PCCF vs PETG in vase mode
Hi all,
Would Prusament PCCF be stronger than PETG for an RC sailboat hull printed in vase mode?
I have been successfully using Prusament PETG to print RC Sailboat hulls. The boats are 65 cm long and the hull is printed in four parts, where each section is printed vertically in vase mode. My Mk3s has been rock solid in making my boat light, competitive, and easy to fix - where most of my competitors are using hulls made from carbon fiber that cost considerably more than my printed hulls, and are clearly impossible to simply ‘reprint’, let alone iterate on the design as I wish… 😉
However, I recently dropped my boat and the hull cracked… so I would like to consider my options:
- add more ribs to the design to make it stronger (but also heavier)
- use a stronger filament ( like PC Carbon Fiber)
- etc.
Happy to hear if anyone has even tried to print PCCF in vase mode. Also, would annealing be a good idea? Keep in mind that the hull doesn’t have to be millimeter precise in it’s measurements, so some shrinkage is tollerable. However, by design, the boats are in the hot sun, so temp resistance is crucial.
thanks in advance.
Sealant
You also could add a layer of coating, expoxy or something similar that is safe with the filament-type used, for a coushing from the outside.
Prusa Mini+ kit. BondTech extruder. FW 5.1.2
Prusa MK3S+ kit. Stock. FW 3.11.0
Prusa MK3S+, used. Stock. FW 3.13.3
I have printed PC Blend but not PCCF so I can't comment from experience on your issue. The question I would raise though is, how often do you print new hulls, and how often do you break them? Where I'm coming from is a pragmatic viewpoint: You have a process that clearly works for you. Sounds like you've printed many hulls and broke one. Is that enough to warrant a process change? If PCCF prints anything like PC Blend, it's a whole different ballgame than PETG. For something that size I think shrinkage will become a major issue, and not just a few mm. Now, if you're printing hulls at a large scale and encounter breakage problems frequently, this may very well justify developing a whole new production process. Otherwise, I'd be tempted to stick with the tried and true.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
Anyone try a CF reinforced filament in vase mode?
Hi again,
I am on my third print of a sailboat hull and yes, petg in vase mode works well - so I can just stay the course …
However, I am still very curious if anyone has tried PC Blend CF in vase mode… does it work? is it strong? etc… or any other CF reinforced filament for that matter.
Prusa advertising makes the new PCCF blend sound stronger than Petg, but not sure if that applies to vase mode prints.
Happy to hear if any one has tried.
RE: PCCF vs PETG in vase mode
You need to unpack the filament recipe to understand what's going on:
advertising makes the new PCCF blend sound stronger than Petg
The PC, polycarbonate part is the matrix that must stick together, it's similar to PETG in many respects except that it's tensile strength is greater and it is less likely to deform under load.
https://help.prusa3d.com/en/materials
The CF, carbon fibre part adds stiffness and, if you align the lay of the fibres along the most important force vectors, tensile strength. Vase mode always lays the fibres circumferentially.
BUT
The CF makes no difference to interlayer adhesion...
and vase mode tends to fail with interlayer splits.
Are these displacement hulls? Planing? or hydrofoil?
A little extra weight won't hurt displacement and it will tend to help carry her way into a tack. A planing hull will benefit from extra longditudinal stiffness. In both cases I would try adding some, separately printed and glued in place, stringers - not ribs, to redistribute hogging stresses. These could be as little as 5mm x 2 layers yet still be very useful.
Cheerio,