Kai Parthys' Lay Filaments,

[izzy 33]

I've some samples of Kai Parthys' Lay Filaments, and last weekend printed off 2 sets of each of the Ultimaker Robot and a Material Tag for each of the four materials to assess.

One set of each are left as printed, the second set have been soaking for the last four days in water to soften.

LayFelt is made from a elastomeric polymer and a PVA-component.

LayGel and the LayFomm's are made from a rubber-elastomeric polymer and a PVA-component.

All four are described as experimental on Kai Parthys web site, to soften the PVA after printing you soak them in water as they recommend.

Took a little while to get the settings correct and I'm not happy with my temp for LayFelt as it is still prone to delaminate, but the second phase is now complete and I have removed them from the soak, as you can see from the photo below  they have altered in geometry,  especially in the 'Z' axis, this is for all pieces even the failed print bits with open top and bottom surfaces, and the LayFelt and LayGel are delicate so I've not pinched them yet to see how flexible they are.

The next stage is to dry them out over the next few days, I'm not going to heat them up I'm just going to let them air dry at room temperature, then I will assess them and add my findings to this post.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Guest

[Labern 773]

Great. Thanks for sharing. I have always been interested in these. Not really had a use for them yet so never got around to trying them.

Interested in seeing your final results though.

[izzy 33]

I'm getting small samples of various filaments to see how they print and try and find the right settings. I've not tried ABS yet as I need to build a hood for my UM2,

Protomold Pasta have a nice PLA called Aromatic Coffee, it seems to print nicely and has a smell of roasting coffee when you print it, and has a slight transparent look, but if you heat treat it at 110'C for about 1 hour, it turns slightly opaic. Its one I would add to my set, I'm also going to try their pine one.

[izzy 33]

Following up on the four PoroLay filaments from Kai Parthy.

Initially printed on the 1st and 2nd of January 2016 and then placed submerged in water for 5 days (water changed daily) they were removed on the 7th January and left to air dry. the 1st photo shows them just having been removed from the soak.

Having dried at room temperature for one week the 2nd photo shows their current state as of. todays date January 17th 2016. all parts were produced using the standard UltimakerRobot Cura file at a layer height of 0.1mm, and standing 35mm tall.

i) LayFelt, Nozzle temperature 225-230'C, Bed 40-50'C

I'm not happy i have the correct settings for LayFelt as the test pieces suffer from delamination. Post processing LayFelt has a paper feel similar to a wasp nest or a dense polystyrene, and about the same feel when compressed with your fingers, not very flexible.

ii) LayGel, Nozzle temperature 225-235'C,Bed 40-50'C

This printed better at 235-240'C and produced a nice print, initially expanding in water it has dried and shrank to approximately 80% of Z height, it is now firmer than LayFelt and not flexible.

iii) LayFomm40, Nozzle Temperature 220-230'C

This has a slightly waxy feel, has shrunk to approximately 60% of Z height, it is the most flexible of the four filaments although I feel will delaminate quickly with repeated squeezing.

iv) LayFomm60, simular to LayFomm40 in printing and feel it has shrunk less, to approximately 92% of Z height, it is more rigid than LayFomm40 only slightly flexible.

Summary; These materials are described as for experimental use by experienced users, and without further testing to find the optimum repeatable settings these are just my initial findings on these four samples, and I would need to do more samples varying layer height as well to dial in the best settings, perhaps printing at 0.2mm layer height would have a difference on the Z variants witnessed. I would also need to have a test piece that would perhaps suit the material characteristics, perhaps a more open celled test piece, although the failed test pieces were also soaked and had the same results in the axis of expansion. I would also need to look closely under a microscope at a cut cross section of a sample to see what happens to the 'extruded section/s' to see the effect of the rinsing away of the 'soluble component' on the materials cell structure.

It will be interesting to see others testing results and compare findings, at the moment I can identify no defined use for these materials but thats what experimenting and testing is all about, i wouldn't deter others from getting some samples and giving them a try, if you do please post up your findings, Izzy

[Labern 773]

Maybe a X test piece like in the LayFoam video would be good as it will be better to test flexibility and strength. Also its a Fast print.

Does the foam dry stiff but the absorb water and go soft again?

I found that with most of the fancy materials, the manufacturers print with them using 0.2 layers. you will notice colorfabb pretty much uses 0.2 for everything. So I'm guessing using higher layers will have a big impact on the end result.

[cecilyen 0]

Do anyone have the recommended standby temperature and fan speed settings for Ultimaker 3 to print LayFomm 40?

[Brulti 176]

I just bought some Reflect-o-lay, created by Kai Parthys as well, and fiddling with the settings to try and print it. If anyone tried it and has some advice or setting to give me, it'd be of immense help. I'll post the results of my various tries here as well.

[Brulti 176]

Found it! For those who are interested in trying the Reflect-o-Lay from Kai Parthys, someone already posted some settings, and it seems to work quite well on my UM3E. You can fond them here: http://shop.3dfilaprint.com/ekmps/shops/billyboyclyde/resources/Other/ftr-kai-pathy-reflect-o-lay.compressed-1-.pdf