
Full of course IS relative here as upon close look you can see how there is a few more or less layers on a spool depending on the type or even colour.
Means can just trust that the machine knows when there is a kg rolled up…
But what does this mean in terms of printing ? 
A higher density means in many cases that the filament is able to store more heat energy.
Plus the fact that certain materials retain the heat more than other materials.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a slicer to take this things into consideration ?
Constant flow rate printing is first step in the right direction after years of only going for pure speed and accuracy.
But imagine being able to use this constant flow approach in order to control the physical properties of the extruded filament as a factor the user can adjust …