Choosing a 3D Printing Material for its Temperature-Handling Capabilities

It used to be, if you were thinking of 3D printing a polymer part, you’d select your material by considering several of the classic mechanical factors – ultimate tensile strength, elongation at break, notched Izod impact – and perhaps hardness or durometer. With a little luck, you’d have several options from which to choose, that would meet your end-use requirements (vanilla, chocolate AND strawberry).

While those factors are still important, users have moved to the next level of specification, saying, okay, I can see there are many choices that will make my part strong enough, but will it hold up to high temperatures? And how much does it absorb moisture?

Not only are there multiple types of 3D printing, or additive manufacturing approaches, but the number of possible polymer-based 3D printing materials is now far beyond the 31 flavors of a certain ice-cream company and number in the hundreds (maybe thousands). Here at PADT, we are often working with customers who understand the environment in which their products must operate and are eager to know their options for temperature limits when working with Stratasys polymer-based 3D printers.

We’ve compiled a simple list of the Heat Deflection Temperature (or Glass Transition Temperature, as appropriate) for the most common polymer materials used on the following Stratasys systems:

Origin One (DLP/resins)

FDM (filament)

SAF (powder)

PolyJet (UV light/resins)

For the Origin systems, we’ve also listed moisture absorption data when available.

Reach out to our Application Engineers to help you understand the general properties of these materials (is it comparable to ABS or Polypropylene? Is it rated for smoke/flame/toxicity?) as well as the thermal and absorptive behavior. We are happy to provide you with data sheets. We may not have as many possibilities as Ben & Jerry do, but we’d like to take on the challenge.

PADT Inc. is a globally recognized provider of Numerical Simulation, Product Development and 3D Printing3D Scanning products and services. For more information on Stratasys printers and materials contact us at info@padtinc.com.