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Essentium PA-CF

Ref.: ESS-PA-CF-BLACK-175-750

110.00 €

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Approximate delivery date: Wednesday 16 October

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Essentium is an industrial 3D printer and filament manufacturer with headquarters in the USA, Asia and Europe, revolutionizing the 3D printing scene and ushering it into Industry 4.0. The solutions offered by Essentium have helped many companies prototype and manufacture reliable large scale products in-house, in a quick and cost-effective fashion. Essentium’s material catalogue contains over 45 specialistic and innovative filaments, mostly polymers and blends designed to provide strength, flexibility and high mechanical performance in the most demanding industrial circumstances.

The Essentium filaments have numerous applications across many disciplines, such as aerospace and defense, automotive, biomedical, contract manufacturing, consumer goods, and electronic manufacturing. Essentium currently has over 150 pending patents.

Essentium’s PA CF

Essentium's PA-CF filament is part of the manufacturer's vast material portfolio. This filament is composed of 89 % nylon (polyamide), reinforced with 10 % chopped carbon fibres.

Part printed with the Essentium PA CF

Image 1: Part printed with the Essentium PA CF. Source: Essentium.

PA, commonly known as nylon, is an economical and highly versatile material extensively used in 3D printing due to its durability, flexibility, thermoplasticity, and resistance to abrasion, friction, corrosion and chemicals. Although its first applications were mainly in the consumer goods industry (toothbrushes, women’s stockings), nylon quickly found other more technical uses, for example in the US army to make parachutes, ropes, body armor and helmet liners.

Now nylon is used in the automotive and aerospace industry, medicine and sports. In 3D printing, it can be found in the form of powder (SLS and MJF), pellets, and filament (FDM).

The addition of carbon fibres

Filaments with technical applications are frequently reinforced with carbon fibres or glass fibres to optimize the filament for the task it’s supposed to perform. Adding carbon fibre (CF) makes the printed piece more rigid, stiff, more dimensionally stable, and a great substitute for metal parts due to its reduced weight. Those properties make plastic reinforced with CF perfect for the automotive industry (high tensile strength and modulus, and high temperature tolerance) and the aerospace industry (weight reduced up to 50 % with preserved functionality).

Essentium’s multilayer technology used in their carbon enriched filaments

Image 2: Essentium’s multilayer technology used in their carbon enriched filaments. Source: Essentium.

This PA CF, formulated by BASF and made by Essentium, combines the best of two worlds (nylon and carbon fibre). It yields strong, durable and heat- and impact-resistant pieces. It is optimized to absorb less moisture than regular nylon, which makes it easier to print. Pieces printed with this PA CF can handle temperatures of more than 150 ºC and it only starts to deform at 178 ºC (HDT).

Image 3: Prosthetic leg elements printed with the Essentium PA CF. Source: Essentium.

Thanks to these properties, this filament is recommended for the biomedical industry (prosthetic and orthotic devices), the manufacturing of tools (handheld fixtures, jigs and fixtures requiring strength and stiffness) or rapid prototyping and casting in the consumer goods and contract manufacturing industries.

General information
Material	PA
Format	750 g
Density	1.1 - 1.6 g/cm³
Filament diameter	1.75 / 2.85 mm
Filament tolerance	- mm
Filament length	(Ø 1.75 mm - 0.75 Kg) ± 222.7 m / (Ø 2.85 mm - 0.75 Kg) ± 84.0 m

Printing properties
Printing temperature	265 - 300 ºC
Print bed temperature	85 - 100 ºC
Chamber temperature	-
Cooling fan	0 - 50 %
Recommended printing speed	30 - 60 mm/s

Mechanical properties
Izod impact strength	(ISO 180/A) XY 48 / 45/45 38 / YX 19 / ZX 9.7 KJ/m²
Elongation at break	- %
Tensile strength	(ISO 527-2) XY 55.9 / 45/45 29.1 / YX 21.5 / ZX 19.3 MPa
Tensile modulus	(ISO 527-2) XY 2160 / 45/45 950 / YX 610 / ZX 480 MPa
Flexural strength	(ISO 178) XY 72.8 / 45/45 38.4 / YX 23.1 / ZX 22.3 MPa
Flexural modulus	(ISO 178) XY 2390 / 45/45 1000 / YX 540 / ZX 560 MPa
Surface hardness	-

Thermal properties
Melting temperature	192 ºC
Softening temperature	178 ºC

Specific properties
Transparency	✗
Chemical resistance	✓

Other
HS Code	3916.9
Spool diameter (outer)	- mm
Spool diameter (inner hole)	- mm
Spool width	- mm

This Essentium PA-CF is apt for open platform and even open-air printers. However, it should be kept in mind that some high-temperature nylons are prone to warping caused by the temperature change between the extruded plastic and the temperature of the environment. Should warping occur, it can be reduced by keeping the ambient at around 45 ºC by using a heated bed or a printer with a heated chamber or enclosure. Another way to solve the warping problem with nylon would be to disable fan cooling or use a skirt, a brim or a raft in the design.

Filaments reinforced with carbon fibre tend to wear down the nozzle more than basic filaments. That is why the use of wear-resistant nozzles (of at least 0.25 mm in diameter) is highly recommended to avoid nozzle degradation and the deterioration of printing quality. Some great options are hardened steel nozzles, the Olsson Ruby Nozzle, the Vanadium nozzle or the Tungsten carbide nozzle.

Adhesion problems may occur when printing with nylon. This PA filament’s adhesion is better than that of regular nylon due to containing carbon fibres. Nevertheless, an adhesive stick can still be used to ensure good attachment of the print to the bed. Essentium has various printing bed adhesives in their catalogue, among them the adhesive dedicated to nylon. The manufacturer also recommends using a glass bed and a bed adhesion solution.

Nylon is a highly hygroscopic material. Even though this particular Essentium PA CF filament is optimized to absorb less moisture, it should still be stored properly to prevent the filament from getting humid. It should be stored in a vacuum sealed packaging until used or in a drying cabinet, such as the Fiber Three drying case, available in the version F3 Safe Light or F3 Safe Long Run.