- TLDR at the bottom.

  • TLDR at the bottom. -
    I just read myself through the website of Capricorn, a manufacturer of “premium PTFE bowden tubing”. (https://www.captubes.com)
    After seeing the excitement from @Sanjay_Mortimer and @Thomas_Sanladerer (and many others around the internet) about this product, I expected to find some nice special bowden tubing.
    So, I looked up the “datasheet” published on their site (that isn’t really a datasheet) to figure out, if it is worth x10 the price of “common PTFE tubing” and if I could get some improvement with it.
    The only “real” thing, I found they do, is to make and sell a 1,9mm ID PTFE-Tube with 0,05mm tolerance. (This is not a special product, other manufacturers do the same diameters with the same tolerances, too). All the other things, like friction, the color and “secret additions”, are typical marketing bullshit. A quick comparison between theirs and the top5 google search results for “PTFE tube” let me found: It is just a common PTFE tube?!
    The other manufacturers I checked do list real data-sheets and tell more about their product than Capricorn. All their data provided matches the Capricorn data. Same weight, density, thermal conductivity and all the other stuff. It is the same.
    Is this the reason to write this post on G+? No. Let everyone sell what they want, claiming it to be what they want it to be.
    The reason I need to rant about Capricorn is their temperature-resistant-bullshit. I already found TWO websites reselling their PTFE-tubing, marketing it with false and dangerous abilities:
    A melting-point of 340°C that is provided by Capricorn is given as a reason to use their PTFE-tubing in hotends where the bowden reaches inside the heater block and touches the nozzle to print with filaments that need higher temps. But that is outright dangerous!
    Unlike Capricorn reinvented a 70-year-old and well-known plastic and does things no other big manufacturer of PTFE can do, PTFE has a safe working temperature range of -454 °F / -270 °C to 500 °F / 260 °C. It begins to soften at any higher temp. But well before their called 340°C, PTFE will begin to release fumes that are toxic. It is so serious, that there is even a sickness for this called “polymer fume fever”.
    So, please, Capricorn, put your facts straight. And tell your resellers how to read your provided info. And change the description of your product to prevent health issues of your clients. And I really hope that the YouTubers​ like @3D_Printing_Nerd , Angus or even @Thomas_Sanladerer don’t do a video about “the best PTFE tube EVER!” without making important things clear!
    TLDR: Marketing bullshit is all fun and games and no big deal. But health is no game.

Quick note, it was only E3D raving about it (albeit on stream on my channel). Haven’t played with it yet, though Capricorn have contacted me to provide samples.

@Thomas_Sanladerer ok, sry if I misinterpreted your point.

I looked at that as well a few days ago, bought normal PTFE. 1.9mm is 1.9mm, and PTFE is slippery enough, and less flexible seems worse in any case, and retracting tooth marks and a filament tip expanded from a tool change script, yeah no I need some leeway and very short bowdens to control the melt zone from the extruder.

I do not think running a super tight tubing will actually work for my setup. Some filaments I print seem tight even in 1.9mm without any teeth marks.

Focus of this post is on health - at least I tried to focus it.

i thought it relevant given I looked at the same information and though the price is not prohibitive I did not see a clear benefit. yes for different reasons I have a different opinion, so what? what is the problem? Was you post not to be commented upon?

Tim here, from Filastruder.

First, the performance. Every user I’ve heard from regarding Capricorn Tubing has stated it performed better than regular PTFE. Whether that is special or worth the price premium - that is up to the individual user.

On to safety - We make no claims about Capricorn tubing being more suitable for use in a printer’s hot-zone. I don’t know of Capricorn making that statement either, could you share? We do pass along melting point data, which Capricorn experimentally measured.

Generally the types of folks to spend more on high end PTFE ruling would be familiar with the off gassing of PTFE, but I certainly have no qualms including safety warnings. Our product page has been updated accordingly.

As an aside - if genuinely concerned about safety, why not contact the companies involved directly? I might not have seen this post, and I don’t know if Capricorn would have (though I have pointed them this way).

@Tim_Elmore The exact sites and postings I have in mind are lost in my extensive browser-history -.- I managed to find at least one posting in the lengthy feeds of social media that made me write this post:

Thanks for that. It looks like that is one reseller, not CapTubes. Would be great to take it up with them directly as I’m not sure they would have seen this post otherwise? Likely a reflection of that reseller’s limited technical understanding, not something malicious.
http://www.rjchase.com/ptfe_handbook.pdf

@Tim_Elmore That’s my post and was just linked to this. I took the info provided at face value. I removed the graphic referencing those temperatures.

in technical datasheet on capricorn website it says a melting point of 340°C. Why they would write that there when it was not true? Please explain, I want understand this.

@Mike_McBeath_Jr ​ thanks for trying to be a responsible reseller!

Well, standard PTFE melting point is 327°C. So not much difference there … and irrelevant data if you’re not interested in liquifying PTFE.

The data for regular opaque white PTFE seems misleading. https://www.captubes.com/specs.html

Then there’s this: https://www.captubes.com/safety.html

@Jeff_DeMaagd From where do they link to the safety-page? This is new…

Just above the “download data sheet” button on the tech specs page.

@Jeff_DeMaagd ?

Oh, there’s a second instance of those buttons at the bottom end of the page.