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Can Nylon 6,10 be used for 3D FDM printing? What range of temperatures be used to print with it? How does it compare to the standard 3D printing Nylon material (I think it is 6,6).

thaimin
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Based on the information from a Quorra question about what the difference between Nylon 6,10 and Nylon 6,6 is and a ULprospector article, we can establish:

  • 6,6 is a smaller molecule than 6,10.
  • Base materials are different - hexamethylene diamine and adipic acid (6,6) compared to hexamethylene diamine and sebacic acid (6,10)
  • 6,6 has a stronger tensile and compressive strength as it is more densely interlocked, but it also has a higher melting point. This means also that 6,6 is more heat tolerant.
  • 6,6 is also known to have the least degradation of strength under moisture, compared to other Polyamides.
  • HOWEVER, 6,6 has a lesser resistance to weak acids compared to 6,10, it is also the most sensitive to UV-light and degradation from air exposure.
  • 6,10 also bests 6,6 in regards to absorbing less moisture (a large problem with 6,6), but is more expensive than it.
  • Recently 6,12 is replacing 6,10 for it has very similar or better properties while being cheaper.

While I see no problem with the technical ability to make a Nylon 6,10 or Nylon 6,12 filament and print with it (the lower hygroscopic of the larger molecules might make that even easier), you will make a compromise in other areas of the material, most liekly cost and availability - to my knowledge no filament that claims to be Nylon 6,10 or Nylon 6,12 is on the market at the time of this writing (April 2019), and as such there are no known benchmarks for print settings needed are available. I would expect the print temperature to be slightly lower than that of Nylon 6,6 though.

Trish
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  • Thanks for the thorough analysis! I had seen the Quorra article but got lost in it. In terms of the price, I am actually doing this in a school and we are doing a joint project with an organic chemistry class where they make the nylon 6,10 themselves. We have a machine that supports making filament from nylon as well and we are talking with them about the settings needed for making sure it come out well. – thaimin Apr 26 '19 at 19:35
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    @thaimin make the nylon, then melt it into pellets, then melt the pellets into filaments to get the most even filament. – Trish Apr 26 '19 at 20:26