[Advice needed on materials...]

mark forged prints very very strong.  They have a good process.  But it's limited in 2 directions.  Still it's pretty amazing.  That's a very specialized printer.

 

I thought they had created a filament, maybe fiberglass reinforced that could be printed in a standard FDM process, but I could be completely wrong.

[Advice needed on materials...]

Awesome. I've just ordered some Alloy 910. Bridge looks very flexible which isn't what I'm looking for.

Here's a pretty good video showing the difference in the two.

 

[Advice needed on materials...]

Hi there,

I am no materials expert or structural engineer, but from what I have read and played with here are some thoughts that might help:

Nylon is super strong (tensile), but has some flex (like ABS), is super slipy, can be hard to get to stick to the bed and warps.  But if you have solved ABS, then maybe it would work for you.  Check our the Taulman stuff.  They are several kinds, all for industrial use.  I've used Bridge to good effect.

Polycarbonate is also insanely strong, but warps, is crazy difficult to get to stick to the bed and requires higher temperatures.  260C is a *minimum*!  Also watch out for weak layer adhesion.  I am still experimenting with this stuff myself, and it is driving me a bit batty.  But YMMV.

Lastly, if you want rigid and strong, you can get excellent results with PLA or even better PLA/PHA (Colorfabb).  This stuff is easy to print.  Just use thicker walls (more shells), higher infill (but not 100%, it does not buy you anything) and print slower for better layer adhesion (I think).  I saw @gr5 recently comment about PLA being plenty strong.  He seems to know his stuff!

I do not know if this is a good example or not, but I have built a standing height electronics workbench from some cheap wood (it was a closet shoe shelf), ABS pipe for legs (PVC would have been better, wood or aluminum would have been even better) and 3D printed connectors for all of it.  Flat plates to hold the wood slats together, fasteners to mount the wood to the top of the legs and t-junctions to hold the cross-braces.  All in PLA/PHA and they are all holding just fine even after months of use of the desk and weight on it.  ... I did make sure, however, when printing that all the stress points would not be along layer boundaries, as that is the weakness of all FDM printing.

So for your prototyping tests, why not just see how far you can go with PLA.  Then get fancy later?

Oh, and I have seen videos of people doing various break tests of filament materials.  Maybe check those out too.

Anyway, I am no expert, and YMMV, but I hope this gives you some ideas.  Good luck!

 

Fantastic info. Thanks so much. I've read a decent amount about carbon fiber reinforced nylon and some say it can be as strong as steel. I read about Markforged products and they were actually printing weight bearing auto parts. But your'e right, I should probably push the limits on PLA and see if I need to upgrade. I was really just hoping to not have to CNC metal parts because that can get expensive. Thanks again for the info!

[Advice needed on materials...]

Hey all, I'm pretty new to printing.  I've been sticking pretty much with PLA and ABS up to this point.  I'm working on a prototype which will have a steel tube frame.  I've thought about welding the joints together but some of the joints are going to be at odd angles and will make for difficult welds.  So, I thought, why not just print out some connectors for the tubes?  My question is, what is the strongest material I can print with my ulitmaker 2+.  I'd like it to bear as much weight as possible just to see if my idea will work.  If it does work, I'll eventually get the parts CNC'd out of steel or aluminum.  Any thoughts?

[Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics?]

The filament type of carbon fiber has very small strands in it. It DOES make the material stiffer, but also makes it have bad layer adhesion. So it's not necessarily tougher, but stiffer if you're looking for that type of property.

You may be thinking of the printer that can print a layer of nylon and then outline it with carbon fiber wire. This DOES apparently make it much stiffer and stronger than nylon itself, but requires a special printer called the markforged.

Here's a Carbon fiber knife handle I recently printed. It feels really nice and has a really unique finish.

 

Wow, that print looks great.  Thanks for the input

[Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics?]

Yes I have printed with them a lot.

They are not the most easy to print with but the end result is very nice.

As to strength, the are stiffer and more stable but not necessarily stronger and can actually be weaker.

You need to use a wear resistant nozzle like hardened steel.

I recommend that you read This topic as it has a lot of information that will be of help.

 

Thanks, I appreciate the input!

[Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics?]

Has anyone here tried printing with carbon fiber reinforced plastics or nylons with an Ultimaker? I've read they're supposed to be significantly stronger than standard plastics and nylons and would like to give them a try. I'm relatively new to this though and I don't want to mess up my printer or waste a bunch of time/money on something that isn't going to work well.