Revision as of 15:46, 18 July 2025

This article is a stub. It needs to be expanded.

FFF … fused filament fabrication (newer term) FDM … fused deposition modeling

Local manufacturing. Make stuff at home.

Some non-exhaustive list of available plastics (as of 2025)

PLA, PHA (no need for moisture management, deforms in mere hot car, micro-cracks on permanent high mechanical load, usually stiff and brittle, from biamaterials but biodegradability is questioned)
PETG / PCTG (hygroscopic & more banana-warping tendency than PLA, less still less brittle but can still shatter)
TPU Thermoplastic PolyUrethane & similar (softest end can be challenging, can't shatter)
PVB (alcohol soluble => gluing, powder-pigment-painting, smoothing; weird ok smell, mechanically similar to PETG)
PVA (water soluble, same stuff as in PVA glue, from crude oil but biodegradable)
PCL PolyCaproLactone (can be deformed at temperatures not burning ones hand, used by easiest RepRap 3D printers)

HIPS, ABS, ASA (all stink aggressively viscerally toxic, list increases in price and quality)
PA PolyAmide (aka Nyon, notoriously bad warping tendency, usually can't shatter)
PC PolyCarbinate (hard and tough but so hard that it can shatter)
Polyolefine (seems interesting …)
Various challenging and very expensive high performance polymers

Better stay well away hard to print:

Difficulty comes from three aspects:

thermal expansion coefficient withing heating range
elasticity modulus withing heating range
filament to print-bed material adhesion
(and filament to itself adhesion under printing conditions)

These is some overlap with the design constraints for
future mechanosynthesis and design of crystolecules.

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 * Various challenging and very expensive high performance polymers
-Better stay well away hard to print:
+'''Better stay well away hard to print:'''
 * POM (low friction), HDPE