If you are tired of outsourcing or inefficient production, then our easy-to-use FFF desktop 3D printers can save you time and money. Discover the ThinkFab Filaments that will streamline your workflow and deliver the quality results you need.
ThinkFab Filaments is thermoplastic feedstock for fused deposition modeling 3D printers. There are many types of filament available with different properties, requiring different temperatures to print.
ABS 3D printer filament is the most used home 3D printer filament after PLA. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is one of the most popular plastics. It is an oil based filament and has a higher melting point than PLA. The most important mechanical properties of ABS are impact resistance and toughness. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is one of the most popular plastics. ABS is popular for a few reasons. To start with, experienced users like ABS because it’s strong, affordable, and it’s easy to modify the parts after printing.
Acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) is a thermoplastic that you can 3D print and has many properties that make it good for engineering and outdoor purposes. ASA is basically the new and improved cousin of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which is more widely known and used (like Lego). ASA has many of the benefits of ABS without some of its drawbacks. However, after printing, ASA parts are very heat-resistant and durable. ASA prints are also rigid and strong, and can even be more so than the same parts made from ABS.
High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) is dissolvable in Limonene, which is a quite strong chemical. It’s generally used to print support structures for ABS prints. HIPS is as easy to print with as ABS but is much less likely to warp. The main difference is that HIPS uses Limonene as a solvent. His means that you can use HIPS as a support material which can then easily be dissolved by placing your print in Limonene. This is a fantastic alternative to sanding away regular support material which can make your hands sore and leave you feeling frustrated.
Polylactic acid (PLA) is a bio-degradable polymer, it is dimensionally stable, so there is no need for a heated bed. On the whole, PLA works better in the machine, requiring lower temperatures and giving stronger, more hard-wearing products. At thinkFab, we have PLA filaments in various colors. t is an oil based filament and has a higher melting point than PLA. The most important mechanical properties of ABS are impact resistance and toughness. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is one of the most popular plastics.
PETG is an abbreviation for Polyethylene Terephthalate (with a glycol modification) which is one of the most common polymers used today. It’s used to make water bottles, food packaging, and countless other common plastic items. As a 3D printing filament, PETG plastic has proven its worth as a durable material that is easy to use. Figuratively speaking, it combines the most useful characteristics of ABS filament (the rigidity and mechanical properties for functional parts) with the ease of printing that PLA filament affords. Kind of a “best of both worlds” scenario.
Keep the nozzle temperature as low as possible and cool as much as you can.
The above-mentioned rule of thumb can be seen as the basis of 3D-Printing. This rule is created with hours of testing and experimenting with different 3D-Printer filaments and 3D-Printing techniques. Of course, there are exceptions and boundaries to this rule, for instance, some filaments react badly to cooling and others cannot be printed below a certain temperature without risking under extrusion.
PLA (Polylactic acid) is biodegradable thermoplastic derived mostly from corn. Due to its brittle nature, PLA is not recommended for 3D printing. Printed object may break down after a few months.
Furthermore, the material has sharp edges when it breaks, making it a hazard especially when removing the support material from printed parts.
ABS, PLA, HIPS, TPU, PETG, PC, Carbon Fiber plastic materials are used on our 3D printers.
Use of PLA is avoided as it has lower strength as compared to ABS when it absorbs moisture. Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) printed parts have a strong, hard, and rigid output.
In order to answer this, we need to consider a few things. We need to know the dimensions of the object; the percentage of infill and the part requires support material or not.
3D printing is tricky beast, and there are many potential reasons why your extruder is having problems. The first thing to do, is to make sure that you know what material you’re using, and that you have the proper temperature settings.
Each material has an ideal range of temperatures
PLA: 190-210°C
ABS: 220 -240°C
NYLON: 240C-250°C
LAYWOOD: 175-250°C
LAYBRICK: 165-210°C
SOFT PLA/BENDLAY: 220-235°C
GLOW IN THE DARK PLA: 185-205°C
PVA: 170-190°C
To store filament correctly so that it doesn’t come into contact with moist air, you have three practical and relatively cheap options:
For drying PLA filament, you want to ensure more care, as 7°C will be too hot. We recommend at the very lowest temp your oven will go around 4°C. Even at this temp your PLA will soften, so drying PLA in the oven won’t always give you the results you’re after.
Some of you think that PLA will dissolve in water and/or will degrade in moist or wet environments. That is totally false. The 3D printable plastic, which is often used as a support material with dual extrusion 3D printers and which dissolves in water is PVA (Polyvinyl alcohol), not PLA.
Wet PETG is significantly more brittle than dry, and the interlayer adhesion is significantly reduced. Fortunately, most of the filaments we print with aren’t very susceptible to hydrolysis at room temperature without the presence of an acid or a base. Nylon and PC can absorb enough water in 48 hours to ruin prints
PET, or ‘polyethylene terephthalate’, is a combination of two monomers. PETG is of the same chemical composition as PET but with the addition of glycol. With just this one addition, the chemical composition is completely changed, creating a whole new plastic.
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Above IndusInd Bank, Rd No: 36
Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad
Telangana – 500033
Email: info@thinkfab.in
