Containing 15% glass fibers, the company says PET-GF15 is a filament “built for strength, stability, and durability”.
The latest release from Polymaker adds to the company’s Fiberon line of technical materials and promises impressive performance across a range of rugged criteria.
Fiberon PET-GF15 starts at $32.99 for a regular 1kg spool, although introductory pricing appears to have it on offer at $28.04. It’s available in a variety of colors, and can be bought on larger 3kg spools, too.
Glass fiber composites typically offer similar boosts to mechanical strength and printability to carbon-fiber filled materials, making it a go-to low-cost alternative.
Printability is what Polymaker is pushing as the key to PET-GF15. Billed as a material to “bridge the gap between everyday usability and industrial performance”, you can use it in an AMS or other filament switching device without worrying about the filament snapping, making it effectively a drop-in replacement for regular PETG with the benefit of stiffness and stability at high temperatures. A nice bonus to glass-filled filaments like this is that the “rough” texture transfers to prints, hiding layer lines well.
The only printer requirement to reliably print it is a hardened nozzle, given the glass-fiber additive is abrasive and will wear out a standard brass nozzle after limited printing.
Polymaker gives a broad list of places where PET-GF15 could come in handy, including in automotive, and for industrial jigs, fixtures, prototyping. Specific examples include paddleboard fins, aquatic vehicle impeller housings and camera fixtures, although really, the sky is the limit for a material like this. It’s stiff, strong, and can be annealed for a boost to temperature resistance, taking it from ~80°C as printed to around ~130°C. You can find more details in the material data sheet (PDF), on the Polymaker website.
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