1 Topic by Ggalisky

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Topic: Polycarbonate?

I have seen a few posts about it, but I was wondering if anybody has more info. From what I have read, you extrude it at 250, and print with it at 295. As for thermal decomposition and the release of toxic fumes would opening up my garage door be sufficient?

Ulitmaker 2, a few repraps, Custom Big FFF 3D printer with heated chamber.

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2 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Polycarbonate?

Only if your printers not in the kitchen wink
You should be fine if your near the door.  Stick a box fan next to your printer pulling the air away and out of the garage.

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3 Reply by Ggalisky (edited by Ggalisky 2014-08-26 05:07:28)

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Re: Polycarbonate?

I set my Filastruder to 250, but I could only do about 230 with the motor running on the same power supply as the heater band. I also had a fan blowing near, but not on the nozzle to push away the "off-gas" (I think this is the correct term)

Okay, so I tried extruding it yesterday and here are my results:
The surface of the PC was rough, and the diameter was about 1.10-1.12 with the winder. Occasionally the filament would have a bubble in it. If you add and additional fan, and put the motor on a separate power supply, I am almost positive you could do 1.75 with good tolerances.

Any questions or feed back?

Ulitmaker 2, a few repraps, Custom Big FFF 3D printer with heated chamber.

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4 Reply by 3dtech (edited by 3dtech 2017-03-02 09:43:13)

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Re: Polycarbonate?

Polycarbonate PC is a top choice material for engineers and manufacturers who require parts that need to retain its strength, toughness and shape while operating in high-temperature environments.

    High toughness, especially for the non-transparent filament options
    Resists temperatures and retains form up to 110 ºC
    Flame retardant characteristics
    Dimensionally stable
    Strong interlayer bonding capabilities, especially when using the front door add-on
    Good bed adhesion, especially when using the stickers supplied in the Advanced 3D Printing Kit
    Allows printing of translucent parts for lighting applications with a transparent filament option

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5 Reply by wingmaster

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Re: Polycarbonate?

I am also experimenting with Polycarbonate (PC923A). A seems to need an extrusion temperature of 245 to 250 degree .  It needs more cooling then abs. Also it is much more fluidly then abs, so still having troubles getting a consistent diameter.

It need to be printed quite hot, but not too hot. If it is too hot I get jamms in the print head. This is caused by the very high MFI of the PC. It is so fluidly it flows upwards back in the extruder neck where is cools down on a retract! But super strong when printed. A very nice material.

6 Reply by genesat1 (edited by genesat1 2017-04-17 23:27:02)

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Re: Polycarbonate?

From my experience printing with esun ePC (before I had a Filastruder) it doesn't really have much of a smell.  If you get close to take a look at a print your eyes will start to sting, so it's clearly putting something out - you just don't really smell it and it seems to drop off fairly quickly when you move away.  Personally what I like to do is put my printer on a smart electric plug, so I can kill power to it remotely, and then put one of those $60 cameras that have a motor in their base watching over the printer.  If I don't like what I see I kill the print or kill power to the printer entirely (depending on what's wrong), otherwise if it's working good I'm nowhere near the printer while it's printing.

On a side note I found polycarbonate to print beautifully, very well defined features, yet I ended up having to reprint in PLA because I needed a rigid part and the polycarbonate was way too flexible for me.

Just don't open the door, then sit there between the printer and the door because then the breeze will be pulling the gas/particulate right over you on the way out.