Anyone tried using nylon as an infill material with ABS shell/perimeter? I’m wondering how this might effect the strength of a part… My theory is that the nylon could improve a parts resistance to delamitation, although nylon’s flexibility (when used as an Infill) might exacerbate it rather than reduce it. Cursory googling has not provided much information.
Technically, you’d create something similar in concept to foam-core - The nylon Infill won’t add much to the strength or rigidity of the part since it’s always the hull that is under the highest stresses with torsional loads (which make up the largest part of real-life stresses). You might gain some impact resistance compared to a pure ABS part, at the expense of stiffness.
ABS layer adhesion depends greatly on the exact blend used. The Orbi-Tech I had was tolerable, the Chinese filament less so, but the Polylac is giving me enormous inter-layer adhesion at higher temperatures (at which the ready-made filament would only get brittle).
Also, does ABS bond to Nylon?
I agree with @Thomas_Sanladerer and suggest portion nylon on the perimeter as the bond strength is superior. The only downside to nylon wrt abs is dimensional stability and glass transition temp. Nylon has a tendency to warp in humid environment, so perhaps infilling nylon with ABS. Don’t think they’ll bond though. It’d be coo if there were abs/PC blends, so you could do PC perimeters and blended infill at lower price and temp
@Thomas_Sanladerer Not sure about ABS nylon bonding - I should have an opportunity to test this directly in the near future (Once the Kraken arrives). Even if they don’t bond I have some thoughts on how you could achieve a mechanical bond (rather than Chemical/thermal) eg. overlapping saw toothed internal perimeters between the infill and the shell.
I’m also really interested in a concept whereby you alternate materials in infil layers to produce a composite latice - perhaps with an offset for each material so there is enough sag/droop for alternating layers to bond to the same material 2 layers below.
Of course both of those ideas require slicer meddling I don’t have time for…
That sounds pretty interesting. What if you alternated infill materials as you stated, but over extruded every few, so that the material oozes around the previous layer…
ah, derp. Got it the second time reading. Guess I was inspired enough by my misunderstanding of your idea, to reiterate… your idea