I was wondering whether there is somewhere a dataset collecting the mechanical properties of different filaments.
Some filament vendors provide some mechanical properties data about their filament, others don’t. On the few comparison I was able to make, I noticed big differences among the same filament type, such as PLA+.
For example, regarding the Flexural Modulus, one brand of PLA+ could report 4175Mpa, while another one reports 1973Mpa. Clearly, the second offers a much higher Elongation at Break. This means that depending on the application, it could make sense to select one brand of filament with respect to another (of the same type).
I would expect this type of mechanical properties to be easy to fetch, but a lot of vendors provide only how accurate the diameter of their filaments is.
(edit: typo)
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A word to the wise, different brands of “PLA+” are not the same filament. There is no standard or even consensus on what qualifies a particular polymer alloy as “PLA+” and thus every manufacturer does their own thing and just calls it whatever they feel like. The same is true for “PLA Pro” and “PLA Extreme” or “PLA Tough” or whatever other monikers you can find.
I would not be at all surprised to find some unscrupulous vendor selling just ordinary PLA and calling it “PLA+” just for marketing purposes (a.k.a. lying about it).
So prusa totally does maintain a material props page it’s not exhaustive nor does it have full details for every filament they list but it does have a lot of info. Includes into about hotend and bed temps, enclosure and surface recommendations, deflection temperature, impact resistance and tensile strengths.
Might be a good place to start, love the idea of an open, community maintained mech props db
Yes, it’s definitely a good point of information. It looks like it was also referenced in the Prusa blog: Advanced Filament Guide.
That post is a bit old (2020), and I fear it has not been updated in a while, considering that the post writer replied only in the first year and all the following comments ended up without replies. It is a pity, considering also that the post ended with a sort of request for users to propose new filaments to test. I see that the last comment is fairly recent (2024) so I guess someone is trying to get more information to be added. Alas, it’s kind of understandable: it could be expensive and time consuming to test other brands filaments for the sake of keeping the maker community happy.
In the post seems that the data collected in the table is coming from real tests made at Prusa Research, so this makes me hope that the experiment setup has been kept the same for the different tests.
I think such a dataset would be very useful. I’m just getting in to 3D printing and have spent a little bit of time hunting for this type of information already. I’ve had to stick to star ratings on vendor sites so far.
- What are the physical properties it would be useful to track?
- How are they measured/which standard is being followed?
- How do they relate to practical matters like ideal extruder temperature and velocities for particular properties or effects?
(Edit: typo)
Currently, there are some vendors that provide a lot of information about some of their filaments. I cannot say anything about how accurate or trustworthy they are, though. Unfortunately, as reported here by other users, it looks like the market if filled by “cunning” sellers who are not transparent regarding how they asses the properties of their filaments. Anyway, as far as the physical properties to track are concerned, one of the most extensive table I found reported:
- Density [g/cm³]
- Elongation at Break [%]
- Tensile Strength [Mpa]
- Flexural Strength [Mpa]
- Flexural Modulus [Mpa]
- Young’s Modulus [Mpa],
- Izod Impact Strength [KJ/m²]
- Melting Point [°C],
- Melt Index [g/10min]
- Heat Deflection Temperature [°C]
I could think that with those you can have some idea about how good the material will be for mechanical parts.
There are other properties which are sometimes advertised as “chemical resistance” which are often left without a reference.
Apart from the data you can get from the sellers, I found a table that, even if not providing a thorough analysis of the filaments in terms of the properties listed before, it looks like an attempt to gather together data to help user chose the right filament for their application: Prusa Research - Material Table
