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)

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️English
    14•10 months ago

    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).

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      4•10 months ago

      Thanks a lot for for corroborating the issue. Indeed, I am aware that labeling could be blurry since everyone keeps the blends used for their filament secret. This is the reason why I am interested in knowing if someone collected the numbers. Being able to compare Elastic Modulus, Elongation at Break, etc. could solve the problem of having to use the labels when picking a filament (considering also the cost $$). PLA+ was just an example, where everyone says that it’s “more though” than “ordinary PLA”, which I could translate with “less brittle”. However, without absolute numbers the information contained in such statements is laughable.

      Without numbers, either I just wait to have a bit of experience with different filaments, or I will need watch all those videos with users printing hooks and running tensile test on them.

    • Carighan MaconarEnglish
      3•10 months ago

      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).

      I expect that to be the vast majority of them, actually.