FDM Filament Choice

[Lee]

Hi All,

I've been put in touch with a client who has asked me the following question

"The prototypes need to be solid and must have similar plastic properties to polypropylene, as I need to test a pivoting leg design and flexibility of a the clips that are used on it"

Can anyone recommend a suitable material? I don't have an enclosed printer so anything requiring a heated chamber is out of scope for me i'm afraid.

[Wes Cherry]

Never printed with polypropylene, but have heard it’s very difficult.   Could the design be modified such that a piece of (possibly scored at the hinge?) polypropylene is captured by the print?

-'//es

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[Lee]

I won't be printing polypropylene as it requires a heated chamber / enclosure. Just wondering of PLA/PETG/Nylon has similar properties. I've already warned him that even if I used polypropylene, FDM prints do not have the same properties as injection moulded parts.

[Mark Napier]

How about Taulman Bridge Nylon?  That is supposed to work very well as living hinges, very flexible for nylon.  It might serve if designed properly.

Also, is not very expensive.

[Lee]

Thanks Mark, i'll try to find out some more about the prototype and run nylon past them

[Kurt at VR-FX]

Mark - I too was wondering if Lee needed a type of "living hinge" design - even though he didn't specifically state so. There was mention of clips - but, not sure if they are true "living hinge" type of things...

[Kurt at VR-FX]

Nylon can also be a bit of a Bitch to print with - as I have tried it before...

[Petr Ptacek]

Nylon is best but hard without heated chamber, PETG will do, IF you design and slice the part properly. A lot of people jump into conclusion that only the material they are printing from matters. That is NOT true. There are many different ways, how the orientation of the part, the number of shells, the way you do infill etc directly reflect mechanical properties of the part, sometimes even more than material itself. A lot of people also design parts with some arbitrary dimensions and let slicer do slicing automatically, but this will rarely yield the best mechanical results.

Without knowing how the part looks like it is hard to give a better suggestion, but one general suggestion is if you want to make anything like springy flexible clips, focus on the weakest point, try to design the part so weakest point it is even multiplier of the extrusion width/height so you can slice only with shells, no infill.
That will make very strong (potentially springy) parts which are hard to break. 

Hope that helps.

On Monday, January 14, 2019 at 12:43:10 PM UTC-8, vrfx wrote:

Nylon can also be a bit of a Bitch to print with - as I have tried it before...

On 1/14/2019 12:37 PM, Lee wrote:

Thanks Mark, i'll try to find out some more about the prototype and run nylon past them

On Mon, Jan 14, 2019 at 7:28 PM Mark Napier <napie...@gmail.com> wrote:

How about Taulman Bridge Nylon?  That is supposed to work very well as living hinges, very flexible for nylon.  It might serve if designed properly.

Also, is not very expensive.

On Mon, Jan 14, 2019 at 1:10 PM Lee <l.fi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I won't be printing polypropylene as it requires a heated chamber / enclosure. Just wondering of PLA/PETG/Nylon has similar properties. I've already warned him that even if I used polypropylene, FDM prints do not have the same properties as injection moulded parts.

On Mon, Jan 14, 2019 at 6:05 PM Wes Cherry <we...@technosis.com> wrote:

Never printed with polypropylene, but have heard it’s very difficult.   Could the design be modified such that a piece of (possibly scored at the hinge?) polypropylene is captured by the print?

-'//es

On Jan 14, 2019, at 9:49 AM, Lee <l.fi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All,

I've been put in touch with a client who has asked me the following question

"The prototypes need to be solid and must have similar plastic properties to polypropylene, as I need to test a pivoting leg design and flexibility of a the clips that are used on it"

Can anyone recommend a suitable material? I don't have an enclosed printer so anything requiring a heated chamber is out of scope for me i'm afraid.

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[Happyman]

I had experience with Formfutura PP and it is quite easy to work with. Using PP packaging tape as a build surface will help with adhesion.

[Kurt at VR-FX]

PP? Polypropylene??

And - the 2nd spool in the pic is support material?

Just curious...

-K-

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[Happyman]

Hi Kurt,

Yes PP is Polypropylene (https://www.formfutura.com/shop/category/pp-centaur-pp-polypropylene-199) and another roll is high temp PVA support (https://www.formfutura.com/shop/category/support-materials-helios-support-pva-204) but we didnt use it for this print, just left it hang in there.

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[Lee]

Thanks people. From talking to them, I actually think TPU might be a better option.

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