Carbon Fiber 3D Printer Filaments: What Are They Good For?

In this video, we're going to explore the 9 most popular advanced 3d printer filament types that you can print with in your at-home 3D printer to understand their differences, their ideal applications, and why you might want to check them out. That includes carbon fiber nylon filament, PETG-CF filament, nylon filament, and even polycarbonate filament. I hope you find this video valuable and informative, and if you do, don't forget to leave a like (and subscribe if you haven't already!)

🎥 IN THIS VIDEO: 🎥
00:00 Introduction
01:36 Nylon Filament
04:28 Polycarbonate Filament
08:04 PLA-CF Filament
12:44 PETG Carbon Fiber Filament
15:39 PET-CF Filament
18:14 Carbon Fiber Nylon Filament
21:26 ABS Carbon Fiber Filament
23:58 ABS-GF Filament
25:23 Conclusion

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO: 🔗

🛒 RECOMMENDED GEAR: 🛒

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[thenextlayer]

Thanks for watching this video! Sorry I couldn't print out more examples to show you guys... not easy with the situation in Israel right now... but I appreciate you guys watching, commenting, liking, and subscribing!

[discosanandreas]

I bought a 3D printer and haven't even used it yet. But I keep watching your videos. No need to apologize for the content you can or can't create. Just keep doing the best you can.

[militarrd]

I am the main Engineer that 3D Prints for an organization in a big Aerospace Company and could attest to the robust characteristics of Polycarbonate. We print prototypes, structural placement of brackets for flight parts, Drilling Fixtures, Mold for flight RTV parts, and Shop Aids. That thing is awesome.

[Mango_]

Polycabonate was actually the second ever material i ever printed on my X1c and i was genuinly supprised at how clean and smooth it printed

[delgueda]

I've noticed that PA-CF is very rigid right after printing, but becomes quite flexible once it absorbs some moisture (at least with esun PA-CF). I think it's important to consider how these materials behave after some time of use, because nylons usually change a lot once they absorb water.

[Ebonyqwe]

Listening to your kid speaking made me cry. I don’t know why, I guess they reminded me of my kids when they were little. Loved the video, very well researched and written. Thanks from a big softy.

[brentowen]

It's so cool to watch a video and see my own model being displayed for a second or two. Made my day. The lamp shade is my most popular model that I made from scratch after watching another YouTube video on how to make it. Great video by the way, I will have to save it as a reference.

[SillacSaurfang]

PA-CF is also one of the more popular filaments in the printed "pewpew" community. Most parts are designed for PLA +/Pro, and filled nylons do an excellent job meeting or exceeding its physical properties while having drastically better heat resistance, albeit with a higher price tag. I've switched to using it almost exclusively.

[Baldavier]

Ive never given you the credit you deserve. Youre more professional and experienced than most. From your background experience to your industry connections. I appreciate your openness and honesty too!

[ubiratamuniz]

Hi Jonathan! Hope you and your family are doing well.

My contribution: There´s one type of filament that is VERY rarely mentioned by 3D printing channels (and some consider it as quite engineering-capable) but that is my personal favourite that I use for ALMOST everything: Tritan.

It has the same thermal resistance as ABS (about 110-120C glass transition) which makes it ideal for car parts (even in the engine bay, as I did some air cleaner assemblies for my vintage VW Beetle, which I used for over a year, only taking them out because of other mods I did to the car and they didn´t fit anymore), for example. It also have chemical resistance so it can be used in environment with fuel vapors (like the top of a car carburetor). But it DOES NOT have the tendency to warp and delaminate like ABS/ASA, it´s not higroscopic as PETG, it´s quite easy to sand and prime for painting (unlike PETG) and does not require an enclosure. I´d say it´s almost perfect, the only problem is a tendency to ooze a little bit (not enough for causing stringing with retractions properly tuned though) and build up on the nozzle (which is sort of a hassle when using Revo nozzles, as it tends to build up in the heater core), and the lack of color options (only black, white and clear). It´s also a little hard to tune the first layer on an PEI sheet (brims tend to lift up), but once the actual part adheres you will have no lifting problem. It´s not as tough as Nylon, but it´s between ABS/ASA and Nylon. Also have some flex which makes it NOT to be brittle (as shown in my Beetle experiment, with all the heat and vibration from the old aircooled engine, I took them away for other mods one year later and they were still in one piece like the day they were printed - I gave them away to a friend who still runs them on his dual-carburated VW T2 Bus as of today). However, it does require an all-metal hotend (it prints between 250 and 270C depending on the batch/colour and other characteristics like the manufacturer formula) and requires a heated bed capable of at least 100C (110C is the ideal). The only problem with it is the price, usually is somewhat more expensive than ASA, at least here in Brazil, and it´s not all filament manufacturers that make them. To save I usually buy "low cost" lots in which one kilogram is made of a few smaller rolls that are made from leftover material (when the amount in the filament extruder is less than 1KG) during the manufacturing process.

Gridfinity boxes I printed out of PLA/PETG and ABS a few months ago are starting to delaminate, unlike the ones printed out of Tritan.

Tritan is also deemed to be "food safe" (it´s used in microwaveable tupperware-like but made from injection molding), although let´s be honest, no FDM printed part is actually food safe because of the inter-layers spacing that can build up bacteria.

All 3D printer upgrades I print at home are made out of Tritan. It´s awesome for parts that stay close to the hotend, like fan shrouds and such. One of my current rebuilds have fan shrouds and ducts made of Tritan, an external electronics enclosure (GalvanicGlaze´s enclosure with some remixes for using parts I had) also fully printed on Tritan.

I only don´t use it for decorative parts, to which I go with plain old PLA. I do have some rolls of PETG and ABS but I rarely use them.

I did try to print Nylon and actually had some success with CF Nylon on an old enclosed Ender 3 V2 (which I don´t have anymore), but really it´s so much trouble that I personally gave up on it for now as Tritan is doing the job.

Currently I´m printing a cat food stand, check it out (hoping there isn´t a power outage as here in Brazil heat these days is extreme and power outages are happening on a daily basis, the grid isn´t keeping up with all the A/Cs on countrywide, and my UPS can´t handle the Mega X very well):

[dduca]

A few years ago I used to print replacement nylon gears with 1.5mm trimmer line. All of then still going strong!

[paolobernardoni]

I've used some different CF filaments in the last years, printed with a modified Prusa i3 MK3S+ (enclosure, heated chamber, petg parts reprinted in PCCF, hotend high temerature modifications) and BambuLab X1C, your description of the properties of the filaments fits quite well with my experience:

- PLA-CF (BambuLab, printed on X1C)
the only advantage over regular pla is on aesthetics and reduced warping in very large prints, the downside is that it is even more brittle, it was bundled with the X1C so i used it but i won't buy it on purpose. Regular matte pla has a similar look while being more mechanically resistant and cheaper.
I used it to make some feet for the chairs in my kitchen because CF makes it more resistant to abrasion, i didn't find any other application where it is better than regular pla.

- PETG-CF (Treed filaments printed on i3)
It is one of the best looking filaments i found so far but i found it much more prone to clogging the nozzle (0.4 with 0.6 is ok) than the other CF filaments i tested, fair resistance to heat (better than regular petg and any pla) and high rigidity i plan to replace it with ASA-CF which has similar price and should have a lower risk of clogging the nozzle. It is very fragile and with poor layer adhesion and i found out that it doesn't bind well with brass heat mounted inserts (only filament i tried so far with this problem).
I used it mainly in parts used in measuring setups on an optical bench where i needed high rigidity and moderate heat resistance.

- PA12-CF (Treed filaments printed on i3)
This is the filament i love the most because has good rigidity (lower than the other CF filaments anyway), high mechanical strength, high temperature resistance, prints very well and looks great.
PA12 absorbs less water than PA6 but anyway it has to be thoroughly dried before printing, and being nylon never use it in applications where creep could be an issue, CF reduces creepage but doesn't solve it completely, the only big downside of this filament is that it is by far the most expensive of the CF filaments i tried.
I used it in parts for optical bench setups, sample holders for a climatic chamber (withstands +125/-40°C cycles and 85°C/85%RH tests flawlessly) and jigs for electronic and mechanical assemblies.

- PC-CF (Prusament printed on X1C ;))
Very similar to PACF in look, mechanical resistance and heat resistance, probably a bit more fragile due to lower layer adhesion but nothing dramatic, the main advantage is that it is cheaper and doesn't creep, it needs to be dried too.
I used it to reprint the ASA and PETG-printed parts of the i3 (this is one of the steps of the high temperature modification), a hinge for an heavy toolbox (the original one had broken)
, and a smartphone holder for my car.

- PP-CF (Treed filaments printed on i3)
The only reason to use PP in 3d printing is for its chemical resistance and to make live hinges otherwise it is an awful material to print, if you think that pure ABS, PA or PC are difficult to print compared to PP they are easy as PLA, the CF improves greatly the printability but even with CF the objects warp a lot even in an heated chamber and printed slowly.
I wanted to use it to make parts for different setups to perform electrochemical etching with hydrofluoric acid but i couldn't make the prints water tight, probably because of the high carbon content (regular PP has an exceptional layer adhesion). I resigned to use it in non watertight parts printing the others in regular PP or PVDF (which is crazy expensive).

I also bought ASA-CF but i haven't used it so far, it should be a good trade off between mechanical properties and cost with the plus of UV resistance.

[josiahmcthompson]

I must say that I love your channel. You always use technical language and accurate descriptions which I appreciate!

[travisg]

There should be an app that has all the attributes where you can select the properties you need and the printer you have and it will tell you which filament to use.

[rodmorgan]

I have been using ABS-CF10 on the 3D printer that I use at work. I was starting to get very bad prints halfway through the spool but all our materials are kept in a dry cabinet at 10%, so the last resort was to buy another spool ($900 AUD), the printer is a StrataSys F170 worth $54k. The new spool was perfect. I came to the conclusion that it was the light that has effected the material because the dry cabinet has a glass door, so I put the old spool in an oven for 48hrs at 60 degrees C, to dry it and now it's ok, so I store it in the sealed silver bags that were provided. The light does not effect the ABS though. It has taken about 2 weeks to solve the problem. So everyone, don't let your material get moist.

[hebijirik]

I found PETG-CF to be very usefull for large printers. I have RatRig V-Core 3 500 so I get asked to print big things sometimes. Depending on shape they can be done in many materials or also not.
The worst is long straight walls. A roughly box-shaped cover 600mm long, 60 wide and 80 tall that required UV resistance was unprintable in PETG - the long walls would just buckle outward more and more as the shrinkage of hte material kept lifting the ends higher and higher off the bed. Increasing bed adhesion was useless because the part would just take the metal sheet up with it. I don't have a rigid bed to try but my guess would be something breaks or the part warps once released from the bed.
Once I tried PETG-CF for this same part all the problems basically disappeared. It is way more hygroscopic than normal PETG (water creeps in deep along the fibers) so for very good surface finish you want to dry it before printing but nothing crazy is required and it does not have to be printed directly from a drybox - it can be outside for a few hours or even days. But what you get for this added trouble and for the price is basically no warping on a 600mm long straight wall. Other materials like PA-CF could probably do the same but at much higher price and difficulty level. And on a part that takes a whole 1kg spool for just one print you want the difficulty low and the price adds up quickly too. So PETG-CF is a great choice for that.
I had same results with PCTG-CF too.
And for a part I was asked to print white I tried PCTG-GF. The polymer has no pigment in it a the fresh-snow white color is achieved by light reflecting and refracting in all the tiny bits of glass inside. It is slightly translucent but once thick enough it becomes really white. And even with 0.6mm nozzle and 0.3mm layers this effect hides layer lines pretty much completely. It looks great and price is similar to PETG-CF.

[FreedomToRoam]

I’m planning on getting/using as much recycled filament as possible for my new A1 printer. So this was a great, helpful video, and I’d love to see an update every year at least. Keep on creating great content that helps the world’

[kaytrim]

Perfect timing on this video. My Sovol SV06 Plus just arrived yesterday. I'll get their klipper pad later. I went with the SV06 over the SV07 because of the linear rails over the V-wheels. And I don't like that huge noisy part fan. I purchased a part fan upgrade kit for my SV06 that is printed in ABS and points the air to all sides of the part.

I want to use my printer to make fittings for outdoor hydroponics. The PETG-CF you talked about sounds like the perfect material for my application. I am also a 'Mr. Fixit' so adding this to my arsonal will allow me to build replacement parts or redesign better ones.

Glad that you and your family remain safe and keep making this wonderful content.

[shrug_shrugsly]

This is so helpful! And the part of the ratings was so helpful. You said you didn’t think it was, but more more!! ❤

[akihide.uchida]

I've used ASA CF for a lot of proejcts recently. It has a high enough glass transition temperature (105 C) for use inside my vehicle without warping, a major factor while living in the American southwest, and I've found it quite easy to print without much hassle in or needing a high nozzle temperature. I primarily chose it over ABS CF because it is more resistant to UV degradation.