I Tested PPA-CF Filament and It's INSANELY Strong!

[@dingolovethrob]

now THATs a comprehensive and thorough technical review. nice.

[@SuperfastMatt]

Sorry you didn't get to use your fire extinguisher, but excellent video nonetheless. I have a sheet of fire resistant polyiso foam that I throw on the top when I'm printing high-temp stuff. Same stuff I used to make my garden oven. I could make sheets for the front and sides as well, but that might be too insulating for the printer electronics. So far for me, it has been pretty easy to print my parts in a way that puts the big loads into the X and Y directions.

[@MrGadgetgav]

I'm here for the Clough / SuperfastMatt crossover!

[@MicahT-l7p]

Can anyone explain why Temps so signifantly higher than the boiling tempurature of water is allegedly needed or recommended to get the moisture out of this fancy pants filament? Regular nylon only calls for 187f and I only need to keep it at about 140f to print it once it is dried. Also though, I keep my nylon in metal ammo cans, wothout dessicant. I've pulled nylon filament out of the ammo can after months of sitting and into my beef Jerky capable dehydrator at 140f and it prints moisture free immediately.

[@Argosh]

​@@MicahT-l7pbecause you're not attempting to boil water (make the water molecules let go of other water molecules) but instead trying to make a hygroscopic molecule let go of water molecules.

[@MicahT-l7p]

@Argosh your answer lacks the depth I desire. My plain nylon filament doesn't require the Temps and blast furnace bambu claims is nessacary for their ppacf

[@Argosh]

@@MicahT-l7p Google it then. The Dipole interaction between water is not the same as the one between other materials.

[@georgemichalopoulos5169]

Isn't it amazing that we have reached the point we can produce industrial-strength components in our workshop? Yes, at a cost, but imagine the possibilities... Thanks James, great video as always!

[@jjjjrrr678]

Exciting times 😊

[@b3owu1f]

I cant wait to see better multi material multi head machines with even better filament options in the next few years. When we can start replacing aluminum and such with printed parts that will be as durable/strong.. that will be amazing.

[@slipspectrum9253]

3D printed parts or any material still don’t come close to injection molded strength, or machined metal. They work and are great for a lot of things, but don’t kid yourself.

[@georgemichalopoulos5169]

@@slipspectrum9253 That's true and it's likely we'll never reach that point. However for us hobbyists even getting to 70-80% there would be fantastic. For me printing stuff which will not shapeshift into something else when left in my car is exciting enough 😁

[@robertswainwright]

@@slipspectrum9253 Well dumb dumb, not everyone can go from design to testing to production injection molded parts in their basement in less than an hour. Your comment is about as relevant as saying "yeah but machined titanium would be stronger" (duh!)

[@MSdroneguy]

You are exactly what the dream of the internet once was. Superlative content! Well done sir.

[@johngriffin618]

I’ve gone through nearly 10 spools both at home and at work. I purchased the filament the day it was available and I had to do some tinkering with the flow rates to get parts dimensionally accurate, idk if they have an updated profile. I dried mine at my job which had a blast oven, but after seeing this I’ll stick to drying it in my home dryer. You have good data in this vid, thanks. Once I dialed in the flow rate to get dimensionality accurate parts, as good as fdm can do anyway, I’ve had amazing success with this filament. I’m very glad I bought a few extra spools when it was still $100.

[@Torrent.Amador]

What did you set the flow rate to?

[@robertsimmons9563]

Damn. This is an impressive review…. I can’t believe that this quality of content is freely available. Not just free but literally available at your fingertips whenever you want… seriously though this is incredible

[@gussie88bunny]

Agreed. These hectic engineering nerds and their epic 3D printing reviews are pure gold. I also find their no-nonsense STEM approach to video production values refreshing. No BS, just the numbers.

[@robertswainwright]

Been following @Clough42 for years, dude knows how to scratch my Engineering, Technology, Production itch.

[@AndrzejBrudniak]

So definitely you didn’t see My Tech Fun KZbin channel

[@DrDoohickie]

Whew! That was a lot of work! Thank you for your incredible effort and your rigorous approach! My heart broke when the PPA-CF rig broke but I got the warm and fuzzies when you put the error bars in.

[@Muz994]

For a filament like this, with the claimed use cases, I think it's very important to also check how much it suffers from creep. I already invested on other very strong engineering filaments (eg: PA12-CF - 100€/0.5KG) only to discover that the parts printed with those materials get loose only a few hours after being bolted down. You can design stuff keeping in mind this limitation, but it's still a very crucial characteristic of the material that isn't really measured and reported on the datasheets.

[@zachary3777]

That's why I am trying the PET-CF. It's supposed to creep a lot less than the nylons.

[@Muz994]

@@zachary3777 yup, I replaced nylon with PET-CF

[@saddlepiggy]

For plastics that have been around for a while, there are papers that cover creep. Unfortunately it varies massively with varying temperature and load.

[@smorris12]

Overall design needs to be looked at, not just material. I designed a servo and gearbox arrangement to be bolted to a piece of industrial gear this year. The mounting plate was printed in PLA but I designed the mounting holes to take press fit machined brass sleeves that I whipped up on the lathe. These stop the backplate distorting under the clamp while the plastic can happily take the other forces. I pinched the idea from injection moulded parts (engine sensors etc) and it works well here.

[@Muz994]

@@smorris12 Yes, but you need to know the material's properties in order to take them into account

[@karenauntipode2684]

Disciplined. Methodical. Enlightening. Excellent!

[@freckhard]

Very great video again James! You are my main go to source for scientific 3D printing and machining videos, infact you are the reason I got into this hobby buying the X1C after your review. People, if you buy Bambu filaments, use the affiliate links in this videos description, I bookmarked it!

[@giliant]

This is the best performance analysis i have seen of any filament and i got so much useful information, thank you! I would love to see the same tests repeated on the annealed parts after they have absorbed ambient moisture after a few weeks (or even just a few days)

[@KevinMullett]

Um, thank you! I don't know if I will ever have the need but I'm here for this level of thoroughness.

[@peterdickinson1936]

Certified Good Enough! Thanks for your awesome work James.

[@Neudezign]

This is some great data, appreciate you taking the time to do all this.

[@JamieFord-j3z]

Very well put together video. Love the thorough testing methodology and the thoughtful approach. Subscribed.

[@RotarySMP]

Excellent analysis. Thanks James.

[@GeoffTV2]

Hey, hey, hey it's Mr SMP. You follow Clough42 too? Got money to burn on a really pricey filament? 🙂 - Heather

[@TheOneAndOnlySatan]

Finally a comprehensive deep dive in this filament instead of a sale add review. Thank you for providing info that actually informs and helps understanding this filament.

[@WilsonSilverthorne]

Great analysis and appreciate your time sharing with us. I've been using this material for photographic strobes cages that i attach a theatric gel. I needed very high temp resistant and this works well....not 100% modelling lamp for hours well, but gets the critical part of the aiming done and then the swap between color gels are a breeze. I will double check my fans --- my guess I'm running them as well. I've hit 170C cyclic and it stays stable. Thanks again.

[@matthiashilber2043]

Danke!

[@timothicus]

Awesome work, I bought a bunch of spools for my business when they ran the release sale, and have been planning some testing of my own. I really appreciate your documenting this the way you did and have subscribed to your site. Excellent attention to detail!

[@Kevster270]

Proper engineering approach - one variable change at a time, then do everything again. Love to see it!

[@proaudiorestore8926]

Thank you! That’s was 2 weeks well worth spent to educate those that either can’t or just too lazy to do it themselves! 2 things I’m impressed by. 1.) that a little P1S will be able to print that and 2.) that Bambu Labs specs were bang on!

[@MattManuel]

Great video. Thanks for taking the time to experiment and share the results.

[@airheadbit1984]

WOW: Off the charts review, I hope I never need that filament but if I do have to use PPA-CF I'll save money and time thanks to your remarkably detailed review.

[@salenzar]

Fantastic content. Appreciate the actual statistical analysis!

[@chrisw1462]

Always enjoy your videos. Straight to the point, plenty of info without going off the deep end. Thanks for yet another one, and on a very interesting topic!

[@darthtater]

Great video. Your printer looks very cozy in the blanket.

[@mgene63]

This is great. Thank you for your efforts and sharing with all of us

[@Le_Sixx]

THANK YOU FOR THE QUALITY OF THE REVIEW. I can use your review for my engineering choices!

[@JoeMalovich]

Your sacrifice is appreciated!

[@sevenliterbronco]

In the injection molding industry, it is common to rehydrate the parts after molding to increase strength with nylon. They are typically placed in a bag with water sprayed in.

[@theglowcloud2215]

So, once nylon is printed and placed outside or in a high humidity environment, should I worry about compromising its material properties?

[@sevenliterbronco]

@theglowcloud2215 No need to worry. The nylon will rehydrate in open air, and yield and tensile strength increases. However, before molding, the pellets are dried to at least 0.2%. Placing the components in a bag with water ensures the customer gets parts at optimal strength and moisture at equilibrium, around 2-3%.

[@ferrumignis]

​@@sevenliterbroncoThat's really interesting, I'd naively have expected that the expansion from moisture absorbance would create higher internal stress and weaken the parts. Is the mechanism for this strength increase understood?

[@oyuyuy]

This isn't quite like Nylon though, there's very little difference between wet and dry state

[@joeshmoe7967]

Wow, talk about thorough! I will never be using this. I don't own a 3D printer, but I do like technical stuff, and the method of presentation was excellent

[@rpiian]

Wow. Doing the lords work here. Thank you for doing these tests!

[@designxtek]

One of the best in-depth reviews on filaments I have seen

[@G-performance1967]

what a complete test ! thank you very much for your time and effort

[@MrSneakyGunz]

I absolutely love your style! As always, keep up the good work Sir.

[@Bidmores]

Excellent video, thank you. If you place an extension on your vice handle you can gain significant control.

[@holgerlauer]

once again a perfect video and test ... better than some laboratories Many thanks for sharing your experiences

[@CCCfeinman55]

Well, I will never use that material. It was fascinating learning about its capabilities and limitations, and the requirements for making great prints with it. As always, James, you delight. And thank you for sharing yet. Another innovation with us.

[@heliborn]

Amazing video. Exactly what I was looking for with an excellent presentation at that. Keep up the good work. If to add anything to this, you may want to try some of the heated chamber modifications to your X1C. My next step is doing this with my P1S after all the other mods you noted area already done ( slightly differently though as I am using heat wrap from automotive inside instead of a blanket on the outside.)

[@conorstewart2214]

I’ve been waiting to see some reviews of this filament, it seems like a massive step up from all other consumer filaments. Based on what I could find online it has higher tensile strength than some grades of aluminium, it would be interesting if you could test those to see. The stiffness is much higher than most other filaments but still falls way short of aluminium though.

[@hollo9571]

Love this video. For once it's not something I think I'm ever going to use (just can't see my personal use case, and would go to something machined if I needed that level of strength), but the application of stats to the strengths, and the description of how to fiddle with some of the lesser used 3d printer settings based on microscope images of the failed part were just great.

[@neurojitsu]

Wow, that's thorough testing - brilliant. And I feel welcome.

[@mikenorfleet2235]

Thank you so much for doing this hard and very nerdy work that us engineers love this stuff here on youtube. I recently purchsed my own X1C for the garage and love to hear about the various things I can make with it with specialty filaments. At some point from an engineering perspective, it might be easier to spec out machining out metal and call it a day. 150 bucks a spool is hard to stomach. I guess I have put off buying a small lathe and mill for the shop, I can keep going down the 3d printing hobby....support your local makerspaces if you don't have the tools.

[@oliverdrathuos3409]

Thank you for the effort you put in on this testing! I’d kinda love to see the values of you went overboard. And did the flow a little high… like you did. But with the fans off, and at half speed. To really increase that layer adhesion. That seems to be its weakness both looking at the test jaws that broke. But also every sample you showed us printed in Z axis.

[@SomewhatAbnormal]

Great work. Now I just need to figure out what I’d need this filament for. I’ve found that Bambi’s PETG HF covers about 99% of my needs lately.

[@dumbluck0629]

This was the most relaxing video on printing I’ve ever watched thank you

[@mikebergman1817]

This is the most helpful video regarding this filament. Thank you so much!!!

[@JohanDegraeveAanscharius]

Nice, only usefull for small parts, bigger parts than an hour (or even less) to print, will heatup the printhead due to creep, and block (the gears get hot). So, print one part at a time. you can add a T on the bowden tube at the back, let the filament run through, drill a 2 mm hole there where the bowden goes in the head, add compressed air, should prevent a lot of creep heat, and keep the gears cold.

[@albertohart5334]

Excellently made video good content, contacts, editing etc

[@CyArch97]

Epic review; definitely worth while to spend the $100+ now that you provided such a thorough review. Thank-you!

[@rogerfroud300]

Many thanks for doing this, it's sure to come in really useful. I'm using PETG for soft tooling when machining really awkward metal parts. This could take that to a whole new level.

[@drhender6943]

Awesome work and awesome filament! I wonder what the x/y strength would be with a properly heated chamber and all of the other little tweaks that finally brought the z axis prints to full strength. Thanks again for the rigor of your tests and for taking the time to share them with us!!

[@joebusfield446]

I get more and more impressed with how intelligent you are, thanks James!

[@wesleygegg5821]

I would be interested to know if you bagged some of these parts and added just a bit of water to the bag if the tensile strength would go up? Years ago I was involved with injection molding some glass filled levers for a mower. After drying the material and molding we would weight test them and they would snap. After bagging with a bit of water and letting them absorb moisture they would just flex a bit and not snap. Here is a little snippet from a material supplier. Nylon resins absorb moisture from the air. The properties of nylon moldings are directly affected by the amount of moisture they contain. Moisture acts as a plasticizer in nylon and therefore reduces strength and stiffness properties but increases elongation and toughness. In general, as moisture content rises, significant increases occur in impact strength and other energy absorbing characteristics of the material.

[@oljobo]

Just a pleasure to watch and listen 🥰

[@noobling8313]

Heroic effort, thank you. Fantastic to know that if I ever need it, it's just a click away.

[@phil9043]

Great work. Love the stats! I think your methodology is always spot on and I appreciate your attention to detail. Great work as always!

[@melgross]

That’s what I like about what you do. You are very thorough. I appreciate that. I find that every variable needs to be accounted for. I suppose it’s my scientific background as it is with yours.

[@flemminglarsen3746]

Awesome review. Exactly as it should be. Thanks!

[@BrianFischer-p8k]

first time watch. and I am a fan. Will be watching a good chunk of your videos. Thanks

[@ryankim3612]

Thank you for the hard work on this!

[@i.parafin]

such a good explanation step by step. Great job here!

[@MakerShed3D]

Very informative video - I haven't checked your other videos yet, but if you ever print a functional part with this material, it would be great to see how that turns out.

[@murilobarroso-w6r]

Thanks for the amazing work.

[@jksjrgfpsjgr]

maybe a hilbert curve infill pattern would be better for z strength, as it mushes the plastic back and forth? looking forward to your PPS-CF video!

[@awildridehome9469]

Seeing testing of Siraya Techs PAHT-CF Core, where the inside is filled 25% CF filament, while the outside is nearly pure nylon, would be awesome! I can imagine the Z strength going way, way up when you don't have the fibers reducing it so much.

[@lexingram8622]

Will be using this for prototyping my robots at work. Thank you!

[@marienngouabi4405]

One of the things about bambu filament is that when you use it right out of the package it just print perfect. Way better than many other filaments that I use and that I definitely have to dry from time to time. So yes it’s more expensive than others but the quality and the security of success of your print worth it

[@KnowArt]

ohhh spicy. I don't think I'll ever need this and if I do, it's probably in 5 years when new materials even more fancy have entered the market, but.. for the off chance, it's nice to know this exists.

[@J11P338E]

Thank you for testing.

[@Tyrasify]

Excellent testing process development - it îs nothing I can comment, thanks for information. I want to share how to get a nice 60C in the print chamber - add a led ring light over the top glass and the ams over it - you can find a few mountings on MW. This led ring light turns quite hot and you get and a free room heater.

[@clytle374]

Thank you, subscribed. Looks like PPA-CF solves a major design challenge I have. :)

[@Dr_Kenneth_Noisewater]

Fantastic testing info. Nerd cred for sure! I bought a spool of this before they discontinue it for some reason or sell out. I have no particular reason to think they will…just saying. I have no use case for it at the moment, but now I’ll be hunting for one.

[@strangestuff1213]

Very Nice - filament test vid's can be boring - this was superbly done.

[@HoffmanTactical]

Very interesting. Good work.

[@zacktaylor253]

Time to do some testing... surely monumental for Orca and FTN development!

[@HoffmanTactical]

@@zacktaylor253 I'm waiting on Bambu stock, but did just get a roll of the Siraya PPA-CF.

[@zacktaylor253]

Sweet, would love to see some comparisons. Looks like it’s in stock now and a few dollars off on bambu website.

[@HoffmanTactical]

@@zacktaylor253 Ordered some ;)

[@JustCuzRobotics]

9:50 I have two of the same Cyclopes driers and I have stuck a thermocouple in them to check and they actually do get the air inside above 70, as high as 75C even. Whether the filament gets that hot winter middle tho who knows.

[@erickalfredobosquezhuerta3056]

for insulating an X1C id do polyiso foam with a c oouple blankets, and reflective mylar blankets as well, i have hit 70C before, youd also have to preheat to get a consistent chamber temp. i do a lot of PA and ABS and ive found also just sticking a lot of them in a tiny closet helps lol

[@wileecoyoti]

Really great job on such as technical review!!

[@Cyberdactyl]

Impressive review. I just wish my ancient Creality CR-10 could achieve those bed and nozzle temps. I think I could find a banket.

[@jameskiely5518]

Awesome job keeping short and simple... would have liked to see the comparison to the other engineering filaments..IE nylon CF

[@tylerarrigoni7700]

Great content! Nicely done!

[@802Garage]

Awesome testing and a great insight into what people actually have to do to tune an advanced filament for maximum strength. I wonder if a simple change like slightly higher line width would also add strength. Good to know the annealing isn't super necessary to still get good results. A printer like the Qidi Plus4 is perfect for this stuff. I'm trying some glass fiber polypropylene right now and I suspect some of the tricks to get the best results are similar, though not as dramatic. The heat deflection temp is also in the 140C range on this stuff though which is wild. Keep up the great work!

[@tdplayert]

awesome and thorough review! Thanks!

[@jostafew]

Holy geez that was well done, subscribed!

[@apaskiewicz]

Amazing video. Thanks for you research and experiments.

[@brucejohnson1264]

A simple piece of foam on the top glass really boosts the chamber temperature, which is great to combat warping of things like ASA and ABS.

[@jamesolander-zs3uy]

In reply to your many “your welcomes”, I am extremely thankful! You saved a whole lot of pulling hair out.

[@stevecrabb1]

Would be interesting to see the comparison deflection results for a beam in bending. It could be 20mm wide x 5 mm deep clamped in a clamping thing with a known weight hanging off it. It could also be a simple I beam. Good work and thank you.

[@Grimm0ne]

It would be interesting to see if alternating an extra wall would help the z at all. I think Bambu slicer did away with it, but others still have it. It more or less creates a zipper between the walls and infill where every other layer has an extra wall squishing the infill between layers.

[@richardbennett6053]

Brilliant as always

[@kylmsn]

I pre ordered a roll when the released it at a discounted price. Didn’t go anywhere near the lengths you have and basically printed with their presets. I printed a few parts for my motorcycle with it and they all printed great. Like you mentioned, VERY rigid.

[@TradeWorksLLC]

Thanks for sharing your hard earned experience and vast amount of knowledge. It really is such an amazing time where the free exchange of knowledge, ideas, independent verification and testing can all be shared and witnessed as fully edited videos that are actually as entertaining to watch as professionally produced content by a studio. It’s no small task to film and edit and I can totally understand why many would choose to forego the extra work doing so when there is generally not a substantial payoff for the time spent doing so. So i tip my hat in respect to you James and many other creators alike who strive to produce something engaging.

[@nand4011]

Could you cnc a test specimen out of aluminum? It would be interesting to see how these engineering plastics compare.

[@Spectrum184]

His test setup isn't strong enough for that

[@creamofbotulismsoup9900]

The properties of metals like aluminum are well understood, I don't think it would be worth his time. That said this stuff has almost double the tensile strength of pure aluminum, at least in the XY direction, which is pretty crazy.

[@stefanobertelli2650]

@@creamofbotulismsoup9900 I think it really depends on which aluminum alloy you use and what heat treatment you apply to the alloy. 70xx alloys can be quite strong!

[@creamofbotulismsoup9900]

@@stefanobertelli2650 Hence the reason that I said "pure" aluminum.

[@stefanobertelli2650]

@@creamofbotulismsoup9900 Knowing James, he'd use A2 tool steel and heat treat it with a kiln controlled with a board designed by him. Another project :)

[@PeterOhlmus]

Wow, fascinating deep dive! Thankyou.

[@dacharyzoo]

I really appreciate your rigor and determination! Thanks for getting the answers for us!

[@raymondmcgreal2635]

Thank you. Fantastic review and information

[@olligesd9343]

PPA-CF should never go in the AMS. Good way to destroy the gears in your AMS. The reason the spool wasn't giving you info, is b/c is a cardboard roll that's not supposed to be used in the AMS, and can be put in an oven safely. (see you figured that out, lol) I dry mine out in my kitchen oven on top rack set to Bake 250F for two hours, the print quality is so much better then. Good to hear your data concerning chamber heat, annealing and profile mods, I will surely try them out when I need to use it again.

[@capinoy123]

Thank you for this! Very professional.

[@captivenut4122]

Enjoyed the video, but now I have a couple of questions: first I was wondering if scale matters in this kind of tests. Yes, measuring pressure and not absolute force should, in theory, ensure linearity in the results, but does this apply in the case of 3d printing, where the width of every single extrusion remains constant? Also it'd be very nice to know how the material compares in terms of brittleness to, let's say ABS, which is considered to be a good preforming filament in this category. Looking forward to some more testing, maybe of that other crazy stuff, the PPS-CF. Too many questions from someone who's never going to be printing any of these wild materials, I know.😊