Best Practice

BigRep PRO HT vs ABS

FROM CONCEPT TO FUNCTIONAL PARTS

When it comes to printing large, affordable parts for concept modeling and basic functional testing, PLA is the most common material used to achieve a good result. PLA has a low-cost entry point and is easy to handle on any FDM 3D printer. But what happens when there is a need to print large functional parts with a material that has much better temperature and impact resistance properties? For this purpose, ABS would be a good choice for many closed platform printers. BigRep offers another option at a price from €52.50/kg, its high-performance PRO HT filament, which is suitable for open machines. PRO HT has various advantages over ABS which make it a candidate for closed-platform environments too.

BIGREP PRO HT

With 3D printers that have an open or otherwise unheated build chamber, low printing temperature is the limiting factor when it comes to producing heat-resistant prints. PRO HT was developed by BigRep and our filament producers to answer the need to produce large parts with improved mechanical properties for functional testing on such machines. PRO HT is composed of 100% renewable and naturally pure raw materials, is CO2 neutral, and exhibits excellent adhesion to the print bed.

Key Points - BigRep PRO HT

  • • Meets all requirements of European regulation for food contact
  • • Extrudes very well between 195°C and 205°C
  • • Has very low “warping effect”
  • • Withstands temperatures of up to 115°C
  • • Is compatible with BigRep’s Power Extruder with 0.6, 1 and 2 mm nozzles
  • • Produces no smell issues during extrusion
  • • Price from €52.50/kg

PRO HT vs ABS

Since it’s considered as an ABS alternative, one should ask about the differences between these two materials. Before we compare their performance, it’s important to mention a significant difference in their make-up: PRO HT is a Biopolymer while ABS is an oil-based plastic, making PRO HT in a basic sense more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Turning then to performance: PRO HT and ABS share similar tensile and flexural strength characteristics; in terms of impact strength, ABS shows good results, but PRO HT is much stronger still; finally, PRO HT can withstand a 15°C higher temperature than ABS.

bike design printed with bigrep pro ht 3d printing filament

A separate, important difference is in surface quality. PRO HT has a matt finish which is an increasingly valued property in the added manufacturing industry, while ABS has a gloss surface finish. Overall then, for open platform printers for which ABS is not usable PRO HT represents an excellent alternative to it. For closed platform machines PRO HT’s better impact strength and environmental credentials, greater temperature resistance, and matt finish will make it more desirable for many applications.

Learn About BigRep 3D Printers

Key Characteristics of BigRep PRO HT, BigRep PLA and ABS

Characteristic PRO HT PLA ABS
Temperature Resistance (VST) 115°C 60°C 100°C
Material BioPolymer BioPolymer Oil-based
Tensile Strength 44 MPa 60 MPa 44 MPa
Impact Strength 216 KJ/m2 7.5 KJ/m2 58 KJ/m2
Flexural Modulus 2600 MPa 3800 MPa 2030 MPa
Density 1.3 g/cm3 1.24 g/cm3 1.1 g/cm3
Finish Matt A range: from Matt to Gloss Gloss
Price/kg From €52.50 From €28.12 N/A for BigRep machines

Summary

BigRep PRO HT seems to be the perfect, cost-effective solution for printing large parts with high performance characteristics on an open platform machine. It may also often be the optimal material to carry out similar tasks on closed platform machines as well. It has great environmental features, a great matt finish available in several colorways, and is easy to print with on the BigRep ONE and BigRep STUDIO 3D printers, as well as many others.

Gil-Lavi-115x115

With over 22 years in the printing industry, Gil Lavi is a Sr. 3D-Printing Specialist with vast experience in implementing diverse 3D-printing technologies in design and manufacturing processes.

Connect with Gil on Linkedin HERE.

Stick by your print bed

One key challenge presented by 3D printing, especially if there is a small area of contact for a large print, is detachment from the print bed. Add to that the fact that each material requires different printing conditions. So, even on a large 3D printer like the BigRep ONE, which works equally well for all materials, our printing experts were always on the hunt for a first-layer adhesive solution that was solvent-free and environmentally friendly, not to mention easy to work with.

BigRep and R&D startup Thought3D (based in Valletta, Malta) recently announced a cooperation to bring a first-layer adhesive to large-scale build area FFF industrial 3D printers. So, we’re pleased to introduce Magigoo – a glue stick that increases printing reliability and maintenance convenience.

magigoo-2-web

Learn About BigRep 3D Printers

 

What began as a meeting and casual chat between some BigRep and Thought3D staff at IDTechEx in May, ended up in a cooperation to refine the Thought3D product and make it available for testing on large-scale prints at the BigRep Berlin office. Crucial to BigRep in using the adhesive has been the fact that it sticks and holds fast to the object when the print bed is hot, and releases when the print bed is cold.

“BigRep customers expect high-quality end products," said Moshe Aknin, Chief Technology Officer at BigRep. “Magigoo is a reliable product that helps our dependable workhorse printers to achieve great large-scale results.”

In one particular instance, BigRep was printing a section of its creative team’s bionic propeller design on The ONE printer. Given the propeller model’s area of contact was rather small, the BigRep team needed Magigoo on the print bed to aid in printing the large part’s challenging geometry. Moreover, the object’s overhangs and sharp details could have led to object detachment, but with the Magigoo adhesive, BigRep was able to successfully print several sections of the model for prototyping.

magigoo-3-web

“We enjoyed working with BigRep to extend our product range for large format 3D printers and we are glad to provide a product that meets the high demands of industrial clients,” said Dr Keith M Azzopardi, Co-Founder and R&D Lead at Thought3D. “We hope to continue this collaboration with BigRep. Magigoo’s development road map is underway. We are expanding our product portfolio to include an even wider spectrum of smart adhesives targeting engineering materials.”

You can read more about the Magigoo’s glue stick on their website, or on 3Dprint.com and 3D Printing Media Network, where the announcement was also covered.

BigRep Releases Long-Awaited Large-Format Plastic

Fabbaloo

BigRep has solved a major barrier to large-format 3D printing in a very ingenious way.

The problem being solved is warped prints.

Wait a moment, you say, “hasn’t that already been solved”.

Well, yes, it has - but only for smaller machines. Smaller desktop units would typically employ a heated print surface that keeps the temperature of the first layer of plastic just at the point where it won’t warp. Too high and it would deform, too low and it would contract due to cooling and a warp would develop.

Warping is an insidious problem because it not only deforms the object’s shape, it can also cause the print to fail entirely if the print becomes loose from the print bed. I hate warping!

But it’s a property of the majority of plastics used in 3D printing. When heated, they slightly expand. When cooled, they slightly shrink. And you need it hot during printing and cool to use the object. It’s unsolvable, or so it would seem.

Major players in the industry overcome the problem by simply heating their build chambers. Stratasys, for example, tends to keep their printers at around 70C internally during printing. When the print completes, the plastic simply cools uniformly in all directions, preventing warp.

But open-format large-scale 3D printers such as BigRep’s ONE are more affected by this problem than smaller machines, simply because larger prints offer more warp opportunity: shrinks are amplified over the longer axes of the model.

Keep reading… (on fabbaloo.com)

 

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