<![CDATA[SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — High-Filler Polycarbonate]]> 2014-11-23T01:12:09Z PunBB https://www.soliforum.com/topic/8435/highfiller-polycarbonate/ <![CDATA[Re: High-Filler Polycarbonate]]> Brittle and surface roughness indicates moisture problems. Did you predry the material before extrusion?

Drilling the nozzle is the right answer for diameter problems. Why are you hesitant to do this?

1.60mm filament should feed fine anyway.

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/221/ 2014-11-23T01:12:09Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/72747/#p72747 <![CDATA[High-Filler Polycarbonate]]> Hello,

I've rummaged through the forums here a little to look into other examples of folks running polycarbonate or high-filler filaments, but would like to bring up my situation specifically to see if anyone has some words of wisdom.

Set-up:
-18V Filastruder in horizontal setup.
-Using a window fan under extruder as the mini fan broke (temporary)
-Using 1.75mm nozzle
-Ambient temperatures are a little over freezing currently as I have to run this outdoors

Material:
- Filled polycarbonate with a fine ceramic powder - I believe it's upwards of 40% by weight
- Documentation for material states Nozzle temp of 270-290C, and melt temperature of 265-280C

I've had success in running the material for the most part, although I've been trying to fine-tune the best temperature. I've tried several increments from 250C to 290C, with little change in my two problems.
1) Surface quality - I had one fluke run where I got a smooth surface, but 95% of the time I get a very rough surface (sandpaper-like)
2) Filament diameter - I am having trouble getting anything thicker than 1.60mm

I've been trying to avoid drilling the nozzle any larger, and am currently using the non-mesh filter one as I wanted to see if that would change any of my two problems above. Using the non-filtered one did provide a small boost in diameter.

Any suggestions? My next thoughts are:
1) Fix the fan to better direct the airflow problem
2) Try some lower extrusion temperatures
3) Return Filastruder to angled set-up (Not feasible with fan problem currently)
4) Drill nozzle wider as last resort
5) Find a heated room (No better solution with proper ventilation just yet)
6) Hope there's something I'm missing

The resulting material is also highly brittle - handling it in the low ambient temperature doesn't help. Once I fix the diameter problem, I'm hoping to remove the need to handle the material by using the filawinder that I haven't assembled yet...

Thank you in advance.

]]> https://www.soliforum.com/user/5272/ 2014-11-22T22:54:02Z https://www.soliforum.com/post/72743/#p72743