Nylon (PA)
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PA - which stands for polyamide nylon - is a very strong 3D printing material option.
The only requirements would be to make sure your hotend can reach the recommended temperature range, and then you also will need a hardened nozzle when printing in a carbon fiber or glass fiber reinforced option.
You do not need any enclosure when you print with our nylon options.
You will want to use a filament dryer - like the PolyDryer - the entire time you print.
Our nylon filaments come with our Warp-Free™ technology. This Warp-Free™ technology solves one root of the cause of warping - crystallization.
Indeed, Nylon is known as challenging to print because of its warping behavior, because when printing, the quick formation of crystals within each layers will create a lot of internal stress - resulting in part deformation.
Polymaker’s technology is not only reducing this stress, but it is increasing the mechanical properties of the part. The technology slows down the crystallization rate of the polymer, which prevents it from quickly forming small crystals within each layer as they are printed. Instead, it allows the polymer to slowly build big crystal across layers, since multiple layers have time to be printed before the formation of crystals. These crystals across the layers will also significantly increase the inter layer adhesion. This is also the reason why Polymaker will recommend to anneal the part after the printing process. Annealing ensures the part has reached its highest degree of crystallinity, providing the best thermal and mechanical properties.
This means you are not on a time crunch with our nylon materials to get them in the oven the moment the print finishes, as we recommend with polycarbonate which you will read about shortly. You can get the print into the oven at your convenience - just know after you anneal in the oven, the nylon will be dried out and will slowly moisture condition after.
Each nylon will have slightly different annealing recommendations, but we generally recommend between 80˚-100˚C for 6-16 hours. This will allow the nylon to fully crystallize.
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Our nylons come with our Warp-Free™ Technology.
Polymaker’s technology is not only reducing this stress, but it is increasing the mechanical properties of the part. The technology slows down the crystallization rate of the polymer, which prevents it from quickly forming small crystals within each layer as they are printed. Instead, it allows the polymer to slowly build big crystal across layers, since multiple layers have time to be printed before the formation of crystals. These crystals across the layers will also significantly increase the inter layer adhesion. This is also the reason why Polymaker will recommend to anneal the part after the printing process. Annealing ensures the part has reached its highest degree of crystallinity, providing the best thermal and mechanical properties.
In order for this Warp-Free™ technology to work as it should - we want to make sure the build plate and the ambient air temperatures are both below 50˚C. We then anneal the print after to get it's full strength.
Nylons are very hygroscopic - meaning they absorb moisture very easily.
This means that your finished nylon print will absorb moisture - there is no real way around this. This means your part may grow very slightly and have different mechanical properties after being moisture conditioned.
To moisture condition - you can leave your nylon part in a high humidity environment for 48 hours, or just leave it out for 2 weeks as it naturally absorbs the moisture in the air.
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When you anneal in a convection oven, you will dry the part out. So if you moisture condition before annealing - you will need to moisture condition again after. So we would suggest to moisture condition after annealing.
You can view all material products' TDS, SDS, and Printing Profiles
You can then find that information for Fiberon Nylon materials
You can also find mechanical properties
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