I started 3d printing back when you had to build it all from scratch, and it seemed ABS was the only filament to be found. PLA came along soon enough and made things sooo much easier. Then came some more exotic ones like TPU or Nylon I think, but I never tried them out because they seemed pretty niche.

But now I’m getting back into it after some time and am seeing PETG popping up more and it seems to have become one of the mainstream materials now.

Are there any other key materials I should become aware of these days? Has PETG started to replace ABS as a superior “high-temp” filament? Does anyone have experience with these?

    • @spicystrawEnglish
      3•1 year ago

      Quick search gave me this information:

      Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of polyesters formed through bacterial fermentation of lipids or sugars. What sets it apart from PLA is the fact that it will decompose in soil and waterways, though it is more than twice the price of petro-plastics

      Are there any other pros and cons with pha?

      • Remy RoseEnglish
        2•1 year ago

        It’s less rigid than PLA, but wayyyyy more durable. It can really take a beating. The only major downside is that it warps, but there’s definitely ways around that. Also just from having handled it a bunch, for some reason it’s just got the nicest texture. You know how those incredibly strong thermoset plastics they use for pot handles and such almost don’t feel like plastic, compared to something like PET? It’s like that.

        • @PohlEnglish
          3•1 year ago

          All I see out there is pls/pha blends. Who is making good PHA, I’d love to give it a try.

          When you say it warps, do you mean during printing like abs? Do you print it in an enclosure?

          • Remy RoseEnglish
            3•1 year ago

            There aren’t many people making it yet. So far as I know there’s just Colorfabb AllPHA, Filaments.ca Regen, and Beyond Plastic PHA. That’s like 2 more suppliers than there were a year ago though, so I’d say it’s growing more popular?

            It warps during printing pretty similarly to ABS yeah, but it has the exact opposite solution weirdly enough. You wanna turn your bed heat completely off, and have it as unenclosed as possible.

            • @PohlEnglish
              2•1 year ago

              Thanks!