doing science to 20% wood PHA
Oct. 18th, 2022 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdRegen PHA is a newish filament out of Europe, made also in Canada. It's tricky to print, but it claims to compost much more readily than PLA, while at the same time having a higher glass point and better strength. (Which basically has to mean it's more easily degraded by water. Pick your material for your use cases.)
So of course I ordered some from Canada and I'm testing it out. I got the variety with 20% wood infill, since I was thinking "if we're going full compostable, let's go full compostable." That requires printing with a 0.6mm or larger nozzle, rather than the more typical 0.4mm size, but it's only because of the wood. Regular PHA is 0.4mm-compatible.
So having now tried it, I can confirm that is tricky to print, and it spans terribly. Check out these hilariously bad temperature towers! The left is with parts fan on, the right is with parts fan off; they recommend printing with it off unless you want better spanning.
The spanning is better with it on, I'll admit! It's just that it's still terrible. And I didn't see any print quality gain without it. But that said, I did manage a perfectly competent Benchy at 180°C.
Having demonstrated I could do that, I decided to test their glass point claims. How heat resistant is this stuff, anyway?
The answer is: very. Here's a thread on the glass point testing. It completely lived up to advertising - these tests absolute validate their 100°C claims - and I'm genuinely surprised about that, particularly given the low printing temperature.
I'm working on pendulum knock tests to check out the strength claims, but haven't done them yet. It'll be interesting to see if those also hold up. But for the heat tolerance alone, I very definitely see use cases worth the inevitable struggles which will come with trying to print this material.
Also, the 20% wood infill feels and looks more like wood than any wood-infused PLA I've seen so far. That's not a big number, but the "wood PLA" doesn't look or feel much like wood, and this really does have woodlike characteristics in the hand and the eye.
Kinda thinking I might buy some non-infill PHA next, see how that proves out.
So of course I ordered some from Canada and I'm testing it out. I got the variety with 20% wood infill, since I was thinking "if we're going full compostable, let's go full compostable." That requires printing with a 0.6mm or larger nozzle, rather than the more typical 0.4mm size, but it's only because of the wood. Regular PHA is 0.4mm-compatible.
So having now tried it, I can confirm that is tricky to print, and it spans terribly. Check out these hilariously bad temperature towers! The left is with parts fan on, the right is with parts fan off; they recommend printing with it off unless you want better spanning.
The spanning is better with it on, I'll admit! It's just that it's still terrible. And I didn't see any print quality gain without it. But that said, I did manage a perfectly competent Benchy at 180°C.
Having demonstrated I could do that, I decided to test their glass point claims. How heat resistant is this stuff, anyway?
The answer is: very. Here's a thread on the glass point testing. It completely lived up to advertising - these tests absolute validate their 100°C claims - and I'm genuinely surprised about that, particularly given the low printing temperature.
I'm working on pendulum knock tests to check out the strength claims, but haven't done them yet. It'll be interesting to see if those also hold up. But for the heat tolerance alone, I very definitely see use cases worth the inevitable struggles which will come with trying to print this material.
Also, the 20% wood infill feels and looks more like wood than any wood-infused PLA I've seen so far. That's not a big number, but the "wood PLA" doesn't look or feel much like wood, and this really does have woodlike characteristics in the hand and the eye.
Kinda thinking I might buy some non-infill PHA next, see how that proves out.
