Outdoor Filament

[BrayChristopher 36]

I need to make a "functional" out door part. Unfortunately the part needs to be black.

Because of the heat sensitivity, I am assuming that PLA is out.

Does anyone have first hand experience with these materials being used (kept) outdoors year round?

ABS

CPE

XT

I am not a fan of changing out PTFE couplers, but at least the CPE filament from FBRC8 comes with a spare coupler.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[DidierKlein 729]

If it need to be black then yes rule out PLA, it will deform if the sun is heating it, and black heats faster

I'd say that any of the materials you thought of would do, i have a preference for XT because it's easier to print than ABS.

[BrayChristopher 36]

I emailed Ultimaker support and their response was:

"I checked in with Ultimaker's materials specialist and he does not recommend CPE for extensive outdoors use. He says that it is fairly UV sensitive.

I've attached the MSDS sheets for ABS and PLA. It looks like ABS specifically should not be exposed to sunlight for long periods, so you may have better luck with PLA. PLA is more sensitive to temperature than ABS is, but it looks like it may be less UV reactive."

I don't know how to attach PDF's.

Anyway I guess I will have to order some XT.

[tinkergnome 927]

Anyway I guess I will have to order some XT.

 

At least i can confirm that Colorfabb XT (black) was able to survive the last summer without any deformation or visible degration. Continuous outdoors and exposed to the sun since April (and the summer was fairly hot in Europe this year...)

I recommend to give it a try...

[BrayChristopher 36]

At least i can confirm that Colorfabb XT (black) was able to survive the last summer without any deformation or visible degration. Continuous outdoors and exposed to the sun since April (and the summer was fairly hot in Europe this year...)

I recommend to give it a try...

 

Done and Done. Thanks so much!

[BrayChristopher 36]

@tinkergnome was your out door part doing anything mechanical? or was it just sitting there?

Thanks.

[tinkergnome 927]

@tinkergnome was your out door part doing anything mechanical? or was it just sitting there?

 

The latter (more or less..). It resides out there as a simple spacer between two other parts (wood and aluminium) that are mounted together with screws. There's a little bit of pressure but no mechanical motion. It simply does the job and is very uv stable - still black and shiny like on the first day.

[yellowshark 153]

earlier this year I printed a squirrel beater to keep them off my bird table, using PLA. It is still their intact, although I will admit that the English summer this year has fallen short of any sane definition of summer. If you are down south like Florida I suspect it will not work though;)

[yellowshark 153]

...oh not black but dark green

[BrayChristopher 36]

I have some XT now and I have a question about the part cooling fans.

Should the cooling fans be ON or OFF...... or somewhere in between.

I found this site but it is a little ambiguous about the cooling fans.

http://learn.colorfabb.com/print-_xt/

Thanks.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Guest

[rigs 735]

Strong part = fans OFF

Artistic part = fans ON

Polymer-Polymer Interdiffusion...

[onkelgeorg 36]

Should the cooling fans be ON or OFF...... or somewhere in between.

 

If fans are needed due to overhangs etc. leave the fans off for the first couple of layers (at least first 5-10mm) to avoid warping.

[BrayChristopher 36]

28 hour XT print.

My camera is crap, but any idea why the honeycomb infill looks more like circles? When I print PLA the honeycomb pattern is usually pretty crisp.

My first guess was that the speed was set too high, but I had it set to 50mm/sec like the Colorfabb website recommends.

[Labern 774]

Xt doesnt print as crisp as PLA. I have the Olsson block installed and my settings are no way near what colorfabb recommend to get anything decent.

[BrayChristopher 36]

I get some ugly stringing between towers/islands.

What retraction settings do you use for XT? (I am using S3D)

- Retraction

- Wipe

- Vertical Lift

Thanks.