Which 3D Printing Material Is The Strongest

Strongest 3D Printing Material

3d printing is the process of making a three dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. It is achieved with additive processes, where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material under computer control.

There are many different 3D printers using various technologies, but the most popular one nowadays uses plastic filament as their ‘ink’. The 3D printing technology has become extremely accessible over the past few years and there are even some who use it to print functional guns . The materials for this type of printer can be divided roughly into two groups: thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers. Thermoplastics are plastics that can be melted again after they have been printed so you can reuse them later on which makes them a very cost effective choice. However the downside of this is that they cannot withstand high temperatures, so if you place a printed part in an oven it will melt.

Thermosetting on the other hand have the advantage that they can continue to be shaped after being printed as well as having higher temperature resistance, but their main disadvantage is that once the print has been completed you cannot reuse it anymore.

So which material is currently considered to be the strongest? A study from Heriot-Watt University found out that nylon filament for 3D printing was one of the more resilient options out there . This makes sense since it shares a lot of properties with Kevlar which is a a synthetic fiber known for its great strength and heat resistance.

In a recent article from the companies Autodesk and Markforged they claim that nylon is actually not as strong as they initially thought. In their study they concluded that most 3D printed materials are only 10-20% stronger than standard PLA due to many of them using a 20% infill which is insufficient if you want to make truly functional parts . However it was also acknowledged that there are some exceptions to this rule, for example they mention carbon fiber reinforced PLA filament , Kevlar filament and aluminum filled SLS Nylon . As a result the answer to whether 3D printing produces the strongest objects possible is probably no, but confining your search purely to thermoplastics would definitely be too narrow minded. You just need to choose the right material for your specific needs and experiment with different settings on your 3D printer to see how it influences the strength and durability of your parts.