You cannot effectively dry filament out by storing it in an airtight container with desiccant. There are a few ways to dry out filament and keep it dry.įirst, it’s important to dispel a common myth. Nylon and PC can absorb enough water in 48 hours to ruin prints. Nylon, polycarbonate, and copolyester filaments are all very hygroscopic and susceptible to hydrolysis when printed in the presence of water. Since many of the common 3D printing materials are hygroscopic (readily absorb moisture from the air), we must take steps to both dry our filament and keep it dry. This means that we don’t have to worry once a part has been properly printed, but we do need to take steps to prevent hydrolysis when printing. They are, however, very susceptible to hydrolysis when heated to extrusion temperatures. Wet PETG is significantly more brittle than dry, and the interlayer adhesion is significantly reduced.įortunately, most of the filaments we print with aren’t very susceptible to hydrolysis at room temperature without the presence of an acid or a base. ![]() The texture is where air bubbles left voids. The wet cube is textured, with a satin-matte finish. It’s hard to tell in the picture, but the dry cube is glossy and has a consistent finish from top to bottom. It also leaves an undesirable surface finish.Īs you can see, there is a clear difference in surface finish and texture. This can break apart polymer chains (shortens them), weakening the material and creating voids in the strands of filament which weakens inter-layer adhesion. When you extrude filament that has absorbed water, the water in/on the material vaporizes and creates air bubbles. We’re not going to get into those details, but the material properties affected when hydrolysis occurs (they are changed anytime the polymer chain length is decreased or increased) are loss of tensile strength, change of clarity, etc. All sorts of complex chemistry occur when polymers hydrolyze. Hydrolysis is when a water molecule breaks a polymer chain. Polymer chains can degrade and be broken down -or depolymerize -and there are various ways that this happens. When monomers are joined together, it’s called polymerization. Now that we have a basic understanding of what a polymer is -a long chain of monomers -it’s time to talk about water and a process called hydrolysis. Hydrolysis - Sounds Fancy Is It Bad For My Filament?
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