eSUN Polycarbonate Filament - 1.75mm Black 0.5kg

Please Note: eSun has recently changed their filament spool material. You may receive a cardboard spool, instead of the plastic spools depicted above. This move means a more environmentally friendly design to their 3D filament spools which comfortably sit on your 3D printer's standard spool holder for smooth filament feeding.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve continuously been impressed by the incredible range of different 3D Filaments and polymers that have been brought to the market. From unique and exciting Exotic Filaments, through to enhanced PLA with polyester, metal, carbon fibre and other wild and wonderful additives, we believe that soon there will soon be a specific polymer for almost any application and aesthetic style. However, despite the growing number of different filaments and styles available to Makers nowadays, we find that the old classics are often still our favourites, and while it should have been obvious from the start, the same key polymers that we’ve always used in mass-manufacturing are some of the best options for real-world applications.

These half-kg spools of eSUN Black Polycarbonate Filament are a great example of how the classics are still some of the best, as polycarbonate has always been a very impressive plastic in terms of mechanical strength, and this has certainly not changed in 3D Printing. Offering even more resistance and durability than PETG and ABS, and even rivalling materials like PMMA (Acrylic), Polycarbonate is one of the strongest materials that can be printed on Hobbyist 3D Printers. However, because of these impressive characteristics, it’s not too surprising that Polycarbonate is relatively difficult to actually print with, although once you have dialled in your settings and have had some experience with Polycarbonate, it is capable of producing incredible prints with high strength, great resistances to external forces, and very high thermal resistance – even offering a surprisingly high UL94 V-2 level of resistance against fire.

Helpful 3D Printing Tips for eSUN Black Polycarbonate Filament:

As many of you will know, here at DIYElectronics, we always try to give our fullest support for every item we sell, and this includes all of the different types of 3D Filaments too. With this in mind, the following are some really useful tips that we wished we knew when we started printing with Polycarbonate, which we hope you can utilise to enjoy the great results that we’ve been working toward since first testing out this high-strength polymer:

• Polycarbonate Printing Tips – Extrusion: As an extra tip for success, we’ve found that printing with a 5:1 Line Width to Nozzle Size ratio yields excellent results with near-invisible layer lines. However, this isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, as it is in regard to the area, rather than direct size comparison, because numbers involving area need to be squared. As such, if you’re eager to print with a standard size 0.4mm nozzle, then you will want your extrusion line width to be 0.9mm, because 0.9mm squared is 0.81mm, and 0.4mm squared is 0.16mm – and of course 0.81 divided by 5 is just over 0.16. So be sure to keep this in mind if you’re printing with Polycarbonate, as these settings will not only produce beautiful aesthetics on the finished print, but will also help ensure that the layers are fused well to each other, adding value to structural integrity too.
  
  
• Polycarbonate Printing Tips – Adhesion: Additionally, although we at DIYElectronics love BuildTak, and will generally recommend it for most 3D Printing Filaments and Polymers, Polycarbonate is a little bit different, and tends to fuse with BuildTak at temperatures around 80°C and higher. And because you need a heated build surface of around 100°C to print Polycarbonate effectively, the fusing is almost unavoidable without some extra preparation such as an additional adhesive layer. As such, we will always recommend PEI instead, which holds well to Polycarbonate at temperatures between 100° and 110°C, before self-releasing the prints upon cooling down. This not only helps make 3D Printing this material easier, but also ensures no fused beds and optimal surface finishes – even on the bottom of the print.
  
  
• Polycarbonate Printing Tips – Layers: Polycarbonate filament, like ABS and a few other high-temperature polymers, tends to warp very easily if the condition aren’t just right. This means that you need to print your first layer nearly perfectly, so that the following layers have all the adhesion they need to stick, fuse and mould together in the ways they need to for strong parts. As such, it’s a good idea for your first layer to set the layer height to somewhere between 100% and 150%, with a first layer width of between 120% and 150%, as well as a first layer speed of between 15% and 30%. This will help to produce an excellent first layer, after which the following layers can simply be printed normally without any extra fuss. Additionally, when building bridges between various parts of the print, it’s important to go slow, allowing the Polycarbonate to harden as the cooling fan lightly blows on it. This will ensure strong bridges with little to no droop or sag, and overall beautiful results that are both aesthetically striking and strong.
  
  
• Polycarbonate Printing Tips – Fan Speed: Finally, the fan speed is the last important factor to consider for 3D Printing Polycarbonate, and is arguably the trickiest since many fans on hobbyist 3D Printers don’t offer real speed control. Typically, you want the fan to be off the first one or two layers, to allow the first layer to really sink in and settle, after which you want to turn the fan speed up to around 40% or so, and this should provide just enough cooling to harden the layers, but without being overbearing and causing cracking or brittleness in the finished print. However, as we mention, many fans can’t be controlled to such a degree, so consider just experimenting with whatever settings or hardware you have to try and accommodate for this if you can’t directly adjust the fan speed.

Here at DIYElectronics, we’ve had many years of experience in printing with Polycarbonate, and we hope that these top tips that we’ve gathered over the years does well in helping you get the best results and most enjoyment out of your Polycarbonate printing experience. Just remember that it is likely going to take some time to “dial in” your 3D Printer for this exotic filament, so it’s always a good idea to find as many resources and videos as you can before taking on this challenging but very rewarding polymer.

Shenzhen eSUN Industrial Co., Ltd was established in 2002 in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and has rapidly become one of the leading international suppliers of 3D Printing Filament. They specialise in research, development and production of degradable polymer materials, and have grown their catalogue of filaments to include PLA, ABS, PC, PVA, and a wide range of other polymers and copolymers.

Their list of exclusive filament formulas include unique materials like wood, aluminium, bronze and other materials to create highly specialised filaments that can stretch, bend, be moulded or otherwise behave in very unique ways. Their filaments are also commonly characterised by their absolutely round shape, extremely low diameter tolerance, uniform colours and impressively stable melting points. These characteristics, in combination with their long-term insistent policy of “Best Quality, Reasonable Price” has garnered them a large share of the market, with their reputation commonly preceding them within knowledgeable online and offline 3D Printing communities.

eSUN’s popularity in the industry has also helped to produce sustainable partnerships with many internationally famous 3D Printer manufacturers and distributors, with DIYElectronics having sole distributorship rights to provide their 3D Printing Filaments to South Africa and neighbouring African countries.