RE: The death of PLA, Long live the King
@artur5 - Be aware that TPU *is* a TPE (like a chicken is a bird) so make a note of which elastomer you have or you may get a nasty surprise when you try to buy more.
Cheerio,
RE: The death of PLA, Long live the King
@artur5 - Be aware that TPU *is* a TPE (like a chicken is a bird) so make a note of which elastomer you have or you may get a nasty surprise when you try to buy more.
Cheerio,
I think part of the confusion is that vendors often use "TPE" for the softer variants (like 80A) and "TPU" for the harder ones (like 95A 64D etc). So TPU 64D is still a TPE.
RE: The death of PLA, Long live the King
TPU is based on polyurethane, while TPE is a polyolefinic elastomer. Not the same by any means. Both are clearly differentiated by serious manufacturers as Fillamentum. These filaments have totally opposite properties concerning bed adhesion and moisture sensitivity, TPU adheres too well to PEI and needs to be printed with a release agent, specially on a smooth plate. With TPE it's the contrary, to get good adhesion either you use Magigoo PP or a PP dedicated plate. Printing TPE on PEI surfaces requires bed temperatures above 75-80C, glue, a smooth plate and a bit of luck.
As we all know, TPU is very sensitive to moisture and it's a pain to dry well. TPE is almost as hydrophobe as PP. No oozing, no stringing, much cleaner prints than TPU.
RE:
TPU is a TPE (thermoplastic elastomer). TPE is a broad category of polymers that are elastic in nature. What Fillamentum are calling "TPE" is specifically a polyolefin TPE, and their TPU is a polyurethane based TPE. The differences in that chemistry are the reason for those differences you outlined and not that "TPU is not a TPE." So it comes down to how some vendors are using terminology. Same with the Nylons where PAHT and PPA seem to get intermixed a lot even though they can have very different chemistries.
RE: The death of PLA, Long live the King
You're right if you consider that the term TPE applies to any thermoplastic elastomer. In fact, to any flexible filament. In this way, PEBA and flexible PLA are also TPE.