NylonX has shortly grow to be one in all our favourite filaments for robust, sturdy, and ready-to-use components. Here is an in-depth take a look at Nylon X, and a few printing tricks to get essentially the most out of this nice new materials.
Posted on September 7, 2016
by
Taylor Landry
Nylons are a improbable group of 3D printing supplies. Glorious chemical, abrasion, and influence resistance coupled with its sturdiness and toughness make it an ideal alternative for robust, practical 3D printed components.
The primary “cons” of nylon filaments are the shortage of rigidity, comparatively excessive shrink charge, and the truth that it’s extremely hygroscopic (absorbs water from the air).
Enter Nylon X.
By including chopped carbon fibers to nylon, we enhance the rigidity, cut back the shrink charge, and the quantity of water it may possibly soak up, whereas nonetheless sustaining the sturdiness and toughness of nylon.
Suggestions and advisable settings for succeeding with NylonX:
NylonX is a Nylon at its root – for that reason the identical practices for 3D printing Nylon needs to be used. Beneath are specifics for NylonX, however yow will discover deeper info in our article ‘PRINTING WITH NYLON.’
Extruder Temperature: 250 – 265°C
Nylon X, like different nylons, will extrude at decrease temperatures, however components simply delaminate and break when not printed sizzling sufficient. An all-metal hotend is advisable for these printing temperatures, learn extra right here.
Mattress Adhesion: 60 – 70°C heated mattress with PVA primarily based glue stick
We like Elmer’s Washable disappearing purple glue stick. Nylon would not stick nicely to BuildTak, PEI, or different related mattress surfaces. Heated glass with glue, or a sheet of Garolite LE are the most effective choices.
Print Velocity
There aren’t any particular velocity necessities or limitations for Nylon X. It prints nicely from 10 – 80mm/s relying in your nozzle measurement, temperature, and layer top settings.
Dry Filament Earlier than Printing
To dry filament, place it in an oven at 180°F – 200°F for six to eight hours. After drying, retailer in an hermetic container, ideally with desiccant. Study extra right here.
Nozzles
A chrome steel or hardened nozzle is required. Carbon fiber may be very onerous and abrasive and can shortly abrade and damage brass or different mushy steel nozzles.Bigger nozzles (0.6mm and bigger) produce extremely robust components. It is because interlayer adhesion is straight proportional to hint width. For the very best energy components, attempt printing with the most important nozzle you should use in your sizzling finish.
Layer cooling followers are not advisable
How does NylonX evaluate to different supplies?
We’ve been printing carbon fiber PLA, PETG, and ABS for some time now. The carbon fiber does the identical factor to those supplies. PLA, which is already stiff and pretty brittle, turns into even stiffer and extra brittle. PETG and ABS, that are each pretty ductile and influence resistant, additionally grow to be significantly extra brittle with added carbon fiber. All 3 appear to delaminate simpler as nicely, which is probably going as a result of the truth that the fibers don’t chemically bond to the bottom resin and create what basically are tiny weak factors all through the half.
NylonX is completely different although. As a result of nylon is significantly harder and extra sturdy than ABS, PLA, and PETG, sacrificing a small quantity of influence resistance for a big enhance in stiffness is a superb trade-off.
The Testing!
To indicate the distinction, we 3D printed a component and did some testing.
The design is 60mm large, 10mm deep, and 25mm tall. The unsupported span is 50mm.
They had been all printed at 0.25mm layers, 25% infill, 3 perimeters, and 5 strong high/backside layers. These settings make the bridge strong. To bridge this hole, we’ve our bridge velocity set to 20mm/s and the cooling fan at 100%. Discovering the best settings on your particular printer will relying on the ambient air temperature, how dry the filament is, your printer’s layer cooling capacity, and the size of the bridge.
We used a pressure gauge and pressed down slowly to deflect the bridge sufficient to the touch the desk.
These GIFs present the check being carried out on Nylon 645, NylonX, PLA, PETG, and PETG with carbon fiber.
Nylon 645
Nylon X
PLA
PETG
PETG with CF
We additionally shot a number of clips displaying these components being bent by hand
PLA
PETG
Nylon X
We ran 6 components of every materials with the pressure gauge. Here is what we discovered:
Nylon 618: 2.6 – 3.5 lbs
Nylon X: 6.6 – 7.81 lbs
PLA : 6 -11 lbs (it generally breaks throughout first bend, and virtually all the time breaks on 2nd or third bend)
PETG: 4.5 – 7 lbs (completely creases/deforms on the bend)
Carbon Fiber PETG: 12 – 18 lb (all the time shatters on first try)
So Nylon X is simply barely much less stiff than PLA, nevertheless it maintains the toughness and sturdiness of nylon. This makes for superior practical components.
The opposite nice function of NylonX is that the carbon fibers cut back the shrink charge throughout printing. If you happen to’ve ever printed with ABS or Nylon, you’ve probably skilled warping or curling in your half. There are methods to assist stop this, however NylonX just about eliminates any points with warping or curling. The added fibers assist to maintain the fabric dimensionally steady.
So, when you’re searching for robust, sturdy, and practical components, choose up some Nylon X and begin printing. It is superior stuff.
We shot some extra footage displaying the energy of Nylon X. Keep tuned – these movies are coming quickly.
As all the time, Joyful Printing!
