Essentium PET-CF

Essentium is a manufacturer of industrial 3D printers and filament. They have headquarters in Europe, Asia and in the USA. Their products are revolutionizing the 3D printing market and ushering it into Industry 4.0.

The solutions offered by Essentium have made it easier for many companies to prototype and manufacture reliable large scale products in-house, in a quick and cost-effective fashion. Essentium’s material catalogue contains many 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 multiple applications across numerous disciplines, such as the automotive, electronics, aerospace and defense, biomedical, contract manufacturing, and consumer goods industries. Essentium currently has over 150 pending patents.

Essentium has several reinforced filaments in its catalogue, such as the PET CF, composed of a PET base reinforced with 15 % of chopped carbon fiber.

PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) belongs to the copolyesters family, itself being a semi crystalline thermoplastic polyester. Copolyesters are characterized by great tolerance to high tensile stresses, exceptional durability and chemical resistance, and excellent inter-layer adhesion. PET has its origins in 1941, when it was invented and patented as an equivalent to cotton fibres in the textile industry. In the following decades, PET took the world by storm with many new applications, for example in food packaging, plastic film, or rigid water, fizzy drink and beer bottles. Nowadays it is mostly used in the manufacturing of beverage and condiment bottles. PET is lightweight, resistant to alcohols, oils and acids, and a good barrier for moisture and bacteria.

Filaments with specialistic applications are frequently enriched with the addition of carbon fibres or glass fibres to condition the filament for the application it is going to have. Adding carbon fibre (CF) makes the prints more rigid, stiff, more dimensionally stable, and lighter (which makes an ideal substitute for metal parts). Those features 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).

Image 1: Essentium’s multilayer technology used in their carbon enriched filaments. Source: Essentium.

Advanced features

PET CF is a filament made by Essentium, and based on Lehvoss Group’s Luvocom 3F resin. Essentium’s PET CF is composed of > 80 % of PET and 15 % chopped carbon fiber, which makes it stiff, strong, resistant to common solvents and to heat when annealed to > 155 ºC. Moreover, this PET CF filament is characterized by low warping and very low moisture absorption, which makes it easy to print and reduces the potential complications during the printing process that tend to occur with some other plastics.

Image 2: Pieces printed with the Essentium PET CF. Source: Essentium.

The properties of the PET CF make it perfect for the manufacturing of jigs, fixtures and tooling, functional prototypes, component housings, brackets and automotive parts. The manufacturer recommends this filament for the 3D printing of consumer products and tools, and in contract manufacturing.