Good 3D printing materials tend to offer a mix of desirable characteristics. These characteristics can include printability, durability, chemical resistance, temperature resistance, and flexibility, to name just a few. Chief among these desirable properties, however, is strength: nobody wants their 3D printed parts to break, and getting the strongest 3D printer filament available is one of the best ways to ensure this doesn&#;t happen.
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Take a look at the filament market and it&#;s easy to see that the strongest 3D printer filament from a given retailer costs more than its weaker counterparts. This is partly due to the cost of the stronger raw materials, and partly due to the increased use of 3D printing as a tool for end-use manufacturing, where professional and industrial customers can afford to pay high prices for the best products. Of course, end-use functional parts require greater strength than prototypes, and with demand for high-strength materials growing, many manufacturers have been happy to provide solutions.
This article looks at some candidates that could be considered the strongest 3D printer filament available to regular users of FDM 3D printers. It is by no means an exhaustive guide to high-strength materials, but it takes a look at some of the most popular high-strength filaments in the consumer sphere, while also touching on some professional-grade materials reserved for advanced users.
Strong 3D printing filament is in high demand, but &#;strength&#; can actually mean a few different things in this context. When comparing filaments, you&#;ll see terms like tensile strength, impact strength, tear strength, and flexural strength &#; all of which can be measured using standardized strength tests &#; in addition to more general terms like durability and toughness.
These different terms are needed because materials can be strong or weak in different ways. For example, try to imagine the relative strength of a glass bottle and a piece of chewing gum. If you were to hurl the two objects at a wall, the glass would obviously break and the chewing gum would survive almost unscathed. But you could much more easily pull the chewing gum apart with your hands than you could the glass bottle.
All of the various strength-related attributes are important when it comes to choosing and buying 3D printer filament. However, two types of strength are generally prioritized over any other. These are tensile strength and impact strength.
Materials with good tensile strength are harder to break when pulled
Used to indicate the ultimate strength of a material or part, tensile strength can be defined as the ability to resist breakage when under tension, i.e. when being pulled or stretched.
Tensile strength is the most widely used indicator of strength for 3D printed parts, because it indicates a material&#;s suitability for load-bearing or mechanical applications. It is expressed in megapascals (MPa) or, in the United States, in pounds per square inch (psi), and values are determined by performing a tensile test: literally pulling a piece of the material apart and using a tensometer to record the exact degree of tension at which the material breaks. It is a key metric for almost any functional printed part.
Another material characteristic, "Elongation at break," is related to tensile strength and refers to how much a material stretches before it breaks when under tension. Unlike tensile strength, this characteristic is expressed as a percentage.
At the low-cost consumer level, the strongest 3D printer filaments in terms of tensile strength include polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified (PETG), and polylactic acid (PLA). Weak materials include thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).
Another key indicator of strength is impact strength. Synonymous with toughness, impact strength is the ability of a material or part to absorb shock and sudden impact without breaking. It is an important material property for items like safety equipment and children&#;s toys.
Impact strength is defined as the amount of energy &#; generally expressed in kilojoules per square meter (kJ/m2) &#; that the material is able to absorb without breaking. Brittle materials have a low level of impact strength and can break more easily when subjected to sudden impact. However, materials can have a high impact strength and a low tensile strength, and vice versa.
Unfortunately, due to the many different ways of testing for impact strength, it can be difficult to compare the exact toughnesses of two different filaments side by side. Two different filament manufacturers might use different testing methods and even different units of measurement.
At the consumer level, the strongest 3D printer filaments in terms of impact resistance include ABS filament, PETG filament, PC filament, and flexible filaments like TPU. One very weak material in terms of impact strength is PLA, which can easily shatter if it is dropped or struck.
Flexural strength, also known as bending strength, measures a material's ability to withstand bending and deformation under load. It is especially important for applications where a material or part is subjected to bending or flexing forces, such as beams, brackets, or structural components.
Flexural strength is typically expressed in megapascals (MPa) and is determined through a standardized testing procedure known as the three-point bend test. In this test, a specimen of the material is placed horizontally on supports, and a load is applied to the center of the specimen until it fractures. The flexural strength is then calculated based on the applied load and the dimensions of the specimen.
Materials with high flexural strength are less likely to deform or break when subjected to bending loads. Common 3D printing filaments with good flexural strength include PC, nylon, and certain types of fiberglass-reinforced filaments.
Tear strength is a measure of how well a material resists expansion of a tear or crack
Tear strength, also referred to as tear resistance, is a measure of a material's ability to resist the propagation of a tear or crack once it has started. It is particularly relevant for materials used in applications where the material may experience tearing forces, such as fabric, gaskets, or flexible enclosures.
Tear strength is typically measured in kilonewtons per meter (kN/m) or pounds per inch (lb/in) and is determined through a tear resistance test, in which a sample of the material is subjected to a controlled tearing force, and the force required to propagate the tear is measured. Higher tear strength values indicate better resistance to tearing.
Flexible filaments like TPU are known for their good tear resistance, making them suitable for applications where flexibility and durability are essential.
Recommended reading: 5 options to get strong parts with 3D printing
Below are some of the strongest 3D printer filaments available for FDM 3D printing according to the different measures of strength defined above. Note that some of the strongest filaments on the market can only be printed on very expensive professional-grade hardware, so our list skews toward the strongest commercially available filaments that can be bought and used by the average consumer.
Polycarbonate is widely sold in sheet form but also makes for a high-strength filament
Approx tensile strength: 70 MPa
One of the strongest FDM 3D printing materials &#; in terms of both tensile strength[1] and impact strength &#; is polycarbonate (PC). In fact, polycarbonate filament would likely be one of the most popular printing materials were it not so difficult to print.
Advantages of polycarbonate, besides its excellent tensile and impact strength, include its temperature resistance and its suitability for printing transparent parts. An obstacle to the printing of PC is its very high melting point and the very high temperatures required to print it. Extruder temperatures of at least 260 °C are required, with some formulations needing more than 300 °C, which is beyond the capabilities of consumer-level desktop 3D printers. A bed temperature of around 100 °C is recommended.
Some brands of PC contain additives that reduce the material&#;s melting point, but these additives can also compromise the material&#;s strength and heat resistance, making them less suitable for end-use parts such as automotive components.
PC 3D printing is usually limited to non-budget systems that can print at high temperatures and extract the best strength properties from the material. However, even these systems can struggle to control the material&#;s proneness to warping.
Popular PC filaments include Raise3D Premium PC, Polymaker PolyMax, and 3DXTech 3DXMax PC.
Approx tensile strength: 50&#;80 MPa
Another strong filament in both the tensile strength and impact strength departments is nylon (PA). Although not as robust as PC, nylon filament is marginally easier to print, requiring an extruder temperature of around 250 °C and a heated bed set to around 80 °C.
Nylon is perhaps more often associated with selective laser sintering (SLS) where it is used in powder form to make industrial parts and prototypes. However, nylon FDM 3D printer filament is widely available and typically comes at a lower price point than PC. Compared to PC, it is slightly more flexible, which may be desirable for certain functional parts. Other advantages of nylon filament include its excellent durability, surface smoothness, and layer adhesion.
Although most desktop printers can process nylon filament, the high-strength material has drawbacks. For example, it is highly hygroscopic and prone to absorbing moisture, which can cause a variety of printing issues, such as the formation of bubbles in the nozzle. Like PC, nylon is also susceptible to warping as it cools down.
Popular nylon filaments include MatterHackers Pro Series Nylon, Ultimaker Nylon, and ColorFabb PA.
Approx tensile strength: 20&#;50 MPa
Though not usually thought of as high-strength materials due to their very low tensile strength, flexible filaments like thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) actually offer a very high level of impact strength, making them suitable for shock-absorbing printed objects and functional parts like protective enclosures. Naturally, TPU has a very high elongation at break compared to more rigid materials, and the material also has good abrasion resistance and chemical resistance. Its tensile strength, however, is very low, making it unsuitable for mechanical parts.
Most desktop 3D printers can print TPU and other varieties of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), with a hot end temperature of around 230 °C required. However, note the best 3D printers for printing flexible filaments have direct-drive extruders, as Bowden extruders can suffer filament tangles.
Popular TPU filaments include NinjaTek Cheetah TPU, Polymaker PolyFlex, and Fillamentum Flexfill.
Recommended reading: TPU print settings explained
In professional and industrial settings, many FDM users are now turning to high-performance materials like PAEK (PEEK and PEKK) and PEI (ULTEM) for the production of end-use parts, especially in demanding industries like automotive and aerospace. When filament strength is the highest priority, these engineering-grade materials are far better than ordinary products like PLA filament.
High-performance plastics offer a very high level of tensile strength. PEEK filament, for example, can have a tensile strength as high as 100 MPa, notably higher than PC filament and significantly higher than ABS filament. Materials in the PAEK family also have very good impact strength; PEI is slightly less tough, but is typically much more affordable than PAEK filament.
The obvious drawback of high-performance polymers is that they cannot be printed on beginner-level printers or even mid-level desktop machines. They demand much higher temperatures (nozzle, bed, and enclosure) than regular materials, are more expensive, and sometimes require annealing to maximize their mechanical performance.[2]
Popular high-performance filaments include 3DXTECH ThermaX PEEK and Markforged ULTEM .
Carbon fiber materials are used in the automotive industry
The strength and stiffness of thermoplastics can be increased by mixing them with reinforcing additives, creating what is called a composite filament. Common additives include chopped carbon fiber and fiberglass.
Composites are popular in FDM 3D printing because they enable users to incorporate strong materials like carbon fiber without adjusting the printing process. Because there is a greater amount of thermoplastic than additive in the composite, the material can still be melted and extruded like an ordinary filament.
Typically, carbon fiber reinforced filaments are based on common thermoplastics, such as PLA, ABS, PETG, or nylon, with the addition of 10% to 30% carbon fibers by weight. The resulting composite material exhibits a significant improvement in strength and rigidity compared to its base thermoplastic. For example, carbon fiber reinforced PLA can have a tensile strength of up to 100 MPa, compared to around 50 MPa for standard PLA. Meanwhile a product like MatterHackers NylonX (a composite of nylon and carbon fiber) also offers a tensile strength of 100 MPa, higher than the 50&#;80 MPa of ordinary nylon.
Note, however, that FDM carbon fiber filaments have limits on their strength, because the chopped fibers mixed into the material are randomly oriented. Advanced composite printing technologies, such as those developed by Markforged and Desktop Metal, are able to print continuous fibers, resulting in much stronger parts.[3] Furthermore, reinforcing materials like fiberglass and carbon fibers can cause damage to an ordinary brass nozzle.
Choosing the strongest 3D printer filament won't guarantee strong parts without careful consideration of your next steps. Here are a few other factors to consider when seeking maximum strength:
Increase Infill Density: Adjust the infill density in your 3D printing slicer software to create a denser interior structure. Higher infill percentages result in stronger parts, although this may increase material usage and printing time.
Modify Layer Orientation: Experiment with the orientation of your printed parts. Adjusting the layer orientation can impact the strength of your prints, with layers printed perpendicular to the applied load often being stronger.
Optimize Wall Thickness: Increase the thickness of outer shells and walls in your 3D model to add structural integrity to your parts. A thicker shell can enhance the overall strength.
Adjust Print Speed and Temperature: Fine-tune your 3D printer settings, including print speed and temperature. Slower print speeds and higher printing temperatures can improve layer adhesion and part strength.
Use Proper Cooling: Ensure that your cooling settings are suitable for the filament. Cooling can help prevent warping and improve layer bonding, resulting in stronger prints.
Employ Layer Bonding Techniques: Apply bonding techniques such as using an acetone vapor bath for ABS prints or epoxy resin for strengthening critical joints or connections.
Post-Processing: After printing, consider other post-processing techniques like annealing or plating with additional materials.
Design for Structural Support: Optimize your 3D model for strength by incorporating features like ribs, gussets, or thicker cross-sections at load-bearing areas. This design approach can distribute stress more effectively.
The company is the world’s best 80mpa to psi supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.
Choosing the strongest 3D printer filament for your needs comes down to two key factors: the type of strength required and the level of strength required (that is feasible with the printing hardware available).
If the parts need to withstand constant loads and stresses, then materials with a high tensile strength should be prioritized. These include PLA and PETG at the cheaper end, materials like PC in the middle, and composites or high-performance polymers &#; offering the very highest levels of tensile strength &#; at the premium end.
If the parts need to withstand sudden impact, then materials with a high impact strength or toughness should be prioritized. Such materials include ABS and TPU at the consumer end and high-performance polymers at the premium end.
In general, materials like nylon and polycarbonate are favored by many FDM users because they offer a good balance between affordability, tensile strength, and impact strength.
What is the strongest 3D printer filament?
There is no single "strongest" filament, as different materials offer various strengths and weaknesses. Polycarbonate, carbon fiber reinforced filaments, nylon, and polyetherimide are among the strongest materials available for 3D printing, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
How can I improve the strength of my 3D printed objects?
After choosing a strong filament, one way to further improve the strength of a part is by using a dense infill and high-strength infill pattern, as well as applying post-processing methods like annealing. Another factor to consider is interlayer bonding: layers will adhere together better when printed at the higher end of the appropriate temperature range, resulting in parts that are stronger along the Z-axis.
Can I print with strong filaments on any 3D printer?
Not all 3D printers are capable of printing with strong filaments, especially those requiring high extrusion, chamber, and nozzle temperatures. Check to see if your printer can handle the required temperatures for a given filament, as well as whether it has the necessary hardware, such as a heated bed and a hardened steel or ruby nozzle.
How do I store strong filaments to maintain their quality?
Store filaments in a cool, dry place, away from direct sunlight. Use airtight containers with desiccants to prevent moisture absorption, especially for hygroscopic materials like nylon and polycarbonate.
[1] Tanikella NG, Wittbrodt B, Pearce JM. Tensile strength of commercial polymer materials for fused filament fabrication 3D printing. Additive Manufacturing. May 1;15:40-7.
[2] Yi N, Davies R, Chaplin A, McCutchion P, Ghita O. Slow and fast crystallising poly aryl ether ketones (PAEKs) in 3D printing: Crystallisation kinetics, morphology, and mechanical properties. Additive Manufacturing. Mar 1;39:.
[3] Yang C, Tian X, Liu T, Cao Y, Li D. 3D printing for continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites: mechanism and performance. Rapid Prototyping Journal. Jan 16.
Every time a 3D printer manufacturer compares different technologies on its blog it sounds tricky. Especially when it offers only one of the compared types. This blog post isn&#;t to praise SLS. We will not look for the good, the bad, and the ugly amongst the most popular additive manufacturing technologies. They are all important, and the last thing we would recommend is to buy an SLS 3D printer if your application is purely FDM type.
Is there a universal 3D printing technology for all applications? FDM fits into this framework. It is affordable and very accessible with the largest list of materials available on the market. You can choose one of the top brands or acquire a DIY kit born in China. It all depends on your budget and the projects you are working on.
On the one hand, there is a powerful workhorse, as Markforged describes its OnyxPro, a game-changing 3D printer for Continuous Fiberglass reinforced parts. Those printouts are extremely solid. But on the other hand, you can also buy a no-name printer good enough to print a 3DBenchy, but not much more.
With such a big spectrum, where anyone could choose the best-fitting 3D printer, we may announce FDM as the number one additive manufacturing technology.
Talking about FDM, we are in fact describing FFF &#; fused filament fabrication. FDM, which stands for fused deposition modelling, is a Stratasys trademark. Nevertheless, even industry leaders call it that way, the same as people in Poland used to name any sneakers &#;Adidas&#;, regardless of the brand.
In this technology (we will call it FDM, as it is more popular), a continuous filament of thermoplastic material is fed from a large (sometimes not so large) spool through a moving, heated printer extruder head. Then it is deposited on the growing work. Some FDM 3D printers have more than one extruder, like in the mentioned Markforged OnyxPro &#; the first one is dedicated to printing onyx (plastic extruder), and the second provides the reinforcement composite (fibre extruder). Other makers use two extruders to apply water-soluble support material, an option you can find in some Ultimaker 3D printers.
All 3D printing technologies are dealing with gravity. Building a print, layer by layer, is like building a house. If the walls are straight, everything is going fine and smooth. But when some overhanging parts occur, it becomes precarious. As construction companies use steel props, in FDM printers this problem is solved with special supports. You don&#;t even need to think about designing them, they will be generated automatically by 3D printing software and printed alongside. After your printout is ready you can easily detach it with a knife, needle-nose pliers, or flush cutters. In some cases, when supports are water-soluble, just put your printout into a bucket filled with water.
Some FDM producers offer rotating print beds that can change an angle during the printing process which limits the number of needed supports. That is quite a cool solution.
If you are looking for big printouts, FDM may be the best choice. Top FDM producers offer 3D printers with a printing bed of 330 x 240 x 300 for less than USD. But you can also find less-known brands that sell 600 x 600 x 660 mm (0,25 m3) printing bed FDM printers for less than USD. If you compare it with 550 x 550 x 750 mm (0,23 m3) provided by one of the biggest polymer SLS 3D printers on the market, that with all needed peripheral equipment, installation and training will cost you even 1M USD, you can feel the difference.
As mentioned before, some FDM printers offer extremely durable, carbon-fibre-reinforced parts. But for a typical FDM printer, strength is a weakness. It may be hard to understand while reading the specification of some FDM filaments. When you compare the tensile strength of some PA 12 nylon filaments available for FDM 3D printers with PA 12 nylon powder used on SLS 3D printers, the first one may seem stronger. But it isn&#;t. Why?
Mainly because FDM prints are anisotropic. Isotropy is a term used in materials science where &#;isotropic&#; means having identical values of a property in all directions. For example, parts made with injection moulding or thermoforming have isotropic properties, so they are equally strong in X, Y, and Z directions. For the purposes of this blog, we can take it as a rule of thumb, because some polymers, like liquid crystal polymers, are highly anisotropic, even with injection moulding.
Anisotropy is not only the case of materials used for FDM 3D printing, but the process itself. The way parts are built with FDM is utterly anisotropic. It&#;s relatively easy to tear FDM printed models apart, especially between layers. How easy is it?
The strength of 3D printed parts can be measured and standardised with tensile strength, which is the ability to resist breakage when under tension. This most widely used 3D printing industry indicator, expressed in megapascals (MPa) or pounds per square inch in the US (psi), is important for engineers and designers when looking for a material or technology for mechanical applications. During the tensile strength test, a standardised tensile test specimen is being pulled and a tensometer records the degree of tension at which the material breaks.
Checking the specification of FDM filaments you may be shocked how good they look on paper. Most nylon filaments have tensile strength between 50 and 80 MPa. So comparing it to Sinterit&#;s PA12 with only 32 MPa you may consider FDM a winner in this category. But there are caveats.
Four researchers from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Petra Christian University in Indonesia tested the effect of orientation difference in fused deposition. They were interested in ABS material &#; the one Lego bricks are made of. Tensile test specimen was printed with Bits from Bytes ABS polymer filament in three different orientations: flat, on the edge and upright. Then they performed tensile strength tests for all of the specimens. As they figured out that the orientation influences tensile strength.
Flat specimen broke at 6,8 MPa, the one printed on edge was the strongest, and broke at 7,66 MPa, but the weakest one, printed upright, showed that it is way more brittle. It broke at 3,31 MPa. The reason why it happens in FDM technology is that anisotropy is most noticeable where the layer connects. So remember, that tensile strength mentioned on the box of your filament or in the attached specification describes the tensile strength of the material itself, not of the 3D printed model.
The good news is that even with FDM 3D printing you can make some adjustments that will enforce your parts. By changing the infill percentage, you can make your part stronger. The same will happen when you increase the shell thickness (outer surfaces of the part). You can also choose another, stronger material, or try to print a part rotated. To determine how the part should be positioned, you need to know the direction in which the force will most often act on the part. But this can be a makeshift solution as there are situations where you don&#;t want to reinforce your model, because you need it to be strong the way it was designed. How does it look in the SLS technology?
Parts printed with SLS are, in contrast to FDM, almost isotropic. This technology uses a laser as an energy source to sinter (fuse) powdered plastic material. The print builds layer by layer. The process is quite simple &#; a roller, known as a recoater, spreads a thin layer of powder on the work surface. After that laser beam selectively fuse some of the powder, according to the given project, while the rest of the powder remains unsintered and acts as a natural support for the build.
The clue to understand SLS 3D printing technology is the temperature. SLS 3D printers are working in a closed environment. The temperature in the chamber is closed to the melting point, and the laser only adds sufficient heat to melt the powder. Thanks to that after laser finishes sintering the one layer, which ends up in melting powder grains and connecting them together by necks, the cooling process is not as significant as in FDM 3D printing, which makes necking particles in all axes almost identically strong.
The group of researchers from Marwadi Education Foundations Group of Institutions (India), Vaal University of Technology, and North West University, Potchefstroom (both from South Africa) did almost identical experiment with the SLS 3D printer as described earlier with FDM one in. They tested the effect of orientation on tensile strength of parts laser sintered with PA 12 powder. The specimen was printed in three different orientations using EOS Formiga P100. Results showed that as there is a difference in the tensile strength between differently orientated parts, results were quite narrow. The average ultimate stress that specimens experience varied between 43,47 to 46,15 MPa. &#;Minimising anisotropy is desirable so as to allow manufacturers to build parts in any orientation without affecting the mechanical properties of the produced parts&#; &#; states the report.
If the strength of the part is your priority, SLS 3D technology may be a better choice than FDM. You will not achieve as strong parts as those made with injection moulding, thermoforming or CNC but for additive manufacturing technologies, SLS could be your number one choice.
Using unsintered powder in the SLS technology as a natural support results in the ability to produce parts that don&#;t need additional reinforcement during the 3D printing process, but can go even further. Appling lattice structures, if done correctly, can make parts lighter and stronger at the same time. But there are more benefits, like reducing the use of material to print the part or making the part better in energy absorption.
Lattice structures are used across many industries, starting with automotive, medical, to sport or other customer products. With software such as Autodesk Fusion 360 and Netfabb, Gen3D Sulis, Materialise 3-Matic or Altair Optistruct & Inspire it is possible to add lattice structures to your model without the need of designing them manually.
As you can use lattice structures both in SLS and FDM technologies, it is easier in the first one, as you will not confuse it with the supporting structures while post processing.
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