"Workhorse" filaments

[Sarunas]

Hi,

I was wondering…

Which filaments are you using most when printing for clients?
(These reliable ones who produce solid result and never fail)

What colors are most popular among regular customers?

[Gauthier]

There are some response inside the 3d hubs report :3D printing trend report | Hubs In my case, it was white or black PLA Cheers

[MB3D]

Using Colorfabb XT mostly. PLA doesnt survive machining with drills etc. and ABS prooves too much warping on my larger prints.

Customers request white or black in most times.

[3Dscaleworks]

PLA is the most common and print friendly fliament

[steven_10]

White Cheap Ebay PLA for me lol, I get very few failures, its pretty stong, can be glue with Poly cement if required, can be sanded, painted, drilled etc…I usually do a load of test prints before I run the actual order, especially if if complex or has a thread on it…

[Sarunas]

Since a lot of people complain about unacceptable quality of cheap Chinese plastics I’d like to get some more details:

What printer do You use?

Do you see any negative effects on equipment while using it?
How about layer bonding and overall quality of print?

Do You prefer some specific Chinese brand?

[BillDevine]

I find that most of the problem with failed prints for me is not usually the material i.e. filament but the bonding to the print bed.

Mostly using ABS as ABS shrinks and tends to warp because of this. Why does ABS warp? Well ABS was designed specifically for injection molding and was designed to shrink some for easy removal from the injection molds. It is the shrinking that causes the warping. In the beginning I had problems with material bonding the the print bed but now that is typically not a problem. I have had one bad lot of material that was PLA in silver, it was the first time I had ordered from this particular supplier and the filament was very brittle compared to what I had been ordering. This one does not bond well and breaks very easily, it was ordered from Gizmo Dorks. I will not buy from them again because of this problem. Typically I buy Hatch Box. I am ordering something new (to me) called flexible TPU (Thermalplastic Polyurthans) it is supposed to be 90% ABS and 10% impact modifiers. Supposedly it bond better to the print bed and has less warppage. We will see.

[MB3D]

ABS and TPU (or PU) are totally different plastics with somewhat similar properties. polyurethane is an elastomer meaning it’s one of the flexible plastics, TPU is also often advertised as TPE (thermoplastic elastomer). ABS is just a thermoplast, but has no flexibility from the chemical point of view. I find Polyurethane (in my case Ninjaflex) easier to print compared to ABS (no warping), but as it’s rubber-like and flexible there are only very limited use cases for this material. Additionally flexible filaments need to be printed extremely slow and often can’t be properly painted, sanded, glued,… I’m really curious about what material it is that you ordered, maybe you can post a link of it?

[Rada3Dnl]

I use Z-ABS and Z-Hips on my zortrax. On my other machine i use mostly Polymaker Polyplus, Polyflex and Polymax. I also use the recycled ABS and PET from Refil. I think 75% of my prints are in ABS.

I stopped using cheap (Chinese) filaments. It’s on the long range cheaper to use quality filaments.

[Rada3Dnl]

The biggest problem i see whit cheap PLA is breaking filament. I like Polymaker very much and it’s also Chinese. I use my ZYYX and Creatbot for PLA prints. If i want something strong and big (warp sensitive) i use Polymax.

The filament of Dutch filaments is also good and pretty cheap.

[steven_10]

i use an Ultimaker 2,

I havnt noticed any negative effects on the printer, I have about 10 spools in various colours from numerious suppliers.

layer bonding is fine, I have actually had more problems with the colorfab PLA/PHA than the ebay stuff…lol (These I have resolved now.)

The one thing I have noted about the cheap stuff is that some spools come on a small center bore meaning the filament is very tightly wound towards the end. this has caused a few grinding issues, but I have now adjusted the Bowden extruder so don’t get this anymore.

I also always do initial test prints of my object to check how well it prints, i would say that prints mostly fail because of poor setup of the model when slicing, wrong orientation, trying to print with thick layer heights (0.2mm or greater) with a high feed (say 70mm/sec or greater),

Mostly I print at 0.1 layer heights (unless it a bed filler then I go up to 0.15mm) I print at 60mm/sec this I find is the best balance for speed and layer height.

[Georgei]

I had very bad experience from Chinese made ABS. The suppliers were selling it without saying were it was from (someone was even suggesting that it was made in USA even thought the data sheet in his website was in Chinese). Bubbles when printing and nozzle blockages were common. I had to through in the bin a reel because it was blocking the nose every 10 meters. Since then I buy quality ABS made in Europe from E3D. 2 months now not a single problem.

[GregEl]

PLA (Felix printers PLA) and ABS (Verbatim) usually in white. I think white PLA is picked the most because it is the first option on my hub and clients that don’t have experience and a lot of information just don’t change or bother with the material. Verbatim, Felix and reprapworld (Real Dutch filament brand) have been reliable filaments when printing for clients.

[Olly_F_C]

Pla in black is the one I go for. I use hobby King as it is £10 per kilo

[mauro109]

80% PLA (colours: white , black, grey) , 15% ABS (colours: yellow, red, black), rest: PETG, HIPS and others.

We’re using two kind of products: chinese filaments (eSun) and swiss (our project). Both filaments works fine, ABS (eSun) also.

About the filament quality: (derived by 1st thermodinamic law!) low price then low quality.

Another issue is the printer (ABS speaking…).

(attached picture: ABS mechanical parts, solid as rock)