Polymaker introduced two very intriguing new 3D printer materials today.
The two are high-performance PLA materials, which should be of great interest as PLA is by far the most popular FFF 3D print material.
The first material is HT-PLA. The “HT” stands for “high temperature”. Standard PLA, while being easy to print, suffers from thermal challenges. Its typical softening temperature can be as low as 50°C, and that temperature is frequently encountered in normal situations. Don’t print a cup holder for your car in PLA!
HT-PLA changes that by raising the softening temperature to around 130°C, far higher than standard PLA. Polymaker said that some may post-process their standard PLA prints by annealing, but HT-PLA does not require this at all. Prints can be used directly off the machine.
HT-PLA launches in ten solid colours, with four colour gradient variations. This is unsurprising given Polymaker’s astonishing number of colours in their regular PLA line.
The other material is a variant of HT-PLA, HT-PLA-GF. The “GF” stands for “glass fibre”, which is mixed in with the polymer to provide additional strength. Polymaker said HT-PLA-GF’s strength “matches or exceeds” that of ABS, a far more challenging material to print. They said it offers “nearly twice the stiffness and tensile strength”.
HT-PLA-GF launches with nine colours, but curiously they include “a curated range optimized for power tool components and accessories.” Clearly HT-PLA-GF is targeted at the printing of functional parts.
These two materials are quite different from the standard materials one would find in the 3D print world. I am very curious to see how they are adopted, and whether Polymaker’s competitors will react with similar higher-temperature PLA products.
I’m hoping to do some testing with HT-PLA very soon.
Via Polymaker
