3DxTech CF-ASA (After 20 Days of UV) | Filament Strength Test 

I print with a ton of CF filaments so I should be able to give some input on this. The type of carbon fiber used is very important as a common misconception I see when I talk about CF filaments is that “they’re all brittle & got have terrible layer adhesion so it’s a gimmick” when in fact the likelihood of the manufacturer using CF powder or finely chopped carbon fiber is higher among “cheaper” CF filaments such as those under $100/Kilo. Filaments which use more refined & longer stranded carbon fiber will result in the filament not only being incredibly stiffer such as the case with HTN-CF25 which is stiff enough to be a mild aluminum alternative. But one of the bigger benefits of carbon fiber is it reduces the behavior stringy or ooze happy filaments such as PETG significantly which allows for easier printing & better print quality. The increased in stiffness can also making printing easer with warp happy filaments as the Carbon fiber strands act like an internal scaffold to hold the print together & resist internal stresses that cause warping. In my experience Carbon Fiber is best suited as an additive for materials that naturally have a bit of give such as PETG and Nylon as the stiffness of the carbon fiber tends to balance out the flexibility of those base materials. And again be wary of “cheap” CF filaments where manufacturers try to blend finely or very short chopped CF fibers into a material & sell it at a premium just because it as Carbon Fiber in it. That is one of the main reasons why CF Filaments have gotten such a bad rep. Quality CF filaments are very expensive & the cheap stuff is more times than not totally not worth the cost. But people like the sound of Carbon fiber & when something is marketed as the same but one costs $45-60/kilo while the other is over $100/kilo most will go for the cheaper option. I’ve got CF filaments from both sides & can wholeheartedly say that the cheaper stuff is very very often a money grab & just for hype. And a good way to tell if a filament uses longer strands of carbon Fiber (which many companies won’t disclose) is if the recommended nozzle size is 0.6mm or larger. If they say it can be used with a 0.4mm or smaller they’re using short strand or powder carbon fiber which has nearly zero mechanical benefits of carbon fiber left as they pulverized the strands. Reasoning for this is because longer strands can be harder to work with as they’re more likely to cause clogs in narrower nozzles while short or powdered carbon fiber can be used with even narrow nozzles. You are definitely right with CF-ASA & ABS though. They become very brittle with the addition of Carbon fiber but the amount of warping is much less. Unfortunately like you said this makes it less functional as even though it’s stiffer & even easier to print at better print quality it has become more brittle thus its use case is now more limited.

Good to know. I just have a couple of heavily modified Ender 5 plus printers and I’ve been happy with plain PLA or ASA depending on my indoor/outdoor use case. It was at work where we wanted to use carbon fiber. We bought a Raise3D printer with nylon/carbon fiber and it was close to $5000 all in. That printer was the worst thing I’ve ever used. We couldn’t get any good prints out of it. It was stringy every time despite buying a filament dryer that was on for 12 hours+ before we started the print. I was curious if I could just mod a Creality printer at work and build a regulated temperature enclosure myself for much cheaper. We eventually gave up, returned the Raise3D POS and outsourced our 3D printing for MJF nylon when we need a stronger 3D printed part. What would you recommend for a printer and filament if we wanted to give CF a try again?

While I haven’t used both of those with CF if used the base materials frequently. ASA is my go to filament for parts that will be used outside due to its UV resistance and high temperature resistance. It’s also tough. PETG is unique because when it fails it stretches instead of cracks. Which is useful if you want a part to fail in a way that’s easier to catch before a worse failure happens. I like PETG for moving parts.

@@elmergloo3259 Thanks for responding! Love CF filaments to! And I agree to all point as I also prefer PETG for load bearing parts given that it has a bit of give rather than snapping when it fails. And on another note, I've done extensive testing with Prusament Clear PETG in a UV chamber and to my amazement it has survived a month without any yellowing or discoloration. And it even got a bit stronger in the before and after strength tests!

From my experience if you plan on printing larger prints ASA/ABS will require an enclosure to minimize warping but you can get away without an enclosure with smaller prints. That being said from my testing (on my TikTok) PLA is surprising stiff. It just has a way worse heat resistance than ABS/ASA.

@@MinWin3D And cold resistance, and creep. I actually suspect it's one of those solid-but-not-really-a-solid substances, like glass. Ordinary glass if not moved for many decades will actually show signs of creep or flow. Leave it long enough and it will eventually pool. PLA appears similar; it seems to 'squeeze' out under pressure and yet demonstrate brittle characteristics under impulse loads.

That’s be correct! It’s a much smaller version than his but it’s the same STL. Love his work!

@@MinWin3D nice! I like the videos!