First 3D print of PETG

[hutch--]

You can just be lucky at times but after mastering PLA and modified PLA Plus, I just did my first test print with a higher temperature filament, PETG and it came out perfect. Read around a number of Youtube channels and bothered to read the filament specs from the manufacturer setting the nozzle temperature at 240c and the bed at 70c and a conservative 50mm/sec print speed and the results are faultless.

PETG is an oil based plastic that has a higher in use temperature range and is a lot tougher that PLA and derivatives. Its suitable for external tasks and is not sensitive to sunlight and is not brittle like the PLA filaments.

The win came with a number of changes to the printer, an expensive heat break to isolate the filament from the heat block which allowed for printing at a higher temperature without clogging issues and degradation of the teflon bowden tube. The rest is auto bed levelling and setting the nozzle to bed hight accurately.

[daydreamer]

Seem perfect for you,who dont want to print all kind of fun play thing stuff,but practical things to last
Material that wont work in sunlight ,sounds like its "vampire material" ?
PETG related to our PET recyclable bottles ?,coca cola ,fanta etc
Made to be cleaned and reused few times,you get 0.2 euro per big bottle when bring it back to stores

[hutch--]

 

The G in PETG is a glycol modifier to make it more flexible. Have printed a number of test pieces so far and the results are interesting. Cannot force layer separation, even with an exacto knife. I still have to tweak a number of settings but the results are so far very good.

The common filament is PLA which is strong but non flexible so it will break under some loads. It will fade in sunlight which does not matter much but if you leave it in direct sunlight, it will soften and fail. Its mainly for interior tasks and works well for such things.

With PETG, you do screw up really tight as it just stretches a bit but does not fracture.

[daydreamer]

Glycol here is commonly used in mix with water in cooling all kind of vehicles in winter freezing -20 c or even colder temperatures , otherwise water stops flow and in worst cases it breaks lightweight metal , because freezing ice unique property of getting bigger
If petg is used outside in nordic freezing winter, would glycol make it less brittle in freezing temperatures?
Iron and steel ships made in ww2 for fast replace british fleet, they used minimal thickness to make as many as possible ships out of it, but after a very cold night after they finished ship , they found it had sunk in the harbour
First time they discovered steel become more brittle at low temperatures

[hutch--]

Hi Magnus,

I found a set of tests that answer your question as where I live, it never goes below zero. The only really cold weather here in OZ is due to the Great Southern Ocean pulling up weather patterns from Antarctica.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0JVXvSSEWs

[daydreamer]

Thanks hutch,great video 
When I went to technical school,we had such testing machines, used on steel,school also had comical newspaper,they took iron curve and replaced it with party related comments instead and amount of booze instead of force, zzzz instead of break steel point
One of the statistics show pla being strongest at -20 c,could be useful for indoors cold garage, inside cars shielded from sunlight

[hutch--]

Its pretty normal for most materials to become more brittle as they get colder, usually far below room temperature so you must pick the material you want things made from for them to be servicable at low temperatures. With this PETG I am printing at the moment, it is safe up to about 80c before it sags and apparently OK at freezing but far lower temperatures like you get in Scandinavia in Winter and parts of Russia where you see -50c and sometime lower would need to be tested before you tried anything critical.

I am fascinated at how clean this PETG prints, almost no post sanding required and the surface finish on an ordinary 0.2 mm layer height is very good. In contrast to PLA and modified PLA, PETG is more flexible and it seems to have better layer bonding so it will be useful for things that must survive outdoors under load.

[daydreamer]

I have 3d model cup with "masm64 sdk"
So its safer if made with pour in hot coffee in it with petg or pla bigger chance of break ?
Not boiled,lower temp brewer,that brews at they say is optimum temp for best taste
Must be safe make solar panel holders with petg
If you still have that solar panels you showed earlier

[zedd151]

I have 3d model cup with "masm64 sdk"
So it’s safer if made with pour in hot coffee in it…

I would be more worried about the plastic leaching into the food/beverage, especially something hot. Is it ‘food safe’? I think that is a more important question. I rarely, if ever use any plastic containers for food storage etc (except for Tupperware). If it smells like plastic, molecules are getting into the air and probably would get into whatever is stored in them.

[daydreamer]

Currently i have lot of Coca cola glasses, cups with various motives made of porcelain(china?)
Unfortunatly i have not access anymore to garage and lots of tools to metalwork my favourite material : aluminium , which i enjoy working with, lightweight and no disappointment like iron and steel rusts and slowly disappear
Ofcourse i check what kinda plastic is used for cups in stores and avoid others instead , before try to drink from it a cup