Does this ASA seem right to you?
I just bought a single 1KG roll of a filament by a company called Prinsfil that was advertised as being ASA. I'm fairly new to printing ASA, but I'm not entirely convinced what I've been sent is legit ASA as opposed to a composite mix etc. The Prinsfil box the roll came in only mentions PLA and PETG on its reverse and the roll suggests print temps are between 210-240. I expected it to be 250-270 or similar.
I just assumed the temps on the label (see attached pic) were incorrect and the manufacturer probably used a template of a PLA label and forgot to change the temps etc. I didn't want to block the hot end so I didn't start experimenting as low as 210 degrees C! I've printed with the roll using a 0.4mm brass nozzle at 0.2mm line height as low as 232 degrees C and as high as 245, and both temps supplied decent results (a little more stringing on the hotter temp but otherwise pretty much the same). I'm fairly happy with the finish quality of the filament as it was fairly inexpensive at £18/$25, but I'm not happy to use it for printed items subjected to higher temps - such as fan shrouds - if it prints ok at PETG level temperatures.
Also, the product's no longer available as the item listing has vanished from Amazon, and Prinsfil only seem to sell PLA and PETG. All seems a little off.
What do you recon? Could it be true ASA if it prints fine at 232 degrees C (and potentially lower) or do the low print temps ring alarm bells for you?
RE: Does this ASA seem right to you?
Does it really matter what its actually called if it cant handle higher temps ? Print something and then heat it up and see when it starts to deform.
Form your description it does sound very dodgy. If you bought it for printing more temperature resistant items and it cant then its useless for the job. Best to test that assumption first on a test item before using it for real.
RE: Does this ASA seem right to you?
Thanks, yes that seems the logical option. I’d thought I could unload the printer of filament and then manually increase the nozzle temps from, say, 190 degrees C whilst touching the filament to the brass to see where the filament’s melting point is. Not very scientific, but easy and fairly quick and, if I could find out the melting point temp for a quality ASA like Prusament I'd have something to compare to.
Heating up a pre-printed item to an increasing and accurate temperature whilst checking for noticeable deformation seems less straight forward. I don’t believe I have a suitable heating vessel (my home oven isn’t suitable for e.g.) and even if I were able to record useful results I wouldn’t know how they compared to high quality ASA like Prusament (without buying some and performing the tests again - which is likely more time consuming than it’s worth).
On a side note, this has made me wonder as to why I've heard so many reports of fan shrouds warping (fortunately, none of mine ever have). If the heat bed doesn’t generally pass 110 and the nozzle is far enough away from the fan shroud then wouldn’t it suggest the potential heat shouldn’t reach temps capable of melting it? From what I’ve heard, composite materials with an extremely high melting point have a print temp of 285 degrees C, so (ignorantly assuming deformation of quality ASA starts somewhere between 225 to 245 degrees C) the combined heat created by the bed and the nozzle would have to achieve air temperatures surrounding the fan shroud that just seems unlikely to reach for the majority of Prusa owners that use PLA/PET/ABS etc. But I’m obvs going out on a limb with that statement as I’ve clearly never tested the assumption and my only experience are my own Prusa printers. Anyway, just got me thinking.
Thanks again.