3D printing places near me

Summing up the above, I can say the following: if you need to print some parts that do not bear mechanical loads, you can take this product from any manufacturer to which the soul lies, or the price suits.

If you are going to print something like electrical appliances, which must carry some kind of load and be protected from fire, then I advise you to take a closer look at the material ASA/PC from Filamentarno .

#2 PP

PP (polypropylene, PP) is a semi-rigid and lightweight 3D printing material that is commonly used in storage and packaging. The semi-crystalline structure of PP causes 3D printing parts to deform heavily when cooled. This makes 3D printing extremely difficult.

Polypropylene itself has been introduced to the market not so long ago. it is complex both in production and in printing. To use it, it is necessary to introduce a number of plasticizers into the composition of the material in order for the work on this material (both production and printing) to be successful. Same Filamentarno claims that their polypropylene is non-shrinking, but this is not entirely true, it is, but not as big.

Print options:

Extrusion temperature - 240-260°C

Table temperature - 45-60°C

Interlayer cohesion - medium

Table adhesion - poor

By itself, polypropylene is not as easy to print as it seems, I would even say that this is one of the most capricious materials to work with.

But there are several problems with it:

First: material ignores many table adhesives. Not a single spray-adhesive from various manufacturers contributes to successful printing, the glue stick "doodle-doodle" is also useless. The only adhesive I know for printing with polypropylene is scotch tape. Oddly enough, but polypropylene tape (brown) can curb this material for you.

Secondly: material cannot be printed with cheap printers. It requires at least a passive thermal chamber, which retains heat, and does not see through. On my Hercules Strong , I can’t make a detail higher than a centimeter at all, Picaso does a little better, because the body is smaller, and the air warms up more evenly in general. Volgobot once again took out with its thermal camera, it turned out to print more or less large parts (about 120x100x80). The most difficult thing was to find a balance between the temperature of the chamber and the airflow so that the material does not flow, and at the same time does not delaminate.

I can give advice on camera temperature, depending on the brand, you need to choose between 60°C and 65°C, as for blowing, you need to look at the model itself, sometimes it is possible to print without blowing, and sometimes it is extremely necessary .

Specifications:

Unfortunately, no manufacturer gives the technical characteristics of this material, so you will have to search the Internet for less reliable sources.

• Melting point - 160-170°C
• Softening point - 70°C
• Operating temperature -20+40°C
• Elongation at break - 200-700%
• Tensile strength - 26-49 MPa
• Density - 0.9 g/cm³
• Shrinkage in the manufacture of products - up to 1.3-3.5%

Application: due to its environmental friendliness, the material is widely used in medicine, as well as for the creation of goods for children. Also, the material shows itself well as a dielectric, so it is not uncommon to use it in mechanical engineering. In theory, this filament is strong and flexible, it is chemically and thermally stable, but for myself I have not found any use in everyday life. The material has good potential, but it is very difficult to implement, perhaps its time has not yet come, and perhaps it exists in vain.

Pros:

• Low material density. Polypropylene has the lowest density of all plastics, which compares favorably with its denser counterparts.
• Resistant to sudden changes in temperature. A quick change in temperature is also not terrible for this material. It withstands the rapid transition from minus to plus and vice versa.
• Excellent dielectric properties. The high dielectric constant together with the high dielectric strength provide ample opportunities for its use as an electrical insulating material.
• Resistant to chemical attack. This feature of the material allows it to be widely used for the needs of chemical enterprises. It withstands the effects of hot metal, various acids and fumes. In particular, this property is used in the manufacture of air ducts and ventilation for hazardous industries.
• Environmental friendliness and safety for the environment and humans. Numerous experiments have proven the non-toxicity and absolute ecological safety of this material for the environment and humans. Therefore, it is used in the production of water containers, as well as various liquids and bulk food products. Very often it is used in the construction of facilities for water purification.

Cons:

• High print shrinkage.
• High "capriciousness" of the material, requires skill and patience.
• Due to its nature, it is not suitable for printing on non-professional equipment. Requires an active heat chamber.
• Difficult to find application in everyday life.

Economic component:

Due to the fact that not all companies produce this filament, only three manufacturers will have to be considered.

In the “ Experimental Materials ” section, REC sells polypropylene at a price of 1000r per spool. I did not publish this material, but the information is definitely worth considering.

What is the result?

1 seat - Print Product

2nd place - Filamentarno

3rd place - Rec

The pedestal of winners is in front of you. As you can see, the column “ Quality ” sank a lot due to the nature of the material. PrintProduct offers polypropylene at the most “rich” price, but from my own experience I can say that I suffered the most with the material of this manufacturer, this manufacturer also has the largest shrinkage among competitors, which is why the implementation of an already complex material becomes even harder. Regarding filament from REC and Filamentarno then, the quality can be considered at the same level, except that Filamentarno has slightly less shrinkage, but it still exists.

As for my opinion, I think that the material for the money for which we are offered is not needed. Even if we cast the financial issue into the background, the problem of printing this material becomes relevant. The material itself requires expensive equipment and a lot of experience. For certain tasks, you can find a filament cheaper, but easier to use.

#3 PC

PC (polycarbonate, PC) is one of the most common polymers in the industry today. Perhaps there is no person who has not seen this material in everyday life, because. it is widely used in mechanical engineering and just in construction.

Russian filament manufacturers not so long ago released this material for sale, as I remember it was the turn of 2018-2019. As soon as it came out, all users of 3D printers immediately faced a number of problems in working with this material, which, however, I will talk about later. Fortunately, there are modern solutions to overcome these problems.

Print options:

• Extrusion temperature - 265-280°C
• Table temperature - 120°C
• Interlayer cohesion - good
• Table adhesion - poor

One of the problems that I mentioned above is that the material requires high temperatures for printing, and if you have a task to print a body product with a large nozzle diameter and high print speed, then reach 300°C not difficult at all. Plus, printing requires a high bed temperature of up to 120°C . Even with these parameters, it will not be enough to print tall and large products, because. for such needs, an active thermal chamber will be essential (as in VolgoBot/CreatorBot/Total Z ). Shrinkage is to blame, not to say that it is huge, but it is enough so that during printing the corners begin to come off and the model delaminates.

Specifications:

Before you look at the technical specifications, I would like to note that of all the manufacturers presented, only PrintProduct makes a pure PC, while the rest make it composite based on ABS / ASA. Accordingly, many characteristics will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

• Melting point - 175-210°C
• Softening point - 100°C
• Operating temperature -100+110°C
• Bending strength - 104 MPa
• Tensile strength - 41 (for composite) MPa, 68 (for pure product) MPa
• Tensile modulus - 2.6 GPa
• Flexural Modulus - 2.1 GPa
• Density - 1.2 g/cm³
• Shrinkage in the manufacture of products - 0.5-0.9%
• Shore D - 83

The material itself is very strong, perhaps one of the most durable mono materials for 3D printing. Another thing that undoubtedly pleases is the large temperature range during operation. The material itself is very wear-resistant, because. it is almost not sawn with a file, so it is perfect for mechanical parts with a constant load.

Application: The material performs well in sliding parts, various bearings/gears. In the presence of an active heat chamber, it will be possible to print large-sized case products at all. PrintProduct also makes this material transparent, with extremely good light transmission, which opens up new doors for imagination and applications.

For me personally, this filament is one of the most used, in case of printing some functional products, on some low details, Hercules does a great job. Also, once there was an order for 3D printing for a functional part measuring 200x200x200 and weighing almost a kilogram, I re-ordered it at the Central Institute of Technology and printed it on a Volgobot A4 PRO printer. It worked out really, really well. As a result, acting as an intermediary, he earned a couple of pieces of silver and left all 3 parties satisfied.

Pros:

• High hardness of the material, and therefore has high strength and impact resistance.
• Good wear resistance.
• Good fire resistance.
• Large operating temperature range.
• Good for drilling and cutting if poorly machined.

Cons:

• Shrinkage during printing and high printing temperatures do not allow the use of this material on non-professional equipment (in the case of pure PC, but it is possible to print on composites). Be sure to have a heat chamber.
• Poor UV resistance. It is recommended not to expose the product to light.

Economic component:

What is the result?

1 seat - REC

2nd place - Sem3D

3rd place - BestFilament

4th place - Filamentarno

5th place - PrintProduct

Now my little comment about the result:

First: I will say that the composite with PC is easier to handle, but has a slightly worse performance.

Secondly: Filamentarno , they have a composite based on ASA / PC , I wrote about this material above, and I see no reason to add something in addition.

Thirdly: REC , deservedly takes the first place in this rating, they have an excellent composite based on ABS / PC . It has a good set of technical characteristics and is easy to use. Also REC offers a composite with PC at the lowest material cost per gram. All in all, a good choice - highly recommended. Sem3D and Bestfilament

I would also like PrintProduct to be noted for the better, as the only manufacturer that produces polycarbonate in a “pure” form. Although it is very difficult to work with, it is their material that has the best technical characteristics among competitors. If the equipment allows you, then this option is for you, I advise everyone.

Nylon (polyamide, PA) is a durable synthetic fiber based on polyamide. This is the first synthetic polymer that surpasses metals in some properties.

The material has been around for a long time, but they have only recently learned how to print it. American analogues of this material have been flooding the Russian market since 2014. The material itself is extremely interesting, and it would be extremely wrong to bypass it, but first things first. As a start, I will say that one of the Russian manufacturers produces a composite based on polyamide, the characteristics of which significantly exceed the characteristics of PEEK in various parameters.

Print options:

• Extrusion temperature - 250-270°C
• Table temperature - 120°C
• Interlayer cohesion - excellent
• Adhesion to the table - poor
• Drying temperature: 4h at T=100°C

The material has a high shrinkage coefficient, due to which it does not have the ability to stick to the table in the "draught" at all. The material is devoid of the ability to exfoliate during printing, tk. The layers stick together incredibly well. So good that the filament has approximately the same tear strength both along the print layers and across. As I said earlier, the material tends to come off the table, in order to avoid this it is necessary to have a heat chamber. On printers such as Hercules and Picaso can be printed, but high details cannot be made, also the early extruders Picaso refused to work with this material, clogged mercilessly. On VolgoBot A4 PRO printing with this material once again justifies itself one hundred percent. For me personally, the presence of this printer "side by side" is very beneficial, sometimes I can take rare, but very expensive orders for printing various power plants, where incredible indicators of strength and service life are needed.

Specifications:

As with polycarbonate, some manufacturers do not produce pure polyamide, but only as part of a composite, this should be taken into account when choosing a filament for printing. Composites are also different, I will release a more detailed article on this topic later.

• Melting point - 150-170°C
• Softening point - 100°C
• Operating temperature -40+90°C
• Tensile strength - 45-53 MPa
• Bending strength - 68 MPa
• Density - 1.07 g/cm³
• Shrinkage in the manufacture of products - 0.7-0.9%

As you can see the material has a high tensile strength (of course not the same as PC, but in combination with an even lower coefficient of friction gives a much longer life of the part). But as you remember, I promised to tell about the composite, about this at the end of the article.

Application: Due to its extremely good wear resistance, low coefficient of friction and resistance to various alcohols, oils and gasoline, the material has unlimited potential for use. For me personally, it has established itself as a material for all occasions. With the most difficult tasks, I turn to this material. Like a PC, having good filament equipment allows you to solve serious problems. In places where the ability to work with heavy loads is required, but at the same time it is advisable to save money, it is recommended to use this particular material. So classically it is used to make various bushings and gears. Compared to PEEK this material is more affordable, plus it has more elasticity, there were times in life when the elasticity of the model was a higher priority.

Pros:

• Excellent interlaminar cohesion makes the model almost cast.
• Incredibly good wear resistance.
• Good resistance to various solvents.
• Not a bad operating temperature range

Cons:

• Print shrinkage and high print temperatures prevent this material from being used on non-professional equipment. Mandatory presence of a thermal chamber.
• Highly hygroscopic.

Economic component:

What is the result?

1st place - Filamentarno

2nd place - PrintProduct

3rd place - REC

4th place - BestFilament

Now I will leave my comment:

First: from the presented manufacturers REC and Filamentarno produce exactly composites, and PrintProduct and BestFilament produce it clean.

REC adds 12% glass fiber and Filamentarno 30% to the composition.

Thanks to the fiberglass in the composition, this composite is endowed with foreign properties, while it should be taken into account that the presence of offal in the composition of the filament changes the properties of the material during printing. The presence of fiberglass in the composition of the filament reduces shrinkage during printing, while the sintering of the layers slightly suffers. It is also worth remembering that fiberglass has great abrasive properties, and therefore brass nozzles are no longer suitable for printing, they simply grind off. You will have to buy steel, or even better diamond, the price of which is extremely high (as for a consumable, but at the same time it cannot be called unjustified)

Now back to the detailed review of the composite with incredible properties. This composite is available from Filamentarno.

And according to the manufacturer, this composite has:

Maximum tensile strength - 190 MPa (PEEK has about 110)

Tensile modulus - 9000MPa

Temperature range - -60 - +250°C

From this we can conclude that this is perhaps one of the most (if not the most) durable material for 3D printing. The cost of filament is absolutely justified, and whenever I need to make a heavy-duty part, I use this material. Of course, this material requires professional equipment, and it does not tolerate inexperience. But to everything else, this material can be called one of the key ones. In my opinion, this material will be at the forefront for a long time, until PEEK, PSU, PEI won't see more use in 3D printing.

Regarding article: this article does not include material such as Flex/TPU . This is due to the fact that, as for me, these materials are very boring in print. There are many problems with them in printing, they are not amenable to post-processing, and in general there are many nuances in working with them. Of course, there are good examples of printing various insulating pads or dual-extruder printing, when a kind of sleeve of TPU has been integrated into part from ABS .

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