Polycarbonate is incredibly strong! #Filaween

This is a simple and affordable material, it prints well – and is undeniably strong. This is polycarbonate!

This stuff is absolutely insane. This is plain no-name Polycarbonate, which i bought from E3D a while ago for a cheap 31€ per kilogram, and because it is a high-performance polymer, it calls for an equally high-performance 3D printer.

You need to print it rather hot, so i used 295°C on the nozzle, which definitely requires an all-metal hotend, and 110°C on the bed with a bit of glue stick to help it adhere. Polycarbonate has a glass transition temperature around 150°, so it warps very easily if you don’t take care. It’s optically clear and refracts light similarly to glass, acrylics or copolyesters.

Print quality is surprisingly good for the high print temperature, the 3DBenchy has a few very minor artifacts, but is overall still a very good print, but both the vertically printed pull tests and the Benchy’s funnel, as well as the fine details test make it clear that polycarbonate easily degrades inside the nozzle if printed too slowly.

Bridges were an overall ok result, while overhangs came out perfectly, so this Polycarbonate ends up with a respectable 16 out 20 point for quality. Now with the strength tests, things get really interesting. We’re seeing consistently high strength numbers, excellent layer adhesion and good material strength with the octagonal pull test being impossible for me to break, resulting in a total score of 76kg, which is already better than any other material tested so far. With the printer in a closed chamber, which heats up to about 32°C, we’re getting even better results for layer adhesion, with a total score of 87kg, which is about twice as high as common PLA materials, beating its own high score yet again. Polycarbonate has a low flex under load and temperature stability with boiling water is flawless, with no noticeable softening or degradation.

So if you need a material that is insanely strong and tough, already have an all-metal hotend and ideally an enclosed chamber for extra strength and to contain the rancid smell during printing, plain Polycarbonate could be a marvellous choice without breaking the bank.

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