PolyMide PA12-CF

PolyMide™ PA12-CF is a brand-new engineering filament offering high stability in both printing and application, delivering predictable mechanical properties regardless of the operating environment. PolyMide™ PA12-CF achieves this through its base polymer, nylon 12, which displays greater moisture stability when compared to common nylon 6 filaments. This means that PolyMide™ PA12-CF printed parts display minimal change in mechanical properties from the dry state to the wet state, therefore, more predictable mechanical properties in final printed parts. PA12-CF features 10% chopped carbon fibers which add strength and stiffness while also lowering the coefficient of thermal expansion, these characteristics, paired with Polymaker’s Warp-Free™ and Fiber Adhesion™ technologies provide an easy to print filament with extremely desirable properties.

The main difference between PA12 and PA6 is moisture stability. The longer PA12 polymer chain is much more resistant to moisture absorption and will reach moisture equilibrium at a lower % than PA6 filaments. Less moisture absorption means that there is less change in mechanical properties from the dry state to the wet state. While PA6-CF outperforms PA12-CF in dry state properties, in the wet state PA12-CF outperforms PA6-CF when considering strength and stiffness.

In 3D printing filaments must be dry, otherwise, any moisture which is inside the filament will boil inside the hot end and rupture out of the side of the extruded plastic, this greatly decreases the mechanical properties, surface finish, layer bonding and produces some other undesirable printing characteristics such as stringing and oozing. Once the part is printed however, the nylon will absorb moisture from the air naturally and reach an equilibrium inside the part. For PA12-CF, the moisture equilibrium is roughly 1.5% by weight with other brand nylon filaments absorbing up to 5% and over, this has a more drastic effect on the final properties of the part and a noticeable difference in the performance from dry to wet states.