Polymaker has changed around their product line, and introduced an incredible new material, PPS-CF10.
Let’s start with the product changes. Over the past few years the company has introduced countless new materials and variants in a series of different brand names. Now they are consolidating all of them into two brands:
- Panchroma: this brand holds all the “aesthetic” filaments, including those with interesting colors and surface properties.
- Fiberon: this brand holds all of the company’s engineering materials
That’s a very good simplification, and it should make things a bit easier for customers.
Panchroma Filaments
Polymaker has gone even farther in making things easier, as they’re developing a fascinating simulation tool for filament selection.
The issue is that today Polymaker’s Panchroma line contains possibly 200 different colors and variants of materials. That makes it rather challenging to select the one you want, particularly if you’re doing so online and can’t see the filament with your own eyes.
They’ve therefore developed an online simulation to help buyers select the correct color for their application. It works by having the user upload the 3D model for their project, and the simulator will accurately display the model in a 3D viewer with the selected material.
Here you can see a #3DBenchy using a shiny gold material. Note that it doesn’t just color the 3D model: they’re actually virtually slicing it and showing how the layer lines would appear in real life. This is the most accurate color simulation of FFF 3D prints I’ve seen. It should be quite beneficial to Polymaker customers.
I’d list all the filament options in the Panchroma line, but there’s way too many. Polymaker also keeps adding more, so the only way to keep up is to visit their site.
Fiberon Filaments
The Fiberon line is a lot less busy, but includes some fascinating materials. As you might guess, most of these materials are composites using some other type of fiber, including carbon or glass. Some of the materials include:
- PA612-CF15
- PET-CF17
- PETG-rCF08
- PETG-ESD
Note that the number at the back end of the product name indicates the ratio of the composite material. For example, PET-CF17 contains 17% carbon fiber. The “r” indicates that the material is recycled.
All of these have outstanding engineering properties, and it should be easy for makers to select the right material for the job.
One of the most interesting materials we inspected was PPS-CF10. PPS is a relatively rare 3D print material, and exhibits high thermal and chemical resistance, along with very good mechanical strength. By adding 10% carbon fiber, the material is extremely strong.
It has to be the hardest material I’ve seen 3D printed in an FFF device. In fact, Polymaker 3D printed a bell, shown here, with PPS-CF10 (both bell and hammer inside).
If you shake the bell, it actually rings like a metal bell! I have never seen this done with any other FFF material, and it shows how hard PPS-CF10 can be.
I believe Polymaker has figured out the market here: there are two groups, one seeking color variants for aesthetic purposes and another seeking high performance engineering materials.
Via Polymaker
